12 Marketing Tips that Work for any Small Business Marketing Plan!
12 Marketing Tips that Work for any Small Business Marketing Plan!
by Thomas R. Reich
1) Get to the point with you slogan in small business marketing, and make it unique. If you’re USP (Unique Selling Proposition) sounds like everyone else’s, then it is not exciting, it’s not engaging, it Is not a USP. You want it to be niche focused and you want it to motivate the target audience to positively remember you and your brand.
Here are some prime examples of USP done right:
- Head & Shoulders: “You get rid of dandruff”
Some unique propositions that were pioneers when they were introduced:
- Domino’s Pizza: “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less — or it’s free.”
- FedEx: “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight”
- M&M’s: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand”
- Metropolitan Life: “Get Met, It Pays”
2) Walk in your customers shoes. All successful small business marketing starts and ends with the target customer. Ask
yourself, who is the customer and what is it about that person that will draw him to your product or service? What problems does that client have? What might they do to find a solution, and what priority would they put on finding a solution to that particular problem, what is it worth to them? What options do they have to solve that need other than your product or service? Where will your ideal client look for answers, what do they do with their spare time? With this information in hand you can begin to target specific actions in marketing your product that will expose that unique niche to your product or service.
3) Show what is unique about your product or service. Focus all your small business marketing efforts on emphasizing the benefits of your product or service, other than highlighting obvious points, such as product features. Wherever possible, mention the words ‘you’ and ‘your’, as this will make your customers feel more individual!
4) Don’t advertise like a big business. Big Businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business marketing can’t afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales, and produce them now! One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising, but always remember to provide an easy way for prospective customers to respond. Always include traceable links from the ad to your phone number, website and social media. Make sure the second a customer wants more information on an offer, they can reach you!
5) Try some unusual marketing methods. Look for some unconventional small business marketing methods your 
competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.
6) Set up joint promotions with other small business or organizations. Contact some non-competing small businesses or nonprofit organizations serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their product or service to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This usually produces a large number of sales for a very low cost when it is done with the right organization.
7) Get to the point. Your message needs to be said in one sentence. A piece of advertising needs to be brief and easy to understand. Whether it is a free ad on social media or your website or a paid ad in a newspaper, it needs to get the point across quickly. The eyes of your customer rove over a page, one sentence will catch attention, a paragraph will be looked over no matter how good it is. Remember, in small business marketing, a picture is worth a thousand words!
8) Ask your customers for testimonials. Testimonials are gold dust! 
Whenever anyone says anything about your product or service, ask them if they would mind providing an endorsement for you. The more testimonials you put together, the more confident your prospective customers will be of the service you are delivering and the value your product can add to them.
9) Take advantage of your customer base. Your customers already know and trust you. It is easier to get more business from them than to get any business from somebody who never bought from you. Take advantage of this small business marketing advantage by creating some special deals just for your existing customers. Announce new products and services before you announce them to the general market.
10) Convert customers into publicity agents for your business. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from your customer is more effective piece of small business marketing than any amount of advertising you could ever do and the incentive to your existing customers can encourage additional sales from them.
11) Offer a cheaper version of your product or service. Some prospective customers are 
not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.
12) Offer a premium version of your product or service. Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service, or to have priority VIP service or delivery. You can boost your small business marketing, average sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service, or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.
13) BONUS ADVICE: Act on feedback. No one knows more about your customers experience than your customers themselves! Try your hardest to get as much feedback from each and every customer as you can, about your product or service and the service they experienced at your place of business in the process. Take every opportunity to ask your customers what they think about your product, your employees and what you could do to improve the experience. This helps two fold. First, your customer feels needed, and evolved in your business and is more likely to come back and to recommend friends and associates. Second a successful small business marketing organization uses this information to constantly improve and evolve their business.
Don’t miss our FREE webinar Wednesday! This Wednesday at 2PM EST we will be discussing “Marketing for Small Business”, a topic appropriate whether you are running a small business that is for profit or nonprofit. Small business marketing is a subject that concerns all of us and Tom can give you some tips and tricks that can help you greatly with your small business marketing!
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