Marketing Your Business

Marketing Your Business
Making your business STAND OUT
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Marketing Your Business
The peacock has his feathers. The grasshopper has its chirp. Even animals are professional marketers, constantly selling themselves to a myriad of potential mates. For something so natural, effective marketing is difficult to accomplish. This report will give you the key basics to marketing your small business.

First of all, understand your customer. Ask yourself the following questions:
1. What exactly can I offer them? Some companies have mission statements to keep them in track with the niche they set out to fill. 
2. Who is buying my product/service? Find out what part of the population you are attracting. Some companies use surveys to profile their customers by age, sex, occupation, hobbies & interests, spending habits, etc...
3. Which of my products/services do consumers like the best? Which do they like the least? Why?
If you answered these questions within minutes of reading them, go back and ask yourself these questions again.  Many times, small business owners get caught up seeing things from the "retailer" point of view. They tend to accept what they see on the surface, which formulates opinion rather than fact.

The next step is to build confidence in what you are selling. If you don't have a lot of experience in your field, do some research and explore your industry. Find your competitors and observe how they run things. Compare your prices, customer service, advertisements, product design and naming (if applicable), and quality. Don't get discouraged if you can't beat a competitor in price; you can still offer your customers better service and quality. 
After looking around a bit, you should be able to answer the following:
1. Would I consider my company's product/service quality to be low, average, or high?
2. Would I consider my company's product/service pricing to be low, average, or high?
3. Would I consider my company's customer service quality to be low, average, or high?
4. How appealing is my company's service/product, based on naming and design?
5. Do I market my business enough? Does it have enough exposure?
Make comparisons to your competitors! Figure out exactly what you've  got they they don't have, and vice versa. Once again, I encourage you to take these questions seriously. Feel free to edit and re-edit  your answers to them.

The last step is to devise a good marketing plan. Depending on the size of your business, your marketing plan can be anywhere from a few scribbled notes to a book. It can be formal or informal. Here are a few general guidelines for any marketing plan:

• Record any marketing you do, have done, or will do. Use a table to organize your information. Be sure to include the following fields:   marketing medium/tactic (T.V., billboard, magazine ad, newspaper ad, word of mouth, etc...), cost, period of time, number of responses. You may wish to be more specific.
• Explore your options. Below is a price comparison of several different marketing devices:

Advertising Media	Duration	Cost range per unit	Cost range per month	Cost range per year
Telephone directory	1 year	$84-$7,440	$7-$620	$84-$7,440
Local Papers Weeklies	1 week	$66-$1,268	$264-$4,564	$2,808-$48,100
Local Papers Dailies	1 day	$96-$7,952	$317-$31,806	$3,372-$413,481
National Publications	1 month	$430-$64,500	$430-$64,500	$4,128-$681,120
Radio & Television	30-60 seconds	$30-$50	$300-$1,600	$3,600-$19,200
Direct Mail	2-3 days	variable	variable	variable
Signs and On-site Ads	5-20 years	$75-$10,000	$1.25-$41.66	$15-$500

• Make your business stand out! Use a catchy slogan that targets the audience you want to reach! TIP: use your slogan in all your ads to set you apart from your competitors.
• Remember that the easier you make it for you customers to buy something, the more likely they will purchase it from you. For example, is your store visible? Perhaps you need a sign to catch people's attention. What kind of payment options do you offer? Are they appropriate for your target audience? Is your store location convenient? TIP: ask an honest friend or colleague to find your store an evaluate it.
• Marketing is not a one-time event! To beat your competitors, you must constantly make your customers aware that you're still in business and that you still have exactly what they need. Build a mailing list of loyal customers an mail them coupons and fliers. Or, you can get free publicity by hosting local events, sponsoring local sports teams, etc... Getting involved with your community has  many benefits. TIP: you may want to build a time schedule of when to market.

Making Your Business STAND OUT!
ADMIT IT: have you ever bought something based on its packaging? Packaging and presentation are key to selling anything. Using professional signs in your company or store have a similar effect to packaging. Whether the sign is small and reads "Enter through other door" or big enough to display the entire menu, Davidson & Chung Sign Company can make it to satisfy your specifications. Also, the permanence of signs assures your customers that you are a professional business. Davidson & Chung Sign Company can even include your logo!
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