Small Business Marketing Strategies:
What Marketing Means, How To Use It

Small business marketing strategies are constantly evolving as the Internet and other media of communication continue changing. The Total Success Center was created to help your business not only develop the best small business marketing strategies for today, but to keep up to date on what's new and effective.  This page of our site will focus specifically on off-line or on-location small business marketing strategies, and the Strategic Internet Marketing page will focus on on-line strategies and techniques. Both of course must be employed for greatest advantage.

One page cannot possibly cover all the aspects and nuances of marketing. So we've produced an in-depth e-book entitled "Small  Business Marketing Strategies" which you can purchase economically, download immediately, and dig into. But first an overview.

Marketing means many different things to different people. The root word is mercatus, which has the same origin as merchant. So in the broad sense, marketing is "merchanting," or "businessing" - just about everything a small business does. That's because your main objective of your entire business is to create value  in the form of products or services which customers want to buy. Marketing in the broad sense is managing customer value.

Traditionally, marketing has been divided into the famous "4 P's":

• Product - the product or service your business creates for sale
• Price - what you charge for your product
• Place - where you do business or how you distribute products to customers
• Promotion - communications including advertising, PR, personal selling, and the Internet

So you see right off that most people use the term marketing to mean just promotion, when that in fact is just a part of the whole. The truth is, if you don't have the right product at the right price in the right place, all the promotion in the world is not going to make customers buy. First you get your act together, then you promote. So let's look at each of these 4 P's more closely.

Product is something lots of people take for granted. Many start a small business because they like a type of product, say antiques or clothing, and want to sell what they love, as well as be able to buy it wholesale. This is one reason so many small businesses fail, and we don't want that to happen to you. It's better to go back to the concept of managing customer value. Instead of thinking of product as something you like, think of it as something potential customers need. The more you can meet their needs, the more they will buy from you! And how do you find out what people need? You ask them. You can start out informally asking everybody you know what would be the ideal fulfillment of some need, such as antique furniture or accounting, and try as hard as you can to build your business to meet that ideal. If possible higher a marketing consulting or research firm to do an objective, professional survey. Product improvement is a never-ending quest for quality and dependability, and it can make the difference between success and failure.

Price must be competitive. In marketing, you have what is called pricing strategy. This means you intentionally decide that you are going to be the low-cost provider like Wal-Mart, or offer higher quality for higher price like Mercedes and BMW, or be somewhere in the middle like Toyota. Research has shown that customers evaluate each business's offerings in light of what other businesses offer to determine if they think the price is fair for the value received.  Sometimes it can be a mistake to price too low, because that gives the impression that your quality may not be highest. However, if the higher quality is not readily apparent to the customer and something they really need and want, you're better off to price on a par with your competitors. Again a professional marketing consulting or research firm can help you get this right, if you can afford one.

Place is the physical location where your customer obtains the product or service. For retail businesses place is especially important. A good retail location must have visibility, convenience, good access, and safety to attract customers. For all businesses, your place makes a statement. If you're in the financial industry, being in your city's financial center puts you in the heart of the action. If you're in the fashion business, being near other fashion-oriented businesses, especially in affluent areas, is a smart move. This has to be weighed against the convenience factor for customers. For example, if customers have to pay by the hour to park in order to access your business, that could be a deterrent, especially if competitors offer free parking. And if you are a manufacturer, having reps or distributors strategically located around the country will be advantageous to meet customers where they are.

Promotion includes advertising, public relations, personal selling, promotions (with an s), the Internet and many other forms of communication.  This topic is vast, and covered in much more detail in our e-book, Small Business Marketing Strategies. For an overview, see our page on Marketing Communications Techniques. For help promoting your business, contact Lawrimore Inc.

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