by: J D Moore
Copyright 2005 J D Moore

So what's your small business marketing strategy? I'm willing to bet
that close to 85% of the people reading this are scratching their
heads now. Many small business owners fail to create a marketing
strategy at all, instead focusing on tactics.

Let me give you one of the definitions of strategy from the fine
folks at Merriam Webster: a : a careful plan or method : a clever
strategem b : the art of devising or employing plans or strategems
toward a goal

So a strategy is a plan and the implementation of that plan. Tactics
are merely the methods with which which you carry out that plan.

Planning is important in small business marketing for a few reasons:

-Planning helps insure you keep a consistent marketing effort.
-Planning helps you set goals and move towards reaching them.
-Planning helps you set and stick to a budget.

Many small business owners are intimidated by the idea of a
marketing plan. They think it needs to be a huge formal document
with financials and charts. It can be that, particularly if you are
going for funding. However, if you are just in business for
yourself, your marketing plan can be very simple.

Here are some items I think it should include:

-Your overall vision, value proposition, and unique selling position
-A list of your target markets, and what you know about them
-Your budget for marketing
-A list of strengths and weaknesses with the customer facing side of
your business.
-A list of steps you are going to take (I recommend a marketing
calendar)
-There are three ways to increase your revenue, and your plan should
take each into account:

1. Increase your number of customers
2. Increase the amount of your average transaction
3. Increase the frequency at which your customers buy from you

Most marketing efforts I encounter focus only on #1. However #1
represents the most expensive, difficult, and slow method for
increasing revenues.

Remember that marketing is not just advertising and PR. Your plan
should encompass your customers' entire experience with you. It
might include changing the way you answer the phone, more frequent
followup calls, cleaning the bathrooms at your store more often,
adding plants to your reception area. your plan also might include
some kind of customer satisfaction survey, maybe during followup
calls or during a visit to your business.

Your plan might also include presenting your products or services
better, or repackaging them in different ways. It might have you
creating a new brochure, or giving sales training to your staff.

Your plan should include the tactics you want to use, and a budget
for each tactic.

There's an old military aphorism that goes: Even the best possible
battle plan has not survived first contact with the enemy. This
basically means that the unpredictable always happens - it's what
makes life interesting. Do not be afraid to revise your marketing
plan to respond to changing conditions. However, you still need a
consistent and intelligent marketing effort.

You should be able to capitalize on new opportunities and respond to
new challenges.

Plan and stay consistent - you will outpace most of your
competition.


About the author:
J D Moore Small Business Marketing Coach "helping small business
owners inprove marketing results" http://marketingcomet.typepad.com