Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Marketing Tips for the Small Business Owner


The essence of marketing is to understand your customers' needs and develop a plan that surrounds those needs. Let's face it anyone that has a business has a desire to grow their business. The most effective way to grow and expand your business is by focusing on organic growth.
You can increase organic growth in four different ways. They include:

-Acquiring more customers
-Persuading each customer to buy more products
-Persuading each customer to buy more expensive products or up selling each customer
-Persuading each customer to buy more profitable products

All four of these increase your revenue and profit. Let me encourage you to focus on the first which is to acquire more customers. Why? Because by acquiring more customers you increase your customer base and your revenues then come from a larger base.

How can you use marketing to acquire more customers?

-Spend time researching and create a strategic marketing plan.
-Guide your product development to reach out to customers you aren't currently attracting.
-Price your products and services competitively.
-Develop your message and materials based on solution marketing.

The Importance of a Target Market in Small Business

When it comes to your customers keep in mind the importance of target marketing. The reason this is important is that only a proportion of the population is likely to purchase any products or service. By taking time pitch your sales and marketing efforts to the correct niche market you will be more productive and not waste your efforts or time.

It's important to consider your virtual segmentation by selecting particular verticals to present your offerings to. Those verticals will have the particular likelihood of purchasing your products and services. Again, this saves you from wasting valuable time and money.

Small Business Marketing and Large Business Marketing are Different

If you are like the majority of small business owners your marketing budget is limited. The most effective way to market a small business is to create a well rounded program that combines sales activities with your marketing tactics. Your sales activities will not only decrease your out-of-pocket marketing expense but it also adds the value of interacting with your prospective customers and clients. This interaction will provide you with research that is priceless.

Small businesses typically have a limited marketing budget if any at all. Does that mean you can't run with the big dogs? Absolutely not. It just means you have to think a little more creatively. How about launching your marketing campaign by doing one of the following:

-Call your vendors or associates and ask them to participate with you in co-op advertising.

-Take some time to send your existing customers' referrals and buying incentives.

-Have you thought about introducing yourself to the media? Free publicity has the potential to boost your business. By doing this you position yourself as an expert in your field.

-Invite people into your place of business by piggybacking onto an event. Is there a concert coming to town, are you willing to sell those tickets? It could mean free radio publicity. If that is not your cup of tea, how about a walkathon that is taking place in your area, why not be a public outreach and distribute their material?

When you do spend money on marketing, do not forget to create a way to track those marketing efforts. You can do this by coding your ads, using multiple toll-free telephone numbers, and asking prospects where they heard about you. This enables you to notice when a marketing tactic stops working. You can then quickly replace it with a better choice or method.

Getting Started with Small Business Marketing

By being diligent in your marketing and creating an easy strategy such as holding yourself accountable to contact ten customers or potential customers daily five days a week you will see your business grow at an exceptional rate. The great thing is it will not take a large marketing budget to make it happen.

FIVE FACTS ABOUT YOUTH MARKETS

-Kids aged 2-5 spend 25 hours per week watching TV, 4.5 hours a week watching DVDs or playing videogames, says Nielsen.

-28% of mothers of teenagers describe the father-son relationship as "very close and warm" compared to 38% of moms with children aged 6-12 and 57% with children under age six who say the same, says the National Fatherhood Initiative.

-Canadian teens send out 20,000 texts per second, reports LG Electronics.

-66% of 8-15 year olds have downloaded music after hearing it on an episode of a TV series, according to Y-Pulse and online advertising company Pangea.

-31% of college/University students consider MySpace "lame," finds Anderson Analytics

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

TODAY'S FIVE FACTS ABOUT YOUTH MARKETS

-The average child has 150 toys, says Simplicity Parenting author Kim John Payne.

-29% of 8-15 year olds have purchased clothing they saw a TV character wearing, according to Pangea Media and Y-Pulse.

-48% of teens aged 12-17 have been a passenger while a driver has texted behind the wheel, reports the Pew Research Center's Internet Project.

-60% of women first colored their hair as teenagers, says Allure magazine.

-44% of tween girls admit their body/shape is the top thing they would like to change about themselves, finds AllyKatzz.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Farting Santa Cracks Up Holiday Shoppers



Given the Christmas Season is upon us, I figure this funny little video is appropriate. This week I give you a farting Santa Claus. Watch Santa stink up the joint in this funny YouTube video.

FIVE FACTS ABOUT CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

-2% of people know someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and 23% plan to donate money toward breast cancer research in the next month, notes Rasmussen Reports.

-78% of Americans and Canadians feel they are constantly connected with friends, family, and colleagues through technology regardless of where they're located, reports Motorola.

-44% of workers believe an employee's behavior at an office party greatly affects their career advancement prospects, says The Creative Group.

-82% of women and 81% of men say that a modern gentleman is authentic and honest about who he is, finds GQ magazine.

-40% of adults think that banks should be more regulated by the government, double the proportion who thought so in 2004, according to Harris Interactive.