Marketing a Business
How can I market my business?
There are numerous ways to market a product or service. Among the most commonly used methods are: brochures/leaflets/flyers, merchandising displays, print media (newspapers, magazines, industry publications) broadcast media (television, radio) phone directories, advertising specialties, direct mail, trade shows, signs, billboards, coupons, telemarketing, internet marketing, press releases and networking.
Do I need a formal marketing plan?
Small businesses often use a hit-or-miss approach to advertising, trying a local newspaper one week and a direct mail flyer the next. Pretty soon, without ever establishing a focus to their efforts, they've spend enough to have paid for a well-thought-out targeted plan. A carefully developed marketing plan will help achieve goals in a measurable controlled environment.
How do I build a marketing plan?
Rule number one for any marketing effort is to know your customer. Customer demographics, (age, income, sex, education, marital status, occupation, place of residence) drive marketing decisions. Choosing an effective media mix will depend on the extent of market research conducted. To obtain useful information for future marketing efforts, a survey may be helpful in determining what brought customers to your business, how they learned about the business, and who the closest competition is including their prices and policies.
How much do I have to budget for promotion?
Creating a budget for marketing and promotion should be an important component to your overall business plan. There's no set formula for preparing a marketing budget. However experts often use advertising ratios as a yardstick for planning. Advertising budgets are often considered as a percentage of sales. Uncovering what competitors are spending on advertising may provide a guideline for spending.
What results can I expect?
Marketers suggest using a special offer, a salesperson's name, or a code number to help track the success of failure of a certain promotion. Different marketing tools will command different results. For direct mail, a 2-4 percent return is considered a good response.
What are the key elements to a marketing piece?
Memory association is an important consideration when creating a marketing piece. Effective marketing provides the consumer a means to remember your business. In other words you must identify your product or service. Image advertising promotes a businesses name, concept, or message. It's useful when trying to establish or retain a market presence, or convincing customers to send in a coupon or make a call requesting more information.
What are some unique and creative methods of promotion that others have used successfully?
Unusual approaches to marketing, such as including a shiny penny in a direct mail piece with a headline "A penny for your thoughts" attracts attention. An arborist putting a company flyer in a plastic bag filled with small rocks and delivered to residences as if it were a newspaper may reach consumers in ways that traditional media does not.
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© 2009 Small Business Development Center at Palm Beach State College
t 561.862.4725 f 561.862.4727 | sbdc@palmbeachstate.edu
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