Top 10 Marketing Concepts For Small Business Marketing

Over the past decade more and more people are getting fired, getting downsized, or getting fed up with their corporate jobs and embark on the journey as a small business owner. Unfortunately, most of the new small business owners fail to consider their marketing plans or strategy. There are many marketing concepts for small business marketing to consider and plan for, but here is our list of Top 10 Marketing Concepts For Small Business Marketing.

Marketing Concept # 1: Consistency

Consistency is the number one marketing concept for small business marketing only because it is left out of marketing concepts for so many businesses. I have worked with a long list of clients, big and small, that are extremely inconsistent in all areas of their marketing. Consistency helps lower the cost of marketing and increase the effectiveness of branding.

Marketing Concept # 2: Planning

Once small business owners decide to be consistent with their marketing, planning is the next major concept to engage. Planning is the most vital part of small business marketing or any level of marketing, for that matter, and so many owners, marketing managers, and even CMOs plan poorly. Put the time into planning your marketing strategy, budget, and other concepts presented here to ensure success.

Marketing Concept # 3: Strategy

Strategy immediately follows planning because your strategy is the foundation for the rest of your marketing activities. In the process of planning, you must develop your strategy: who you will target, how you will target them, and how will you keep them as a customer.

Marketing Concept # 4: Target Market

Target market is also another key concept for small business marketing. Defining exactly who you are targeting allows small business owners to focus on specific customers and reduce marketing waste. A well-defined target market will make every other marketing concept so much easier to implement successfully.

Marketing Concept # 5: Budget

Although it is listed at number 5, budgeting is important throughout the entire process. Creating a marketing budget is usually the hardest and most inaccurate part of small business marketing. Most small businesses owners lack a great deal of experience in marketing, so their budgets usually end up skewed. The most important part of this marketing concept is to actually establish a marketing budget. From there, you can worry about how to distribute your available funds.

Marketing Concept # 6: Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is usually defined as product, pricing, place, and promotion. As a small business owner, you must specifically decide on your products (or services), the appropriate pricing, where and how you will distribute your products, and how will you let everyone know about you and your products.

Marketing Concept # 7: Website

In today's market, a business of any size must have a website. I hate when I see businesses that have a one page website with out-dated information. Customers, be it businesses or consumers, will search the web over 60% of the time before making any purchasing decisions. This marketing concept contains a slew of additional components, but you must at least develop a small web presence of some kind and keep it updated.

Marketing Concept # 8: Branding

Many small businesses owners also neglect this concept. Small business marketing must focus on this marketing concept just as much as large corporations do. Branding consists of the pictures, logo, design scheme, layout, make up, and image of your products and even your company. Branding is how your customers perceive (please place a lot of emphasis on that word!) your products and company. Make sure to pay special attention to what kind of brand you are building through each step of your planning and implementation.

Marketing Concept # 9: Promotion and Advertising

Promotion and advertising is a very complex marketing concept, but must be considered for any type of business and its products and services. Once you engage the previous 8 marketing concepts, you must finally let your target market know about you and your products. Proper promotion and advertising will result in effective brand recognition, and, ultimately, increased sales.

Marketing Concept # 10: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The concept of customer relationship management has become a huge industry in the marketing world. There are many types of software and services offered to help businesses of any size handle their customer relationship management. Since there is so much available, usually for a large sum of money, small business owners usually look at this concept as something they are not big enough for or have enough money to implement. Don't be fooled by the massive industry that has evolved from this concept. Maintaining proper customer relationship management is essential to creating loyal and consistent customers.

This list of marketing concepts should be examined, researched, planned, and implemented, especially by small businesses, in order to be successful. Also, your marketing doesn't stop here. Each business is unique and will have additional components that must be considered, but this list will jump-start any marketing plan.

Offline Marketing Vs Online Business Marketing

This article is really to give you an understanding of the offline business marketing world and how it has now transformed to the online business marketing world. Come with me on a short journey from back in history to modern day and into the future.

Offline Business Marketing:

The world of offline business marketing is soon to be become redundant. Since advertising first began, smart business owners were always on the lookout for that something new that was going to give them the edge over their competitors.

In the beginning there was word of mouth advertising. A vendor sold a product or service to a customer who then went out and spread the word to his personal circle of influence. Word of Mouth Advertising in those days had only two possible endings. One, a positive referral was made that resulted in more customers and more sales. Secondly, a negative referral was made and that resulted in less customers and less sales.

Obviously, knowing the importance of their only advertising medium, good vendors looked after their customers especially well and were rewarded in return. As in today's modern business, those that didn't look after their customers suffered the penalty that followed.

Clever vendors then moved on to Poster advertising. Posters were placed strategically around the areas promoting their products and services. Now they had two modes of advertising. Those that didn't look after their customers so well, were now able to exploit the Poster advertising strategy. The better the Poster, the better the results of bringing in customers and making more sales.

And so the world of advertising and marketing began. Now since those days we have had a host of other marketing and advertising strategies come and go. Some lasted longer than others, while some were so brief they blew out with the next gust of wind.

I won't go in to all the mediums that we have seen over the many years. The important thing to note is this, THERE WERE CHANGES. Those that moved with the changes were able to stay ahead of their competitors, those that didn't took so long to pick up the change that they lost fortunes in their business or lost their businesses completely.

Today's world still has a great deal of off line marketing and advertising. Television, radio, newspapers and magazines would have to be the main form of media used. And in the main, successful for those businesses who have the thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars to pour in to their advertising.

Large multinational corporations have had offline marketing campaigns that ran in to the millions of dollars and obviously their return on investment had to remain high for such colmitments to continue.

What about the small and medium enterprises? What do they pay in advertising and marketing? What is their return on investment? Well let me tell you, they are the business models that are struggling and close to collapse.

Why? Because they are continually paying for advertising and marketing campaigns that are useless.

Here's an example:

If you are a small or medium business, ring your local newspaper and ask to place an ad in the Classifieds Section. What will you get? You will get a consultant on the other end of the phone who will ask what Category you wished to be placed in, how many lines or lines and columns you wish to include.

You will be asked to read your ad content and they will check the spelling, and how you want it to look. You agree and that's it. Do you get to look and preview your ad? You can look and make one minor change, that's it. You then pay for what you get.

There is no consultation about your marketing strategy, your target market, your product or anything that will help give you an edge over your competitor. The consultants are not marketing specialists, they are telephone specialists who fill in a form.

Your ad comes out in the newspaper and you don't like it. Bad Luck, that's what you get.

Cross that over to "The Yellow Pages" advertisements. Depending on the size of the ad, which also means the amount of money you are going to spend with them, dictates the amount of help you receive. Now understand this, the average consultant in "The Yellow Pages" is not a marketing specialist. They specialize in "selling advertising space".

So the question that begs to be asked is," Why would you go to someone who is not a specialist marketing agent to do your marketing?" That's like asking a dental receptionist to do your filling or an extraction. It doesn't work.

Small and Medium enterprises generally have no idea what they are doing in relation to marketing their business, product and service. They have no idea of how to structure a successful marketing campaign to bring their business more customers. Business owners need to go to a specialist who is an expert in that field, someone who knows what they are doing. Someone who is going to build a marketing strategy that is successful in achieving the objectives set by the business owner.

Traditional advertising through "The Yellow Pages", Newspapers and other print media will soon be of little value. The distribution is localised and viewing is random. Any return on investment is based on luck rather than a measured strategic marketing campaign.

People are sick and tired of advertisements being pushed in front of their faces. It is said that an average of 2000 advertisements are placed in front of us every single day. Ask yourself how many you can remember from yesterday through newspapers, magazines, billboards, t.v, radio etc. The answer, probably half a dozen, maybe if you're good.

So, what is happening to your business ad? Nothing.

Online Business Marketing:

Why? One word, internet. The internet has now changed the world of advertising and marketing forever. The trend towards the internet is moving faster than any other medium in history. The younger age groups, Generation X and Generation Y are using the internet multiple times daily. It is now their chosen form of networking and communicating. We now have phones that communicate on the internet.

Guess what? Now the Baby boomers are getting in on the act as well. Just have a look at Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The older generations are now using the internet to communicate with their families around the world. Add Skype and other similar programs that allow F*R*E*E phone and video calls around the world. Any business that is not on the internet now, and not on the internet in the next year or so is seriously in big trouble.

What do you think the modern generation do when they are looking for a product or service? They don't run for the Yellow Pages that's for sure. They run to their computer or laptop and do a Google Search, that's what they do.

What doe this mean for your business? You need to be marketing your business, products and services on the internet.

How do you do this? You need a Website. The Website is your online virtual shop, office or whatever your business front is. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. It is open for business while you are sleeping, on holiday, in your shop or where ever you wish to be. It never closes unless you or your landlord close it down. (Yes, even on the internet we have landlords that you have to pay rent to on a monthly basis)

Your business is open for customers to browse, leave their details for followup, or purchase a product or service. And they do all this without you having to be there, how fantastic is that? That is the power of the internet.

How do people find you? Imagine a highway, any highway. Imagine your Website is a store front on that highway. Now imagine we incorporate strategies that were once the powerhouse strategies of offline marketing. Imagine the Word of Mouth which in internet terms is Social Networking, Poster Marketing which we call Article Marketing, Television Advertising we call Video Marketing, Radio Advertising we call Podcasting.

Just as in your offline marketing, we use all these strategies to drive targeted traffic to your Website. Traffic are potential clients. The difference to offline marketing is that online, only people that are looking for you will find you. That means they WANT what you have. They will get to choose between you and your competitors who they find online. When they choose you, they have already got their credit cards out and sitting in front of them. That prospect is now a customer.

You now have the opportunity to get directly in front of thousands if not tens of thousands of potential customers. To win their business you will first need to be online, and second have a marketing campaign that is successful enough to get you in front of them.

Whether you are a local or international organization, small or medium enterprise or multinational, your marketing campaign will have to incorporate your target market. Your campaign will have to target your distribution and servicing area, so if you only do local stuff that is cool, if you distribute and service internationally then that is cool as well. The internet allows you to advertise globally and locally.

Costs:

How do the costs compare? In our experience an internet campaign could set you back a few thousand dollars to set it up at the start. Most good providers will have a payment plan to suit most people. There are on-going monthly fees anywhere from about $10.00US depending on the sort of campaign package you need.

So let's say it costs you $5000.00US to set up your Website and implement a marketing strategy. Add an average of around just say $100 a month. The monthly fee is equivalent to paying rent for your building and costs associated to that.

Compare those costs to an average Full Page ad in a certain directory which could set you back tens of thousands of dollars per year, add in your newspapers ads which you place weekly, as well as any other limited advertisements. The cost to you is enormous in comparison to an online Website presence.

I hope that you have been able to see the benefits and the obvious need to have an online business presence.

I hope this article has been of value to you. I look forward to being with you on the next article where we will share Marketing Strategies that could save your business literally thousands of dollars. You don't want to miss that.

Here's a tip for you, it doesn't matter what industry you are in, what product or service you provide. Your business is about marketing. If you fail to market your business properly, your business will fail.

Small Business Marketing Plan - Increase Your Business Profit Without Breaking Your Marketing Budget

Most small business owners fail when it comes to their small business marketing plans. They've got excellent technical skills in their line of work, but that just doesn't translate to having effective marketing skills.

As a result, profitability of many small businesses has been declining over the years. Ever increasing competition is making it more challenging in many ways. For those businesses that aren't losing money, most are not producing the profit they could be if they knew how to market themselves properly.

These business owners usually just copy what they see other businesses doing, or they follow the advice of some media sales person. The problem is they copy the wrong types of businesses, and the media sales people typically only know as much about effective marketing as the business owner does.

Without the right kind of marketing system in place, the success of any business is by pure chance. To help remedy this situation, below are seven things a small business can do to increase profits while spending less on marketing.

1. Use the power of free stuff

Everyone likes getting free stuff and you can use that to your advantage. If your business lends itself to giving away free samples of your product, do that. It helps get people hooked on it. Business profits have boomed on this marketing model.

As Chris Anderson author of the book titled, "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" says, "You can make make money giving things away."  In his book he talks about how businesses are giving away products and services they used to charge for, and in return, a percentage of their customers are buying something else. As a result, they are making more money than ever.

When you give something away, you often activate a universal law called the "Law of Reciprocity." It says that when people get something free, they feel obligated to do something for you. Obviously it doesn't work every time, but it does work enough of the time.

But there is another way to give away free stuff that can greatly benefit your business. When you do it right you get something very valuable in return: customer contact info...which leads us to the next tip.

2. Start capturing customer contact info and use it

One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is not tapping their current customer base. They let customers visit their business (online or offline) all day long without ever trying to capture their contact info so they can continue to market products or services to them.

You likely know how expensive it can be to get a new customer. But you can market to your current customers for little or no cost. Capturing and using customer contact info can mean the difference between a profitable business and one that barely gets by.

Your business has more customer value in it than a customer can possibly digest in a short visit so if you aren't continually marketing to your customers, you are throwing money away!

You can make customer contact capture easier simply by using the power of free from tip number one. Simply start a monthly drawing to give away something free and print some registration slips visitors can fill out. Also have people register online on your website.

Tell customers they only have to register once for all drawings and you will contact them monthly via email to let them know who won. Of course you will always include an offer for a product or service!

What do you give away? Anything with a perceived value makes a great free item. Free items do not have to be expensive. Buy something on sale at WalMart or at eBay and offer it. You can also offer free informational reports that help people solve their problems. People are always looking for ways to solve problems they are having.

Of course, once you capture this information you have to do something with it. If you're too busy to take on any more work, then the next tip will help you out.

3. Use automated tools to keep in touch with customers

Once you have a customer list, I recommend you send a minimum of 25 "messages" a year to it. A message could be an email, direct mail piece, fax, or phone call.

If you don't use an automated tool to do the work for you, you'll likely be too busy to get the job done. When you automate, your messages go out regardless of how busy you get (the more messages that go out, the busier you'll get).

One tool you can use is an email autoresponder, which is a web-based system that sends out emails when someone signs up. It sends out emails at intervals you set up. You can also set it up to send an email on a specific day, such as a holiday.

The great thing about an autoresponder tool is that you enter your messages in the autoresponder one time, then it automatically sends emails to your list. You can also broadcast messages any time you want.

Using this tool, keeping in touch with your customers is easy and it will help keep the competition from creeping in and stealing your customers because they've forgotten about you and the services you provide.

4. Stop marketing like you're a big business.

Marketing a small business like it's a big business is something almost every small business owner does. They just copy the marketing they see being done at large companies with big brands. This kind of marketing is called "brand identity," "brand building," or "image" marketing.

This is a HUGE waste of advertising money for a small business. You simply don't have the resources you need to support a successful branding campaign.

Brand advertising typically has no "call to action," (they don't ask you to do anything). They just give you features of the product or service, or they entertain you without asking you to do anything.

Brand advertising is usually benefit free. The viewer has to determine if there is a benefit to them. It may contain a list of features and the user will have to assign their own benefit to each feature. It is usually focused on the product or provider of the product instead if the customer.

A successful marketing campaign for a small business is created around direct response marketing techniques.

5. Use old fashioned direct response techniques in new ways

The kind of marketing plan that works for a small business is direct response marketing. It doesn't require a huge marketing budget to use effectively. It can be used for all types of products and services.

And the good news is that you don't even have to hire an advertising agency to do it since it doesn't require creativity. All you have to do is learn the basic structure of direct response marketing and you can easily increase the sales your business makes.

Direct response sales copy always asks the reader or viewer to take some sort of action i.e. "Call in the next 5 minutes, and we'll include a free set of Ginzu steak knives!".

It may ask for the sale directly if a full "sales presentation" was done (one-step advertising), or it may ask them to request more information (two-step advertising). It will at a minimum, ask the reader to take some form of "traceable" action so you know if it is working or not.

There should always be a headline for written advertisements! Never put your company logo at the top of a direct response advertisement. That's brand advertising.

Whenever you create an advertisement in any form always look at them from the customer point of view. Look it and ask "Who gives a crap?" about everything in it. Do you think the customer cares about your logo. No! They care about what you can do for them. Put in benefits and not features. Let the customer know what's in it for them. A successful direct response ad for a small business includes several things:

• An offer to buy something
• Sufficient information for the consumer to make a decision to act now (or directions on how to get more info)
• An explicit "call to action" sooner rather than later
• A clear way to respond such as a telephone number or web page
• A means of tracking the response.

Direct response advertising is not just used for mail campaigns. You use it in all forms of media: print, web, mail, and broadcast. Take a look at all the advertising you are currently doing no matter where it is and start making the change now.

6. Use the Internet to advertise for free

Even though websites as we know them have existed since around the early 90s, only 49%* of small businesses currently have a website *9/08, Barlow Research. It's surprising how many businesses do not understand how powerful this marketing tool is. If you don't have a website, get one because there is no better source of free advertising!

The Internet has hundreds of "Web 2.0" websites where you post "content" for free. The content can be text, videos, or audios you create and it can lead people to your business. Plus, it helps establish you as an expert in your field.

EzineArticles.com is one such place you can post content. There was no charge to post this article. All I had to do is write it, post it, and then you found it.

You can put links in the "author resource" section, to drive traffic to a page on your website. The articles you post in EzineArticles can rank extremely well in Google search results with a little help from you.

You also want to get your business listed in places like Google Local if you do local business. Once again this is absolutely free.

Once you learn how to do use the Internet for promotion you'll have a head start on the future of advertising and you get customers for free!

7. Outsource routine marketing tasks so you can work on the growing your business

One of the biggest problems small business owners have is that they get so consumed by working IN their business, they don't have time to work ON their business. So no growth can occur.

When it comes to marketing yourself on the Internet, there are ways to use "virtual assistants" to do most of the work for you. A virtual assistant is someone you hire on a full or part-time basis who does the work for you.

But a virtual assistant is not a direct employee so you don't provide benefits or have the normal hassles of an employee. They are usually located somewhere in the world that has low-cost wages so they are very affordable. That's the beauty of the Internet and the communication it provides.

Virtual assistants aren't just confined to small business marketing plan tasks though. They can do almost anything for you: reservations, schedule appointments, answer phones, customer service, send flowers, buy a present for your spouse, find someone to fix your car, website development, accounting, software development, writing, graphics, or anything you need.

There are lots of resources on the Internet that can help you find a virtual assistant.

Create Your Small Business Marketing Plan Now!

Use these seven marketing tips to start building your small business marketing plan right now. If you procrastinate, your busy life will get in the way of business growth. Even if you only take a little of the advice you've been given, you'll find it can have a big impact on the profitability of your business.

Business to Business Marketing Internet Company - Tips For Choosing an Internet Marketing Company

Internet marketing is 90% mindset and only 10% technical. Just look at all the technical wizards who live average lives. They know computers and they know marketing but they are part of the 97% who will never live the abundant life. They get their vacation once a year and they might drive a nice car; but they will never drive a Ferrari or vacation every other month at the top vacation resorts in the world.

You want to break out of the prison of mediocrity and live the lifestyle of the rich and famous. How do you do it? Where do you find this elusive "mindset"? It is available to everyone through internet marketing training. You can read books (suggested), you can listen to training calls (recommended), you can take courses (recommended), and you can join opportunities that focus on your education and success (recommended).

What is this mindset?

o It starts with your leadership skills, be the leader that everyone is attracted to.
o Have an abundance mentality, know that the world does not set limits, we set limits on ourselves.
o Know that success is yours for the taking; so take the steps necessary to be successful.
o Establish your mastermind group to develop the synergy that will absolutely launch you to the stratosphere of success.

Very few people ever achieve enough success to pay all the expenses of running an internet marketing business. Join the leaders and get the education and training you need. The return in success will amaze you!

See you on the beaches of the world.A business to business marketing internet company is just what kind of company the title states. They are business's that help other business properly market their business on the internet. Every business is an expert in their own field. Unfortunately, one business can not do it all. At a certain point it will be more cost effective to realize that outsourcing a particular marketing segment is advisable. So a firm might think about hiring a business to business marketing internet company. This will insure that they leave the internet marketing to the experts and it will free up more time for the business to utilize their own expertise.

There is a huge demand for business to business marketing internet company. Because of the huge demand everyone with a website is claiming themselves an expert in the field. So what should do to ensure you get a really good internet marketing company?

Firstly, when choosing an internet business marketing company you should look to see what their current results are. Ask for recent web sites that were developed and what internet marketing plan was implemented. Did they have a blog to attract loyal visitors? Was their plenty of written articles spread out to various article directories? Were clients getting video traffic from large video sites such as Youtube.com?

All these questions are very valid to ask to a business to business marketing internet company. My approach to new clients is a step by step process. What I do is give a free initial consultation, just to see what their current internet marketing plan is. This gives me a good idea of what they are not doing or what needs to be improved on. Then once the initial consultation is completed, I start to research and develop a customized marketing plan for that customer.

The second step is that I typically give a 1 hour presentation over the marketing internet plan. We go over things like creating a main site which deem as the money site. Develop blogs, create email capture forms, and maybe even build an EBAY store. Every business is unique and it is important that a business to business marketing internet company just provides the client a canned template. Not all business needs an EBAY store. Not all companies need to use blogging software.

Pricing to hire a business to business marketing internet company can range significantly. Every internet marketing company establishes their own prices. So it is best for you to get quotes from as many different internet marketing companies you can. But beware that the lowest price is not always going to be the best. There are literally millions of different ways to market your business on the internet.

Cost Effective Small Business Marketing Strategies and Tips

This is the final article in a 6 part series on Cost Effective Small Business Marketing Strategies. In the previous article, I discussed Marketing Tactics and Key Marketing Elements. In this article, I will discuss Important Marketing Plan Elements and Successful Marketing Attitudes.

Pulling it All Together: Important Marketing Plan Elements

My article on Writing a Winning Marketing Plan provides you a successful structure to work with toward achieving a well balanced plan. In this section I will discuss the important concepts and elements of a successful Marketing Plan.

-- Develop a Good Meme: A meme is a simple way to communicate a main idea or theme or benefit of your business. It is an instantly recognizable transmission of what a company is all about. It is more than a Logo. A Meme is representation of the Company Identity (i.e. Logo) and its Key Benefit or Advantage. It can be a Symbol or Words. Something that not only helps brand a Company's Identity but helps the audience translate it instantly into the Company's Chief Benefit or Advantage. Memes are highly effective when used on Websites, Company letterhead, the back of a Biz Card, brochures, circulars - in other words, it needs to be in all Your Marketing materials.

-- Theme: You need a good Theme to go with a Meme, such as "ABC Biz Success Solutions". I use "Biz Success" as the main theme for ABC Business Consulting because ultimately that is why clients hire us. I use this theme in other areas of the business as well, such as: "ABC Biz Success Guide" or "ABC Biz Success Articles". Both the Meme and Theme working together effectively identify and brand your business. They help you standout in a mass of competitors. Memes and Themes are only effective when they are used prolifically.

Note: Another reason we chose "ABC" Business Consulting as the company name is the company will be listed close to first in alphabetical listings and directories. Choose your Company Name carefully - think it through. It should say what you do as a business and be easily remembered. We also chose this name as it would be a good domain name for the website to effectively compete in one of the most competitive keyword areas. Think your Company Name, Domain Name, Meme and Theme through carefully - it can be your most effective marketing element!

-- Branding: An accepted Brand Name = Credibility. It builds confidence and word of mouth sales. Credibility and confidence set you apart from the competitive pack. A good Company Name, Theme and Meme are essential components of successful Branding. Branding builds familiarity through repetition. A Brand most importantly builds customer trust. It keeps the customer and prospect thinking about your company; consistent and constant awareness of the business and what you stand for. Consistent Marketing creates and sustains a Brand, especially if done through many layers and platforms of media.

-- Positioning: This is the goal of every Marketing Plan, finding that Niche. To come up with your Niche, you need a good Market Plan Process. As part of that process, you will analyze your strengths, weaknesses, the competition and the different Market Trends. The goal is to differentiate yourself enough so your offering is unique to a niche market with little competition. Your Market Positioning is the process of differentiating yourself through location, price, quality, product offering, services, selection, convenience, promotion and a host of other market positioning (differentiation) factors. Can you achieve a Niche that has little or no competition? Probably not but you sure can differentiate yourself. See how important Positioning is?

All of your Marketing Materials & Promotions should highlight your differentiation. Give your target niche a reason to see you differently compared to the competition. Your Market Positioning is the major key in your Company's success. By success, I mean high profit margins. Differentiation = Profits.

Note: Before putting a Marketing Plan into Action, it needs to go through the Strategic Planning Process to determine what risks are associated with the Marketing Plan and if those risks have been adequately minimized through the Positioning Strategy. Strategic Analysis helps you determine if your Marketing Plan can effectively compete in its Positioning Strategy, as well as, the other components of a Marketing Plan. Moreover, a Strategic Plan maps out the Marketing Plan and puts it into Action with Milestones and checkpoints along the way. Please see my Article on Strategic Planning for more information on developing a successful Strategic & Sales Plan.

-- Quality: I have talked a lot about Quality in this article. Remember, after Confidence, Quality is the second most reason a prospect considers a particular business. Quality is what the Customer gets out of the product or service experience with your Company. Quality is what will separate you from your competition; it will enhance your viral, word-of-mouth advertising; and it helps define your positioning niche. Quality and service really work hand in hand - it's the quality of service which keeps customers coming back and prospects interested. Your Marketing should reflect this! Fast service, Cheap Prices and a Wide Selection will not matter, nor make up for, Poor Quality.

-- Location: Depending on the type of business you have, Location can be a must and be well advertised and marketed. Physical location is becoming less important with the reliance of the internet. Either way, whether you have a location dependent business or not, it is important to have a strong presence on the Web. All your Marketing Materials and Programs should be built around a Web Strategy, and prospects should be able to easily find your business through the internet. Your website should further instill confidence in the prospect to visit your business.

-- Referrals: Ask for them before, during and after the sale, as well as, bi-annually thereafter. Referrals are your best prospects and are exponential in numbers when a Referral System is effectively merged with your Marketing Strategy. Have a Referral Program throughout your company so your Employees will be incentivized to provide them.

-- Testimonials: One Word, Powerful! Your Marketing Materials should include testimonials with a picture if possible. Your website should have video and audio testimonials. Testimonials will close sales for you. Use them!

-- Credibility: This should come across all your Marketing Materials. The reason a prospect buys is because a bond of trust has been built, and credibility goes a long way toward building that trust. So what makes you credible? Publicity, Articles, Newsletters, Testimonials, Referrals, Magazine Ads. Quality, good Service and Consistency go a long way too! Word of mouth or viral advertising builds bukoo Credibility as well. Being involved in your Community is an excellent means of building a solid, credible reputation. The biggest one? Honesty. Be honest with your customers and your credibility (and sales) will soar!

-- Reputation: Very closely linked to Credibility. A good reputation comes over time through consistent credibility. One bad experience can increase twenty fold or more so be sure to have a good Customer Service Program in place to support your reputation building Marketing Plan. You earn a good reputation by doing the right things over a long period of time. A good reputation instills Confidence in the prospect - the number one reason a prospect turns into a customer. Doing everything right earns you a good reputation. Not that you have to be perfect - mistakes will always happen. It is what you do after a mistake happens that really determines your reputation. The nice thing about Reputation is it doesn't cost you a dime - just Effort! Effort which needs to be built company wide, from the Company President down through all the employees.

-- Payment Plans: Payment Plans should be built into your Marketing Strategy as it removes risk, adds credibility and builds confidence. Use it and advertise it!

-- Understanding your Competitors: This is a really crucial component of a Good Marketing Strategy. Knowing what your Competitors offer; who they target; what their customer experience is like; and how they operate are really important in segmenting Your Niche. Learn what they are doing right and differentiate yourself on where they are failing or lacking. Marketing Segmentation cannot be well established without knowing your Competitors. The end result of good Competitive Analysis is establishing Competitive Advantage and carving out a Market Niche through that advantage. Your profitability hinges on how well you know your Competitors.

-- Be a Green Company: Being an environmentally friendly company can buy you earth conscious customers and support a great cause at the same time. Customers will pay nearly 40% more to patronize an environment friendly company. However, it is important to practice what you preach - don't support a cause if you aren't 100% sold or committed to it.

Successful Marketing Attitudes

Marketing is the transposition of an attitude which you hope customers want to jump on and join. Some successful attitude elements to include in your Marketing efforts:

-- Passion: Passion and belief in yourself, your business and your products attracts customers. It should be reflected in all your Marketing materials.
-- Give it Away: Be generous with your knowledge by giving prospects free information and expert advice. It will come back to you threefold in publicity and referrals.
-- Be Fast: We are a highly competitive, instantaneous society. You better be fast in responding to prospects and customers alike because your competitors sure will be!
-- Clean Company Image: Keep your company looking good; have an updated website and run a Professional, orderly organization. Attract instead of detract!
-- Telephone Skills: You and your employees should be happy to hear from prospects and customers. Be friendly, happy and engaged. They should feel important.

-- Value Keys:

-- Value is more important than Price.
-- Enhance your perceived value. It is the value that your customer thinks he or she is getting.
-- Offset a prospect's anticipated price with your value offering: i.e. benefits, quality, presentation, reputation, experience, credibility, the green factor, etc.
-- Be in Tune with your Customers: Be engaged and sensitive to your customer's needs as they change over time. Listen to your customers! They are telling you what your Marketing Strategy should be moving toward. Be proactive and fix issues before they become major. Be easy to conduct business with.
-- Be Flexible: Work with your customers and the changing trends. Meet your customers more than halfway. Understand that flexibility relates directly to Service, Quality, Price, Value, Selection, Payment Plans, and Location - all those important Marketing components. Be flexible to your customers' needs.

And Finally, Understand that Marketing is Psychology

Understand some customers are Logical and other Emotional. Based on their psychology, you tailor your presentation and communications. Make it easy for a prospect to unconsciously buy into your offering. Some like images, a painted picture. Others like numbers and proof. Some like a little of both. I like to sell positive benefits that make a prospect feel good, no matter if he or she is left or right brain dominate. Remember, passion and belief sells - fill your prospects with confidence. The confident unconscious state sells the conscious mind way before the sale occurs. You master this psychological transference in your Marketing and Sales Program, you will be profitable. Bone up on your Psychology skills!