Small Business Advertising & Promotion

The Other Part of Your Marketing Plan

Small business advertising and promotion is the next part of your successful small business marketing plan.

Part two of your Marketing Plan is about the what, when, why and how you plan to offer your products and services to your target market. It's much more than small business advertising or promotion. It's a carefully planned series of activities and events designed get your target audience to know you and consider doing business with you.

A successful market strategy is a target customer, plus thoughtfully-positioned product, place, promotion and price elements that "fit" your target.

Because we're emotional beings, we often "fall in love" with things, before we buy. Think of the last time you saw something you liked. What appealed to you? Where you bought it? How you were treated? The design? The packaging? The advertising? The price? Now any one thing, probably, but rather a totality, an image — a brand.

Let's begin by POSITIONING your business.

Marketing is about perception. Positioning is the process of creating a perception in the minds of your targets, so they understand what you're about. The positioning of your business will then be defined and communicated by the elements of your strategy.

Each positioning statement suggests a unique style or experience that guides other business decisions around marketing and creating your customer experience.

Positioning is not what you do to your products; it's what you do in the minds of your prospects.

How are your competitors positioned? Their advertising and other promotions will provide clues. Then decide how to positively position your business, you stand out.

Here are some other issues to be considered when planning your small business advertising:

• Customer reality about their needs
• Demographic trends
• Technological trends
• Government regulations and legal restrictions
• Economy
• Climate
• Sociocultural issues

You can't change environmental factors, but they affect you and your customers, so consider them in your planning. You can then tailor what you can control… the target you choose, and the 4 Ps.

The 4 Ps in a Nutshell

The 4 Ps of small business advertising are the key elements of Market Strategy & Promotion:

1. Product—For the best competitive advantage, find unique benefits in your product varieties, sizes and colors, design and packaging, guarantees, etc., and the benefits they offer to each particular target group.

2. Place—Place, or Distribution, is how and through whom you get your product to your customer. Whether by retail, mail order, distributor, personal selling, direct response or online, each distribution method offers unique benefits to your customer (and to you, of course).

3. Promotion—How will you communicate to, inform, help, remind, persuade, educate, intrigue and motivate your target market?

4. Price—Only about one third of the population buys on price. Most people buy the added value they perceive through the marketing mix… the 4 Ps. They're willing to pay more to satisfy needs other than financial.

Estimating Sales Potential

Estimating sales potential combines market information with your best guess of how much business you think you can get, so you have a basis for planning.

This is done by assessing the total market and projecting the percentage you'll attract. You can find out average customer expenditures from trade associations and government agencies and from primary research with consumers and suppliers.

Then use this formula:(average expenditures) X (the number of individuals, households or businesses in your target market) X (the percentage you think you'll attract, based on competition, industry figures and any other indicators you have). The answer will project your sales potential for the year.

By the way, if you'd like to learn more about how to develop a small business marketing plan, you'll want to check out our Business Buffet "Help Yourself" video learning series:
Business Buffet on Marketing – helping small business help itself to profit, by making business learning fun.

And now that your marketing plan is complete, you're ready to hit the road with a relationship selling-based sales process, also a part of your market strategy.

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