Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Small Business Marketing Guide for Entrepreneurs

As an entrepreneur, you undoubtedly have many questions about what to do first to market your business. A small business marketing guide provides a wealth of information to make sure you optimally position yourself for success.

A small business marketing guide shows you step by step how to strategically market your products and services.

1. Who Are You? Before you can create a successful marketing plan, you need to use your small business marketing guide to help define your:
Goals: What do you want to achieve in the first month? The first six months? The first year? Your time and budget will influence how quickly you can implement your plan. Don’t be afraid to set big goals for your business, but be realistic based on your time and budget.
Target market: Who will buy your products and services? What are their concerns and top priorities? You can’t begin to market yourself until you know to whom you’re marketing.
Benefits: What makes your business different from your competition? In addition to identifying all of the benefits of your products/services, a small business marketing guide will help you develop your unique selling proposition (USP). A USP is your number one key differentiator that makes people want to do business with you instead of your competition.

2. What Is Your Plan? The next step is to develop a plan based on the many different ways you can market your business to your target audience. A small business marketing guide assists with:
Defining and prioritizing marketing strategies and tools: Websites and blogs, article marketing, direct marketing (print and email), marketing materials, media exposure, social and in-person networking, client events, and trade shows are a few of the many ways a small business marketing guide will show you how to market your business. Your type of business, products/services, target market, and other key factors will determine which of these activities will be most effective.
Developing a marketing plan/calendar: After you define the best strategies for your business, it’s time to develop a basic marketing plan describing when and how you will execute your strategies each month. A small business marketing guide provides examples of marketing plans and how to use your marketing calendar to ensure you consistently market your business to your target market.

3. Who Will Help Implement Your Plans? Once you have developed your marketing plan and strategies, you’ll want to assess what you can do yourself and what resources you’ll need to assist you with:
Getting started: In addition to using your small business marketing guide, you may want to hire a small business marketing coach to help you gain clarity in all areas of your business. You also want to pay close attention to your branding, which is essentially the face of your business. Unless you’re a designer by trade, hire an expert to develop your corporate identity, logo, business card, and letterhead.
Gathering the right resources: In addition to graphic design services, there may be several other areas of your business that could benefit from a professional so you can focus on your core business. A small business marketing guide will provide numerous suggestions for professional services, including Web design, copywriting, Internet marketing, email marketing, photography, printing, video production, and much more.

Are you an entrepreneur? Want to see how a small business marketing guide can help you start and grow your business? Visit www.MyPRTools.com or call 310.546.2926 to learn more.

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