Small business marketing is a passion of mine! It is very exciting especially when you start to see results. When a customer says “I saw you on top of Google and went to your website, then I did a search on YouTube and you came up 1st there, after that I called a sign on the side of the road, that was you too, I figured i had no choice where I was going to buy… Who does your small business marketing? and you say, I do… It makes you feel good.. all the way to the bank…

Search engines are the best place to start when you begin your quest for the best small business marketing ideas. Google gets most of the traffic and their results are sent to many other search engines. Getting on the 1st page of Google is really much easier than you think…

There’s a friend of mine that owns a business near mine and as a result of using these simple ideas he was listed on the 1st page of Google in 2 days. He landed a $3600 job as a result of his efforts. This small business marketing stuff not rocket science, it’s just following a proven system that works.

If you are looking for small business marketing ideas, in specific geographical locations, then Google Local is quick and easy way to start. This is the listing on the top of google when you search for a local listing like (Hot Tubs Minneapolis) there is a map on the left with businesses on the right. Google Local is a great website marketing strategy because, its easy, free and fast.

There are a few tricks I have figured out over the years with Google Local , like how to show up for more than just one city. This is the best place to start for online small business marketing for local results.

PPC (Pay Per Click) is another service that is offered by Google and great for small business marketing. The “Pay” part shouldn’t scare you because you have complete control. You pay $5 to start and choose the areas you want your add to show up. You can choose 10 miles around your location, or a metro area, or state or country..

With PPC you can write unlimited ads and Google rotates them automatically so you can see which ones are getting the best click through rate. You can then delete the losers and keep the winners. You can set a budget anywhere from $5 and up or you can set a monthly budget of $300 per month. PPC has been a very important strategy for my small business marketing.

I’ve spent $52,000 with Google since January of 2005 and it is hands down the best and easiest small business marketing I have ever done. The cool part is I have never spoken to anyone that works for Google. I actually have never had to email them either… I do get a Christmas card from from Google each year. Tip: Again there are a few tricks with Google PPC that can save you money and time setting up your account. In summary this is the quickest way to increase website traffic and learn cutting edge tactics about small business marketing…

Let me ask you a question. The answer is to the question is critical to your business success.

Do you fully understand the real nature of the business you are in?

Your instant response is of course, I’m in the [put your industry name here] business. For example, you probably said, of course, I’m in the real estate business, or the plumbing business, or the printing business, etc.

But that is only partly correct if you are the owner of the business. As the business owner, the real nature of your business is marketing the business you are in.

You may have the greatest service or the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, you will soon be out of business.

One method of increasing the exposure of your business to your potential customers, is to conduct a marketing crusade.

You can compare this marketing approach to a missionary’s work or the launching of a crusade because only the fervor and the determination of a missionary or crusader will assure your marketing success.

Missionaries are driven by more than just their desire to sell someone on buying their product or service. Rather, a missionary’s goal is to convert the world to their way of thinking, their mission and their crusade. Only through such a conversion process can you expect to receive not just a customer, but customers for life.

When your business launches a marketing mission, it takes a different approach than traditional marketing.

Traditional approaches are taken and set aside in favor of our missionary or crusader’s goal. In a traditional marketing effort, the real motivation for most marketing activity is just to make money. That’s nice to do, but that’s not all we need.

Every marketing effort, at this point, is tied directly back to its contribution to money coming in.

Now, as a missionary, your business goal becomes an effort to win your customer’s lifetime business and loyalty. If your business’ marketing activity is successful in changing the way your customers think about your business or products or services in such a way that the customer sees you as a vehicle to accomplish their goal and growth, then your goals and your growth will be a natural result.

As your business manages its sales growth properly, increased profit is going to follow. Immediate profits are nowhere near as important as long-term profits. To insure that you’re going to continue to profit for the long-term, your real objective is to convert your prospect into a customer who shares your vision of what you’re trying to accomplish and is a true believer.

Vision is a problem with the normal sales approach. There is no vision other than the short-term, which is to make the immediate sale. There is little or no real focus on back-end selling and the life time value of a customer, which we’ll talk more about later on.

What is your vision?

Is your business focused on an area of interest to your customers, prospects or clients?

Are you driven fervently by the need to help them or yourself?

Why should others patronize your business rather than any other business? Or not do anything at all?

What can you do that will not only cause your customers to return again and again, but cause them to tell others to buy your products and services as well?

Can you take that vision and incorporate it with a main sales and marketing thrust, advantage or Unique Selling Proposition and use that for an advantage over your competitors?

A good marketing crusade will integrate all this together and soon have customers coming to you as a result of what Dan Kennedy calls a Magnetic Marketing System. If you were Jiffy Lube, you might call it a well oiled marketing machine.

Small business marketing is all about determining the needs of your target market and then providing solutions to meet those needs.

These 7 steps are aimed at entrepreneurs starting a small business and those who want to create a successful small business marketing plan for an existing business.

Most small business promotions focus on how great their products and services are. Instead, you should educate your target market consistently and start building a relationship that will establish your credibility and trust. It is important to develop a marketing mindset. “Think Marketing” your products and services all of the time. It is very important to consistently market your products and services. Don’t fall into the trap of stop and go marketing. Some small business owners only market when sales are down.

You can’t have a successful small business without having a successful small business marketing plan. Effective small business marketing is the way to growth and profits.

If you’re a small business owner or you want to know how to start a small business in the future, this simple 7-step plan will help you understand your business and your target market.

How to Start a Small Business Marketing Plan: 7 Steps

Begin the process by answering these questions:

1) Who — Who specifically is your target market? Who is your ideal client? What research can you do to find out more about your target market?

2) What — What products and services do your ideal clients want and need? What does your product and service do for your ideal client? What problems does your product solve for your customer? What are the solutions that your ideal client is looking for? What is your area of specialty that will differentiate you in the marketplace? What are the industry trends? What type of message will your ideal client likely respond to? What are you ultimately selling? For example: Are you selling eye glasses or are you selling vision? What is your unique mix of products and services? What is your pricing strategy?

3) Where — Where is your ideal client? Where is your customer located geographically? Where will you position yourself so they can easily find you? Where are the best places to get your marketing message to them? Will you speak to groups, hold seminars, or write a blog, newsletters or articles?

4) When — How frequently does your target market need to hear your marketing message? When are they most likely to buy your products and services?

5) Why — Why are you in business? Why do customers or clients buy from you? Why should they choose your product or service over your competition?

6) How — How does your customer buy your product or service? How are you going to reach potential buyers for your services and products? How will you communicate your marketing message? How will you provide customers or clients with the information they need to make their buying decision?

7) Marketing Mindset – Practice mastering a Marketing Mindset and you will be on the path to a profitable small business.

With these 7 steps, you can take action towards starting a small business marketing plan that targets new customers. “Marketing is about testing and evaluating your return on investment. But it’s primarily about helping people get what they want.” Master these small business marketing steps and you will be on the path to more profit and success as a business owner.

To really learn about direct marketing and how you can use it to better your business you should first understand what direct marketing is.

According to Wikipedia, direct marketing is defined as “a sub discipline of marketing focused to driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific call to action”. This marketing discipline can include and medium that allows you to communicate directly with customers. Some examples of direct marketing include, direct mail, email, newspaper, radio, television, and of course the internet.

The main focus of any direct marketing strategy is to increase the number of customers that respond to your marketing campaign or “response rate” while also trying to decrease the cost of advertising. Increasing customer response to your advertising will accomplish two very important things. One, increase the number of sales leads generated by advertising, and two, further establish business name recognition.

The ability to properly communicate with your business’s target audience is an extremely important factor in your overall business success. As you learn about direct marketing; keep in mind that persistence really does pay.

One of the most important aspects of designing a successful direct marketing campaign is in targeting your audience. Developing a marketing campaign that speaks directly to your potential customer’s wants and needs will mean the difference between creating quality sales leads for your business and utter frustration at a lack of customer responsiveness.

Several important questions to answer when developing any direct marketing campaign are:

* Who..? Who are you targeting with your particular business message? Who are the people who would be most interested in hearing what you have to say?

* Why..? Do you just want people to review a few helpful products..or do you want them to retain your services?

* What…? What specific benefits are you offering through your message?

* When…? Are you looking for a more immediate response from your reader…or are you providing food for thought and building your relationship?

* Last but not least…How? How do you intend to present and distribute your message to your potential customers?

Your study of direct marketing will be an on going process. It’s important to understand what works for you and your business, what doesn’t, and why that is. The key to success will be in continuing to try different strategies and techniques in order to perfect a particular combination of things that work well for you.

How much should I spend on marketing?

This is a common question that marketing consultants gets asked on a regular basis.

The simple answer is that there is no hard a fast rule – it depends on the competitive environment, the stage of business development, the product or service category and the balance of advertising designed to promote the brand vs advertising designed to generate a specific response.

As a result of these factors, marketing budgets are best set based on careful analysis of a number of factors as part of a Marketing Strategy not via the often used % of sales method.

If you are looking to develop a deeper understanding of your marketing budget then there are two good places to start.

1. Brand Awareness- Analysing the level of advertising that is appropriate to reach your target markets with appropriate levels of frequency and credibility

1. Specific Response – Analysing the response and conversion rates you are achieving from various forms of advertising

Brand awareness is a direct product of the  Marketing Strategy – by identifying the key target markets and having an understanding of the competitive environment it is possible to establish a picture of the level and types of “brand” advertising required to generate awareness of the brand for new customers and reinforce the message with existing consumers.

Planning the elements of the campaign designed to generate a specific response is more closely aligned with the sales budgets and requires analysis of the response and conversion rates you are achieving from various forms of advertising.

Using response and conversion rates as a starting point allows MJH Group to determine the expected result for a particular level of spend in a particular area and plan the marketing strategy accordingly. This is correlated to the sales budget to help plan the necessary mix of advertising required to drive the response to deliver the sales result.

The return on investment for the engagement of MJH Group for Small business marketing is based on the following;

Business Growth

• Increased sales and profit from effective strategy and campaign outcomes

Marketing Strategy

• The insight and direction provided by our strategic recommendations

• Provision of a documented strategic marketing plan which acts as the blue print for the successful marketing of your business

• Allowing you to proceed with confidence

• A planned and structured approach to marketing success

Campaign Outcomes

• Effective communication of your brand and offer

• Generate awareness in the market to achieve

• New customer acquisition

• A greater share of wallet from existing customers

• Increased sales and business growth

Commercialisation

• Assess the viability of new products or services

• Develop and implement strategies for the introduction or relaunch of products and services to provide commercial success

Direct Bottom Line Savings

• Direct Bottom Line Savings due to effective marketing management

• Measuring the ROI of promotions and campaigns to determine effectiveness

• Customer focus reducing the risk of ineffective promotion or campaigns

• Redirection of marketing investment into areas with the greatest return

Effective Brand Management

• Long term business growth through the ongoing and positive development of your brand in the marketplace

Effective Positioning

• Identifying the positioning strategy and building a strong market position to insulate against competition and the threat of new entrants

• Maintaining the desired position of your business in the market place

Communication

• Effective communication via regular meetings and easy to follow project plans to ensure you are kept informed and up to date on the progress of activities throughout the life of the program

Peace of Mind

• Experienced marketing professionals providing peace of mind that the marketing program is taken care of: you have one less thing to worry about

• MJH Group is transparent in our selection of clients to ensure no conflict of interest during engagements

• A marketing resource dedicated to the growth and development of your business.

For more details visit our site:

http://www.marketinganswers.com.au/