5 Tips to Creating a Successful Small Business Marketing Strategy

Everyday we are bombarded with news about new apps, new social media sites, and the latest online marketing approaches. It’s easy to get lost trying to keep up with the latest developments. It’s also dangerous; you can spend your time trying to stay ahead of the information curve, but fall behind when it comes to effectively marketing your company. Your main focus needs to be on developing a marketing and PR approach that reaches your target market; sells products, brings in clients and grows your business.
It’s tough to keep focus when you’re bombarded with information; the myriad marketing options available grow on a seemingly daily basis. Whereas having a number of choices can often be a good thing, in this case that can cause you and your company to come to a virtual standstill, as you spend the bulk of your time struggling to figure out the most effective marketing approaches.

Strategy Tip #1 Remember, you don’t need to do everything.

You simply need to do some homework, experiment a bit, find out what works best for you and focus on what works. Just because there are a variety of options available that doesn’t mean you need to utilize all of them. You don’t eat everything on a menu, you pick and chose, do the same when it comes to your marketing strategy. You can launch a public relations campaign, start a blog, target every social media site, and launch an online video campaign, ezine, email campaign. You can also run a pay per click campaign and focus on offline marketing efforts. Those are just some of your options. If you try to implement all of those options, most of your time will be spent trying to make sense out of the marketing mix.

Strategy Tip #2 Work on one marketing approach at a time or assign different strategies to different employees in your marketing department.

Especially with online marketing, each program takes attention, strategy, and time. Watch what your marketing department is doing. Are they on the same page? Are they too scattered? Get feedback and reports, and manage to make sure they are effectively working each approach, one at a time, or in various organized teams.

Strategy Tip #3 Eliminate approaches that are too cumbersome, expensive or don’t speak directly to your audience from your marketing mix.

Go with a less-is-more approach and keep your focus on where you customers or clients truly find their information.

Strategy Tip #4 Begin a basic and effective PR and media relations outreach to offer your company the validation and credibility that comes with being featured in the media.

Implementing a basic PR campaign can be as simple as writing a press release, and pitching targeted media outlets. Follow topics that are trending in the media that relate to your area of expertise. Write a one page press release that includes an angle that will serve the media’s needs. Email pitch and follow-up. Find more details on communicating with and pitching the media here.

Strategy Tip #5 Develop a presence online.

You’re job is to figure out which online direction serves you the best. Study the various approaches. You could perhaps benefit from article marketing; perhaps a blog is a good fit, study how you can best utilize social media and what sites work best for you. Be selective, keep your focus on your market and stay targeted. Build an individualized promotional campaign that serves your clients and reaches your prospects. Don’t get lost in the marketing maze. Stay focused and develop a marketing success formula for your business.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011