Marketing Strategies For Small Business

By Allard Colley

Do you own a small business but not sure how to promote it? Cut through the confusion with Marketing Strategies For Small Business from Allard Colley.
Allard shows you how to marketing your business using easy to understand language that anyone can understand. He guides you 33 different strategies with each focusing on a different part of your business. Learn how to:

Strategy 3 – Selling More To Your Target Markets
Strategy 6 – Renovating Your Products To Boost Sales
Strategy 11 – Know What The Market Pays
Strategy 15 – Taking Control Of Your Brand
Strategy 20 – Create Ideas For Your Advertisements
Strategy 29 – Build A Useful Website
Strategy 30 – Get Social
Strategy 33 – Get Other People To Sell It For You

These are just a handful of strategies covered in this book. Whether it is launching a new product, creating ideas for your advertisements or setting up a social media campaign, you will find a strategy that you can use to start growing your business today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerry Harrison
• Release date: May 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301700677

Book preview

Marketing Strategies For Small Business

By Allard Colley

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Allard Colley

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Is This Book For You?

Products And Services

Before You Begin

Situational Analysis

Customer Strategies

Strategy 1 – Target Market Segmentation

Strategy 2 - Collecting Information

Strategy 3 – Selling More To Your Target Markets

Customer Strategies In Review

Product Strategies

Strategy 4 – Use Customer Research To Drive Product Development

Strategy 5 – Product Launch

Strategy 6 – Renovating Your Products To Boost Sales

Strategy 7 – What To Do With Dying Products

Strategy 8 – Compete Against Yourself

Strategy 9 – White Labeling

Strategy 10 – Introductory Products

Cash Cows, Dogs, Stars And Question Marks

Product Strategies In Review

Pricing Strategies

Strategy 11 – Know What The Market Pays For A Product

Strategy 12 – Adding Value To Your Offer

Strategy 13 – Discount For Cash

Strategy 14 – Planned Price Reviews

Pricing Strategies In Review

Promotion

Strategy 15 – Taking Control Of Your Brand

Strategy 16 – A Memorable Logo

Strategy 17 – Product Positioning

Strategy 18 – Create A Slogan

Strategy 19 – Write A Creative Strategy

Strategy 20 – Create Ideas For Your Advertisements

Strategy 21 – Choose Product Over Brand Advertising

Strategy 22 – Advertise On TV

Strategy 23 – Advertise On Radio

Strategy 24 – Advertise In Print

Strategy 25 - Billboards

Strategy 26 – Create Brochures

Strategy 27 – Getting Smart About Packaging

Strategy 28 – Get Professional Help

Promotional Strategies In Review

Digital Promotion

Strategy 29 – Build A Useful Website

Strategy 30 – Get Social

Strategy 31 – Video

Strategy 32 – Press Releases

Strategy 33 – Get Other People To Sell For You

Digital Promotion Strategies In Review

Your Marketing Plan

Strategy 34 – Create Your Plan

Conclusion

Introduction

Is This Book For You?

Welcome to Marketing Strategies For Small Business.

Who is this guide written for?

If you are browsing through the start of this book I am going to guess that you either own a small business or are thinking of starting one.

But running a business is hard. We have all heard of the urban myth that 80% of new businesses fail within the first five years, and you are trying hard not be part of that statistic. You understand that educating yourself on how to succeed in business and plan for the future will tip the odds in your favor.

The problem is - where do you start?

Type in marketing into the Amazon book store search bar and you will be bombarded with a series of university text books. This is great if you want to learn what marketing is. But when you are in small business and thinking about survival from day to day, large textbooks are useless.

What you need is a practical guide on what to do and how to do it.

If you are new to marketing and looking for a starter’s guide, this book is for you. Spread across six different sections of marketing, we will take you through strategies such as how to:

- Get your online strategy up and running.

- Work with social media.

- Understand exactly who your customers are.

- Launch a new product or service.

- Think like your customer and increase sales.

- Build a brand the right way.

There are a total of 34 marketing strategies in this book.

The first 33 strategies are designed to help you help you understand and grow your business. If your customers spend a lot of time online, then getting a social media presence up and running might be of interest to you. Or if you have several competitors in the market with little growth opportunities, you might look to other markets to expand your bottom line.

The last strategy in this guide will teach you to write down all of your ideas and focus them into a marketing plan. Think of your marketing strategies as what you are going to do, and the marketing plan as how you are going to do it.

A marketing plan should me mandatory for all small businesses. Try and implement your strategies without a plan and you are going to end up a shotgun approach to building your business. This means firing off money left, right and center in the hope of hitting a customer. But put together a marketing plan and you will know exactly how your business is performing.

Products And Services

In this guide you see us refer to products a lot of the time. If you offer a service based business, then don’t worry. We have not forgotten you. When we say products, what we really mean most of the time is products and services.

This is done to make the content easier to read. If we had to say product and services every single time, it would probably push the word count for this book out by another 1000 words without adding anything of value to the book. To counter this, we simply shorten the phrase in most cases to one word to make the content flow better for you, the reader.

Before You Begin

The mind is an amazing piece of bio-engineering, but there are limits to what it can do. As you read this book, heaps of ideas will instantly jump into your head.

Write them down.

Don’t wait until you get to the end of the book to start thinking about which strategies appeal to you. Most of what you learn here will be forgotten in just a short amount of time. In only 24 hours, you will have forgotten about 20% of what you read today. After three months, this will have grown to 90%. At most, only one-tenth of what you learn will be retained as long term memory.

You are not an exception to this rule. If you think of a fantastic idea, write it down now so you don’t forget it. Sure, you could remember it later, but what if you don’t?

All you need to do when an idea comes into your head is to grab your notepad and start writing. Write enough so you can remember what ideas you came up later when you go to work out the details, but not too much that it takes you off track at the moment. Bullet points are a great way to keep things short and simple.

At the end of this book you are going to have a pile of notes that you have created along the way. This is a great start to writing your marketing plan.

Are you ready to get started?

Situational Analysis

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What are you doing right now?

Before you can figure out what goals you want to achieve with your business, you have to understand what you are doing with your business right now. After all, any journey you want to take needs two points: your starting point and the final destination. Without the first, you can’t measure the second.

In professional marketing, finding out where are you right now with your business is known as a Situational Analysis. If we simply focus just on your products, pricing, distribution and sales process, it is known as your Current Marketing Mix.

Starting your Situational Analysis means asking yourself a series of simple questions about what you have been doing recently. If you are yet to get your business off the ground, you can skip this part. If not, take out your notepad and ask yourself the following four questions:

Question 1 - What Do I Sell?

Every business sells something. Even if you are a charity and give away what you have for free, we all have a product or service we offer to the community.

Take a moment and think about what you currently sell. This is a list of what you are selling right now, not what you want to sell or are thinking of selling in the future. It is a snapshot of what is on your shelves today.

Example – Michaela is a musician who plays in local cafes as a solo artist and does some tuition on the side. Michaela might write down:

- Live performances.

- Children tuition.

- Adult tuition.

- CD, MP3 and iTunes music sales.

Example – John runs a paint supply store in a small town and has over 200 individual products for sale. To make this process easier, John simply groups his products by paint type:

- Interior paint: wall, ceiling, gloss and matt finish.

- Exterior paint: wall, roof, tile and fence paint.

- Timber stains and finishes.

- Accessories: brushes, rollers, sandpaper.

- Free DIY in-store help courses.

Be as detailed as you want here. Group your products and services into general categories or take a closer look at your product and service lines. What you want to create here is a list that best explains what you offer your customers.

Question 2 - What Price Do I Sell My Products For?

What price do you sell your products and services for? And how do your prices compare to competitors in your market?

There are a few ways for you to do this. There is no right way; it is simply an exercise to get you thinking about your business.

Price range – If you sell budget and premium products from the same store, write down a price range. For example, John sells budget paints to the DIY renovators who want to save money. But he also has a range of higher quality paints for those who want a flawless finish. John would write down these items for interior wall paint as:

- Matt white 5L - $19.95 to $69.95.

- Matt custom tint 5L - $22.95 to $89.95.

Exact price – If you have a small product or service range, write down the exact price of what you offer. For example, Jill owns a hair salon. She would write down items such as:

- Women’s wash, blow dry and trim - $29.95

- Women’s foils - $165

Remember to write down any items that you give away for free as well. $0 is still a price. If you hate writing down free as a price, list it as a complimentary or bonus item.

Average price – If you stock a large range of products that are similar, write down an average price. For example, Alex owns a large independent hardware store and has 40 types of small screws alone. Alex might write down:

- Small screws - $0.50 per 100.

Now that you have a price range for your products and services, think about whom you are competing against and what prices they offer their merchandise for. If you are not sure what their prices are, just skip this part for the moment.

Often, all that is needed here is a simple comparison. For example, on the morning commute to her salon, Jill notices that the competitor down the road is offering full head foils for $169. A quick look at all the other prices on the board at the front of the shop tells her that she is offering prices similar to her competitors.

Question 3 - Who Are My Customers?

Customers are the key to any business. Without customers, you don’t have a business.

Describe the typical customer that comes through your door and buys from you. If you can think of more than one type of customer, write them all down. For example, John writes down the typical customer who shops at his paint store as:

Customer 1: Average DIY customer who has never painted before. Age range is normally 28 to 35 years old. Typically buys the budget range of paints to save money.

Customer 2: Professional painters looking for a quality paint. Their customers want a flawless finish and they are looking for a high quality paint that meets their needs.

Jenny owns a coffee shop in the financial district of the city. Jenny notes there are two types of customers wearing a business suit that visit her shop early in the morning:

Customer 1: Customers in a hurry. These customers want a quick coffee break and need to be back in the office in 10 minutes.

Customer 2: Customers who do business while on a break – these customers take 20 to 30 minute breaks from the office. They have a relaxed cup of coffee while discussing business with a colleague or client in this more relaxed environment.

Question 4 - How Am I Promoting To Them?

How do you let your potential customers know you exist? How do you keep your existing customers updated with any new products or promotions you are running?

Write down anything that you do. This might include radio advertising, local area leaflet drops, newspaper advertising, online advertising and promotions, on the road sales people and merchandisers just to name a few.

And don’t forget the people who simply see your business and walk in off the street. Your street presence is a form of marketing in itself.

Why Should I Do This?

Why should you do a basic situational analysis right now?

The purpose of this exercise is to get you thinking about your business in detail. You might know your business inside and out, but have you ever stopped to think about it from an overall perspective? Sometimes it is hard to see the forest through the trees.

A quick situational analysis now gives you an eagle eye’s view on what is going on. You will probably analyze each aspect of your business in more detail as you progress through the book, but by taking a step back now and looking at your business as a whole, you will start with the right perspective. It is the old saying - a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But you do have to know where you are before you take that first step. If you don’t, then all you are is lost.

Now that you have a good understanding of your business, let’s move on to some marketing strategies.

Customer Strategies

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The first series of strategies we are going to discuss relate to your customers. In the opening section of this book we asked you to briefly think about who buys from you. In this section, we are going to look at what makes these people buy and who are they in more detail.

So why start with customer strategies first? Why not talk about products or advertising?

You have probably heard of the phrase:

"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door."

This origin of this saying was attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. He never actually said that, with the original saying morphing over time. Regardless, Emerson’s quote has become synonymous with innovation and development.

It is a pity that the saying is wrong.

From a marketing perspective, if you build a better mousetrap, nine times out of ten you will go broke trying to sell it.

The flaw in this argument is that you, the inventor, builds a better mouse trap based on your own ideas. Did you know that there are over 4000 different patents for the mousetrap? Are all of these inventors rich? I doubt it. Just about all of these inventors built something they wanted to create. How many of them stopped and thought about the most important person in this equation and built what they wanted?

That person, of course, is the customer.

Build a better mouse trap and you will go broke. Build a mouse trap that your customer wants and your business will grow.

How do you find out what type of mousetrap your customers want? That’s easy; talk to them. You can ask them directly through customer service feedback or you can ask them indirectly through market segmentation.

This is why we discuss customer strategies first. Every successful business starts with the wants and needs of a customer.

How To Think Like A Customer

When a customer walks through your front door, what are they looking for?

Think of your last brand new customer. What did they ask for? Describe the item for me.

Using our paint shop example, John’s last customer bought some interior wall paint in 2 colors; Hazelnut Cream and Morning Sun. She also bought a medium sized paint brush, paint roller, tray and a plastic drop sheet. The plastic drop sheet was 10’ by 12’ made of thin but durable plastic and the paint was from the new Easy Wash range.

Does this list sound like your description? If it does, what you wrote down is an inventory list.

This is probably how you see your products. A list of items or services. And when you are asked to describe them, you will most likely write down a list of features that describe the product.

Features have their place, but they are not what your customers are looking for. Features help a user make a decision about a product, but what your customer is asking themselves is:

"What problem do I have at the moment? What will solve that problem?"

"What value do I see in this purchase?"

"How will the item make me feel if I purchase it?"

"What benefits will I get from making this purchase?"

Customers think about their needs and the benefits of buying from you when they are browsing through your store. The questions our female paint customer asked herself before buying might have gone something like:

"I want a warmer feeling in my living room for the cooler months. What is a good shade of yellow or brown?"

"What is a good quality paint that will last for ages and is easy to clean if they kids draw in crayon on the wall?"

"How long will this paint last before it needs redoing?"

"I don’t want to move the furniture out of the room. How can I paint without making a mess?"

"What is a cheap brush that will give me a good finish?"

"What roller do I need to do the job? I don’t want lumpy bits of paint sticking to the wall."

The Worst Question To Ask A Customer

Every customer that walks