Marketing for New and Start-up Small Businesses

What is marketing?

Marketing is defined in many different ways according to who you ask, but all responses usually are part of the same answer: marketing is a combination of all of the activities you implement or participate in which help promote, brand, and sell you product, service, or business.

Why is marketing important?

Many small business owners feel sales is the most vital part of their business. Sales are very important, but your brand, image, and, ultimately, marketing determines your customer loyalty and growth of your business. Marketing establishes the basis for your sales strategy and how you will close sales.

What does marketing cost?

Small business owners are confronted ever day with sales pitches for various costly marketing activities. Most small business owners see marketing as an expensive business component they just can't afford. This is not true. In fact, small businesses can't afford to overlook marketing, and it doesn't have to drain the bank account either. One of the best forms of marketing that is very affordable is a consistent and professional image. Elegant business cards, matching letterhead, and an informative and effective website are just a few pieces of a small business' tool box that can do much more than a high-dollar advertising campaign.

How do small business owners create a consistent and professional image?

The first thing a company will create is a name. There are many steps before this point, but this is the first product. Next, comes a unique logo that conveys the right image. Once the marketing package has these two pieces, consistency becomes the primary focus. Small business owners usually put off the rest of the basic building blocks until they can put it off no more. At that point, professionalism and consistency goes out the window in favor of a quick answer.

The right way to approach this issue is to prepare on the front end. Following the name and logo stage, the small business owner must push on. Create the right business card, elegant letterhead, useful brochure, and quality website. By creating all of these things at the point in the start-up process, all of the basic components of your marketing become consistent, professional, and effective from the start.

Over the past decade more and more people are getting fired, getting downsized, or getting fed up with their corporate jobs and embark on the journey as a small business owner. Unfortunately, most of the new small business owners fail to consider their marketing plans or strategy. There are many marketing concepts for small business marketing to consider and plan for, but here is our list of Top 10 Marketing Concepts For Small Business Marketing.

Marketing Concept # 1: Consistency

Consistency is the number one marketing concept for small business marketing only because it is left out of marketing concepts for so many businesses. I have worked with a long list of clients, big and small, that are extremely inconsistent in all areas of their marketing. Consistency helps lower the cost of marketing and increase the effectiveness of branding.

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Small business marketing is small, as noted by the name, but too many times business owners think that small business marketing is too small for planning, budgets, or strategies. Since small businesses usually have little or no marketing budget and are concentrating on just keeping the doors open, owners, more times than not, neglect their marketing planning. No business should exist without marketing planning and strategies!

Actually, small business marketing requires planning and strategy more than major companies.

When the marketing manager of a large corporation has a $20 million marketing budget just for print ads, they have room to make mistakes, produce the wrong ads, and even scrap the marketing plan half-way through completion. Small businesses don't have such freedom and liberty. Small business marketing should contain a plan before anything else happens in the company in the area of sales and marketing. There should be budgets and strategies created as early as possible and reviewed as often as possible.

Create a marketing plan as soon as you decide to start a business.

My company specializes in helping small businesses with marketing and design, and we encounter many of the same problems, and they all stem from lack of early planning. Once you decide to start a business, start creating a marketing plan.

• Who are your customers?


• What are their needs and wants?


• How will you acquire new customers?


• What kind of customer relationship management systems will you use?


• What do your customers expect from you?


• What are your products' benefits?


• What are your strengths?


• What are your weaknesses?


• How will you advertise?


• How much will you budget for marketing?

This list is actually very small when it comes to creating a marketing plan, but you must answer all of these questions and more. Small business marketing must be precise, have a defined strategy, and contain at least a rough budget. Figure out who your customer is, how you will reach them, and why they will buy from you. Starting with these three areas will give you a plethora of other questions to answer in figuring out the maze of small business marketing.

All marketing resources will eventually talk about your marketing mix, but what do they mean exactly? Marketing mix is a term that the marketing world tries to hold as a private term that only the industry knows about, but as a small business owner, you need to understand how to plan and implement your marketing mix.

The marketing mix is defined as the four P's of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. These four areas make up the complete outline for product or service marketing. Once you have defined the variables for each P, you have a basis for proper marketing.

Market research will play a major role in each area of your marketing mix. You must understand what you are competing with in regards to products and pricing. Although you may have a new and unique item with an innovative type of distribution, you still must compare your product or service to existing ones.

Here are the four P's of your marketing mix for small business marketing.

P #1: Product

The product or service or selling must be defined first. What are you selling? How will it be packaged? Determine your product's features, and then build the benefits from them. At this point, you will make all of the decisions relating to your product or service: style, quality, packaging, warranty, etc.

P#2: Price

Pricing actually plays a vital role in the branding and image of your product. Determining your price can be difficult, especially if you product is in a widely-variable industry. You must determine pricing strategy, retail and wholesale pricing, possible bundling, and any type of discounts.

P#3: Place

Place refers to how you will distribute the product. Will you sell to retail stores, or will you sell directly to customers? Is your product a wholesale item? The decisions made about distribution will affect your marketing mix in terms of how you will warehouse your products, how you will process orders, what types of channels will you use, and how will you cover the market.

P#4: Promotion

Promotion is the area where you will make decisions on how people will learn about your product. What types of sales strategies and promotions will you use? What kind of sales force will you need to sell your product? How will you use public relations and publicity to support your product? There are many aspects of the promotion element of your marketing mix. In fact, the other three P's will affect your promotion strategy.

Decide on the first three P's before you tackle Promotion, but ultimately, each P will coordinate with the others. Once you complete your marketing mix decisions, review the entire plan to make sure you have a consistent and precise marketing mix plan in order to properly sell, distribute, and promote your product.

When considering different forms of advertising, always think about postcards. When I refer to postcards I mean 4 inch by 6 inch (4"x6") flyers. I have many reasons to use them, especially in small business marketing, and I have found them to be very effective. Here are five good reasons why postcards should be included in your marketing campaign.

Reason #1: Low cost to print.

4"x6" postcards are pretty inexpensive to print in comparison to most other printed items. I can have a box of 5,000 cards designed, printed, and delivered for under $500. Brochures can cost that much for 500. When dealing with small business marketing, these flyers can save a huge amount on marketing and printing costs.

Reason #2: Size.

I'm sure everyone has seen a 4"x6" flyer at some point. Many times they are placed on your car or left in your door. These flyers are easy to handle, distribute, and save. If someone receives a 4"x6" flyer with coupons on it, they are more willing to save it than if they receive the same coupons on an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper. Obviously, everyone will have different reasons for using flyers, but 4"x6" postcard-size flyers are effective in just about every situation.

Reason #3: Postage Costs.

Postage goes up quite often. It seems like every time I go to the post office, it has gone up again. When determining how small businesses will market to their target markets, postage is always part of the equation. If you are mailing a 4"x6" flyer, it will cost you the postcard rate, not regular first class, which saves you almost half. Many people tell me they use a mailing house and it helps reduce costs, but I have used them before also. The savings you receive in postage is usually eaten up by the mailing house's fees, and even before those fees, you still save money with 4"x6" flyers.

Reason #4: Quality.

4"x6" flyers are used quite a bit, especially by the entertainment industry. For this reason, there are many printers available for 4"x6" flyers. You have to be selective in choosing your printer, but the better printers provide a top-quality finished product. The price I quoted earlier is for UV-coated, 14 pt stock, and full-color on both sides. Most small businesses struggle with price of printing because they usually can't order large quantities. They usually end up using weaker quality products to save money, but 4"x6" postcards can be top-quality and still save money.

Reason #5: Attention-Grabbing.

Many direct mailers tell me I should send a letter, sample, pen, and other garbage in an envelope. Besides the outrageous cost this brings, it weakens the response. People see a marketing piece in the mail a mile away, including postcard flyers. Will they take the time to open the envelope, maybe. Will they read the postcard flyer because the information is staring at them, definitely! Test the theory yourself: see how many envelopes you decide to open versus the number of postcards you read.

It seems every where I go, every networking event, even every grocery store will provide me another multi-level marketing opportunity. I have many questions about multi-level marketing, and I'm sure you do to. Watch these two videos, Part 1 and Part 2, for more information on multi-level marketing (these are not promo videos, just news.)

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Everyone from president of a company to part-time admin assistant has been graced with the burden of designing a flyer, post card, poster, etc. Most people are pressed for time, so they begin working on the computer with their favorite graphic design program. Little do they know, this actually lengthens the required time to complete their graphic design.

All designers will tell you to brainstorm, sketch, organize ideas, and so on, and I say the same thing. There are many things that I do before designing anything, but I have created a table that helps me organize my ideas. This table will help anyone that is faced with a graphic design project, so please put this to good use, before you go to the computer to create your masterpiece!

An explanation of each line is included below.

Graphic Design Pre-Project Table

Title:

 

Budget:

 

Format:

 

Purpose:

 

Target Audience:

 

Call To Action:

 

Delivery Time Frame:

 

Response Time Frame:

 

Elements To Include:

 

Title - Give your project a title. This will help you organize files on the computer and find them at a later date, because you will always come back to an old file.

Budget - You must determine what the total budget of this project is. Establishing a budget will help you determine the best way to start your design and what special elements and features you can put into it.

Format - What will this project look like? Is it a 4x6 postcard or tri-fold brochure? How will it be distributed?

Purpose - List here what the purpose of this piece is. List why you are creating it, who it is for, why they need it, and what they are supposed to do.

Target Audience - Expand on who this project is intended for. Detail demographic, sociographic, and psychographic details about your target. This will help you in determining what the piece will look like and what kind of style it should have.

Call To Action - Explain exactly what you want the target to do. (i.e. Call Now - 1-800-555-5555, Visit Us On The Web!, or Return The Enclosed Card)

Delivery Time Frame - How long will it take to design, print, and deliver this piece to your audience? This makes you analyze what will be required to for delivery.

Response Time Frame - How long do you expect the target to take before taking action? This is useful when determining wording, call to action, and delivery methods. This will also establish a point in time to start return analysis.

Elements To Include - This should be the longest item in your table. You need to list everything you want in your piece. You don't have to write out every bit of text, but I include at least sub topics. Also include address info, pictures, tables, requests, logos, etc. Anything that you want in your graphic design project should be included here. If you are working with a team, you will be able to review these elements and eliminate several revisions later.

 

Feel free to copy and distribute this table. It has been invaluable to me on every one of my projects, and I think you find your projects take less time, look better, and are more effective.

Businesses are constantly solicited for sponsorships for all types of causes, some for charity, and some for profit. While both can yield a return for your business, if you do not receive anything in return, it is just a charitable donation or a waste of money, in the case of a for-profit sponsorship. So once you have made the decision to sponsor something, it is time to put it to work for you.

Usually, when you are a sponsor, you receive name mentions and signage. These come in the form of logos on all literature, banners, prizes, etc. You may be sponsoring a certain segment, stage, person, or item and you name is mentioned as the sponsor. Many times, in the case of charitable sponsorships, you get a table for you and a few guests, and the table will have your name on it. The list goes on, but you get the point. Most people who ask for a sponsorship know you need to get something back in return.

At this point, most people stop. They write-off the expense of the sponsorship to advertising or charity and move on, but why stop now? Even if your company has a sponsorship ledger, it is probably a sub-ledger of advertising and/or promotions. If you include it in this category, why not treat it like the other expenses? Why not use it in conjunction with your other advertising and promotions? If you take some time to think about how you can coordinate other advertising strategies, you will find a lot of opportunities available.

The first place to start is the event itself. Just because you have sponsored a certain person, place, or thing, doesn't mean they will prohibit you from being at the event promoting. If you don't ask, they can't say yes. Sometimes you may have to opt for a larger sponsorship, but this can bring some negotiation. Here is an example: a community fair. You are considering a small to medium sponsorship, but you want to incorporate other promotions with it. You ask the coordinator what is available to the largest sponsors and it means more signage and mentions. You ask how many of the large sponsors they have, and you can tell they have room for a lot more. This is the time to ask, "If I commit to your large sponsorship, can I have my employees pass out flyers at the event?" The coordinator is looking at the dollar signs you have just suggested and is a lot more susceptible to say, "YES!" You may even be able to offer a few more dollars to receive this opportunity. Why would you want this opportunity? A personal connection with a potential client is worth 3 times if not more what it costs to run a magazine ad or buy a billboard. You now have hand-to-hand promotion, and it is better if you can get your employees to hand out the flyers, because these are the people the potential customer will see when they do business with you. Also, how hard would it be for you to get a large group of people together so you could tell them about your business?

There are other things you can do with the sponsorship. I am coordinating a charity poker tournament, and many of the sponsors are my vendors, because my company is a distributor. One opportunity I am making available is promotional materials. All of the participants are receiving gift bags filled with promotional items, coupons, brochures, etc. Just about anything a sponsor will give me will go in these bags. This gives you as a sponsor another avenue to reach an audience who has seen your logo and heard your name. Once again, you are given access to potential customers that you may have never known existed. By offering give-aways and coupons, you are helping out the cause more than just the sponsorship, and you are completing more interaction with your potential market. There are all types of ways to add to your regular sponsorship, and they will all vary according to what you are sponsoring, so just be creative.

After you have your business in front of the sponsored audience as much as possible, it is time to look to how else you can put this sponsorship to work for you. Many sponsored activities are for a charity or some type of fundraiser. How customers feel and think about your company is very important to the loyalty of your company, and any time you can let them know that you help the community is another opportunity to tell your existing customers that you do more than just your business. An example for this is a sponsorship of an organization that helps disabled kids. Since you are probably sponsoring a fundraiser coordinated by this organization, you have the opportunity to advertise this. Any newsletters, in-store signage, or other regular advertising is a chance to let your customers know that you are giving back. Get the organization's and event's logo for your advertising. This is also another chance for negotiation with the event's coordinator. Cross-promotion is important to everyone, no matter what you are doing. It would be valuable to the organization to have additional advertising for free. You may be able to settle for a less monetary donation in exchange for advertising to your customer base, and this is just on advertising you were already sending out.

You also have a reason to send marketing communications to your customers. Since you are sponsoring something, you want to tell them about it, and while you are at, tell them about your business: maybe you have a new product or you just want to remind them of what you have to offer. You can also structure specials and promotions around the event. You could coordinate with the organization to offer something for you to give to you customers, like tickets to the event or a stuffed animal, if they purchase a certain item or dollar amount. You will probably have to discount the item or service to cover the cost of the promotional item, but this gives you an opportunity to make a sale, promote it, make your customers feel good for helping a charitable cause, receive something extra, and attribute some good will to your company. The list is long, but all of this is possible with the right coordination.

When you sponsor something, you should look at it just like you would any other form of advertising. How is this going to fit into your marketing mix. Make it a part of your current campaigns or create a new one based on the sponsorship. Regardless of how it fits into your marketing plan, make it work for you. No matter how big or small your sponsorship is, you must receive something in return, or you are just making a donation. Finally, always be creative. Just like in any other promotion, creativity has a much larger impact than the common promotion. Creative coordination is an excellent way to make a sponsorship work for you!

As a business owner, manager, assistant, or many other titles, you have probably been approached to sponsor something. I have heard of opportunities to sponsor cheerleading teams, mission trips, vehicles, charitable events, performances, outdoor events, and so on. The list is endless, but the same question always comes to mind first: why should I sponsor anything?

First, we need to identify a sponsorship opportunity. When asked to sponsor something, you must be given something in return. Most sponsorships return logo placement, name mentions, product placement, or something of this nature. Regardless what you receive, you must receive something of value for it to be considered a sponsorship, otherwise you should not consider it at all or it is just a charitable donation, as in sponsoring a church's mission trip.

There are several reasons to participate in sponsorship opportunities. Sponsorships are part of marketing plans for all types and sizes of businesses.

Reason #1: Exposure.

Exposure is just another word for advertisement, but a sponsorship advertisement is not like other "advertisements." A sponsorship lets you advertise your name or company without fighting consumers' natural tendency to shut you out. In fact, consumers are more likely to allow you to enter their consciousness through sponsorships because you have now been attached to an event, idea, or place that the consumer already has an interest, therefore you may also be of interest to them.

Exposure in the community is also vital to any business' success, especially smaller businesses. When taking advantage of sponsorship opportunities in your community, you gain recognition and creditability within your local market. Businesses that rely of customers within close proximity of their location will find exposure in the community to be almost priceless.

Reason #2: Contacts.

When you sponsor something you have made a business contact. This contact may be a potential customer, reference, or supplier. Throughout a sponsorship, you usually develop or strengthen a business relationship that may and should become helpful at some point. I learned years ago that everyone that I do some type of business with is a good contact. The better relationship you develop with your contacts, the more you do for each other.

Contacts also arise from the event, activities surrounding the event, networking opportunities, and etc. If you are sponsoring an event - which is what I recommend you use most of your sponsorship budgets for - you usually get free admission, VIP passes, or the like that would allow you to network with potential customers. You also come in contact with other sponsors that can be potential customers. You should be careful when sponsoring things that include direct competition, therefore other sponsors should be valuable in some capacity.

Reason #3: Sales Opportunities.

Once you have signed on to a sponsorship, use it to generate sales. By sponsoring an event, you have a foot in with potential customers already, and this leads to possible sales. Structure advertising campaigns around the sponsorship if possible. Seek co-op opportunities with the sponsored organization, person, place, or event. The first reason given for sponsorships was exposure. Exposure, just like other advertising and promotion is useless if it doesn't generate sales. Even if it doesn't generate sales directly, it must be beneficial to your business.

Reason #4: Giving back.

Many times sponsorships are requested for charitable organizations or events. If it is a sponsorship opportunity or charitable donation, many times this is a result of giving back. I have committed to sponsorships that provided some exposure, some sales, and some contacts but ultimately I saw it as a chance to give back to the community and those that have helped me get where I am. I once read that in order to receive and profit you must give back and I believe this is true. Even the most opportune sponsorships are a way to give back, especially if it is for a charitable reason.

Reason #5: Tax Write-Off.

Once you have decided that a sponsorship opportunity is right for you and make your contribution, you have created an expense. Just like advertising expenses are deducted, so are sponsorships. Even if the sponsorship is a charitable donation, it is a write-off. Be sure to include this expenditure in the expense column.

If you are in a position that receives sponsorship requests, pay attention to them, especially if you are also in charge of advertising and promotion, and if you are not, get the person who is involved. I know you will filter through many requests and see many "opportunities" to sponsor things, but some can have more benefit than thousands of dollars spent on advertising or promotions. Also, you may find this to be an excellent way to structure an advertising mini-campaign.