Monday, April 28, 2008

Small Business Marketing Environments Influence Your Business

By Linda P. Morton

Small business marketing environments influence your small business marketing in numerous ways besides just marketing strategies and tactics.

If you, as a small business owner, only think of marketing as what you do to promote and advertise your product or service, you are missing many opportunities to improve your marketing.

You need to consider the following ten small business marketing environments as you plan your small business marketing.

Small Business Marketing Environment 1: Your Business, Your Employees

Everyone working in your business enhances or diminishes your marketing. If your employees make positive comments about your business to others, that's good marketing. If they make negative comments, it hurts your ability to market.

Small Business Marketing Environment 2: The Businesses That Serve You

Some vendors will help deter advertising expenses through cooperative advertising. Some provide promotional information that you can use to promote your business. All influence how well you can meet orders by how they supply what you need to do so.

Small Business Marketing Environment 3: Distributors

People who deliver your product to your customers influence your marketing because they determine how well you effectively and efficiently distribute your product to your customers. In addition, they will talk about your business to other businesses that they serve. If what they say is positive, that's good marketing. If not, your marketing has to work double to overcome their negative statements.

Small Business Marketing Environment 4: People Who Sell Your Product In Their Stores

Which retailers carry your product, the type of customers they attract, and whether they feature your products in their advertising all affect your marketing. In addition, how well they display your product in their stores or whether they will even give you shelf space influences your marketing.

Small Business Marketing Environment 5: Competitors

Knowing all you can about your competitors and their products has a great effect on your marketing. If you know the pros and cons of their businesses and products and how yours compares, you'll know what to emphasize in your marketing messages.

Small Business Marketing Environment 6: Other People

Publics influence your business in other ways besides buying your product. Their support can be a great marketing boost. Their lack of support often requires public relations marketing to diminish their influence on potential buyers and other publics.

Small Business Marketing Environment 7: Target Market

By now, you should know that there's more to marketing than just efforts to reach and sell to your target market . Still your target market have the greatest influence on your sales so you should learn all you can about target market members in order to base your marketing on what best appeals to them.

Small Business Marketing Environment 8: Demographics

Knowing factual characteristics (demographics) about your target market reveals much about their attitudes, values, concerns and buying preferences. People differ by factual characteristics such as income, type of occupation, amount of education, their race and gender. The more you know about them, the better you can design marketing that appeals to them.

Small Business Marketing Environment 9: The Economy

Economic situations influence what sells and how much of those products sell. During recessionary economies, people often eliminate unnecessary expenses. During inflationary economies people spend more and on more luxury products. Thus, different economic situations call for different marketing strategies and tactics.

Small Business Marketing Environment 10: Natural Resources

Natural resources influence your product's price because the less a resource is available, the more you have to pay for it. To continue to make a profit, you have to pass that price on to your customers. This, in turn, influences if and how much of your product will sell.

Small Business Marketing Environment: In Conclusion

Marketing is much more than what you say and do to attract potential customers. It includes a mix of product, price, promotion, distribution and other elements that are influenced by different small business marketing environments.

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