Having a product or services, a kind of website and lots of enthusiasm is simply not enough to ensure that your small business succeeds. There are certain necessary basic marketing mechanisms you need to put in place to ensure that your business is around for a long time.
A simple template based website might be sufficient but you should ensure that it does the job perfectly. This means someone other than you will have to test it to see that all the links work and that navigation is logical and easy to follow. If you have a website where customers can make purchases ensure that the shopping cart feature is functional and user friendly. You should also have some kind of search engine optimization conducted to ensure your website is easily found.
Next you are going to need brochures and price lists. Included in these should be all the basic information connected with your business and your product and service pricing. Your website should encompass everything included here. These basic tools are essential to make selling your goods and services easier. It is shocking how few businesses have insufficient basic information to hand. Dont fall into this trap. If your goods and services are of a technical nature, ensure that you have specification or data sheets available. Remember: people like to do business with people that put their prices in writing.
You need to announce to the world that you are in business that your new products and services meet their needs and are everything they have been waiting for. Sending a press release to the media is an excellent way to do this. Dont feel inferior your business is newsworthy. Have a press release professionally written and distributed. If using a professional press release writer eats up your entire budget, consider distributing the release through an online service such as www.PRWeb.com and others.
If you are selling a product in the consumer market then you should make the effort to develop a striking point of sale POS presence. Go and find examples in your supermarket or in stores similar to where you product would be sold and develop these merchandising styles. These might include corrugated floor or end cap merchandisers, tags or wobblers. Remember to obtain the merchandising guidelines and policies from the stores involved in marketing your product.
Advertising of some kind should form part of your marketing mix. This need not be expensive. In fact, it is unusual for newly established small businesses to advertise in the prime media print, TV and radio. Even a simple online banner ad, a PPC campaign or an email campaign might be effective. Look at distributing business cards, flyers and leaflets. Work out a nice advertising mix that will address your target audience within your budget. Do not look at advertising your business as a luxury but rather as an investment that will pay handsome dividends over time.
Once your marketing campaign is operating, dont omit to test and monitor results via your website, public relations, point of sale and advertising efforts. Then you will be able to work out your return on investment. You will get an idea of how you need to alter and refine your campaign, this time around and the next year.
If you do not see yourself having the time, skills or patience for setting up your basic marketing plan then consider getting a marketing consultant or agency involved to help you. Some such agencies and individual marketing consultants offer full spectrum marketing services that can handle all of the above and more. A huge advantage of dealing through an agency is that it eliminates having to research and find reliable suppliers. Instead you work with one contact who takes responsibility for it all.
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