Small businesses often work with a limited budget and amount of resources, thus it poses a major dilemma in terms of marketing the business to compete with larger corporations. One mistake that small business owners often commit is that they often spread themselves too thin. Thus, there is no focus on their small business marketing and they often produce little to no impact on their target audience.
Experts point out that there are 4 basic points that must be considered when marketing a small business: business plan, marketing plan, market research, and budget.
Writing a Business Plan
Your small business plan should cover at least one year but leave a tab wherein you can input monthly reports. Experts also suggest that you update it on a quarterly basis, such that your business could adapt to changing market trends.
You need to make small business marketing your priority when writing a business plan. You must specifically look into the medium-term, say 2 to 4 years into your business. Here is where you need to get all areas of the business involved – from financing, manufacturing, supplies, personnel, and marketing. Thus, it leads you toward the next most important aspect of your small business planning – the marketing plan.
Marketing Plan
Here are some tips to consider when coming up with an effective small business marketing strategy:
- Create a rallying point. But you have to instill that internally first, such that the people involved in your business has got a good sense of where you are headed and fill in on their roles.
- Come up with a specific and detailed plan of action within a specified time period, such as the next 12 to 18 months. Be as narrow as possible so you can attain focus.
- Use your marketing plan as a step-by-step guide towards operational activities. You need to identify goals and assign tasks.
- Always look at the big picture in your small business marketing plan. Oftentimes, you focus too much on the details that you fail to analyze whether results are visible on a larger scale.
Market Research
Another important aspect in every small business marketing is to conduct market research. The purpose here is to come up with a plan on how to resolve marketing problems that may arise. Some of the key areas to prioritize during your market research surveys include product differentiation, market segmentation, and other related data.
Budget and Resources
The final but equally important aspect in marketing a small business is the ability to maximize the limited resources available. Below are tips you can use to make the most out of your small marketing budget:
- Since ads are expensive to produce and run, you need to look for ways of sending your advertising message directly to your intended audience with a fraction of the original cost. Recycling ads is also another tip to save money and effort.
- If you have come up with an effective advertising campaign, stick with it. With limited resources, you have to settle with the ones that produce results instead of experimenting.
- Research for inexpensive advertising approach that will produce more leads, particularly go for free ads.
- Do it yourself instead of paying for others.
Combine all four key aspects when coming up with an effective small business marketing plan to ensure that you get effective results in less time.