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Small Business Marketing - 5 Tools For Big Success

How small business can compete with larger competitors through smart marketing.

Brandon Cornett

August 29, 2007

Small businesses face unique challenges when it comes to marketing. They need to get the word out about their products or services, just like their larger counterparts. But by their very nature, small businesses do not have the marketing budget of a larger corporation.

Fortunately, there are certain marketing tools and techniques that can help the small business compete with larger competitors. When used effectively, these marketing tools can help you take your small business to the next level.

Small Business Marketing Tools - 7 Tools for Success:

1. A Professional, Informative Website
From a business perspective, the Internet is the great equalizer. Online, nobody knows how many employees you have or how much revenue your company makes. All they know is what they find on your website. You can capitalize on this by building the kind of website that rivals -- or even outperforms -- your larger competitors.

Some web designers specialize in small business websites, and they charge accordingly. On top of that, good content is fairly easy to come by. And good content is what separates successful websites from all the rest, regardless of the company's size.

2. A Web "Presence"
A web presence is more than a website. A website is simply a grain of sand on a large beach. Sure it's there, but does it really matter? On the other hand, a web presence makes it easy for your potential customers to find you online.

What goes into a successful web presence? Search engine visibility for one. When search engines rank websites, they don't care how large the company is -- they only care how large, how relevant and how popular the website is. So by pursuing the fundamental techniques of search engine optimization (SEO), your website could rank right up there beside the "big dogs."

You can also grow your web presence with various types of online publishing, such as articles and press releases. Websites like PRWeb.com and EzineArticles.com can help you distribute your news and knowledge across the Internet, giving people even more ways to find you online.

3. A Business Blog
In my opinion, a business blogs can be one of the most effective and affordable marketing tools for the small business owner. In technical terms, a blog is a content-management tool that lets you to quickly and easily publish content onto the web, usually in reverse-chronological fashion. But in the right hands, a business blog can become much more than a publishing tool -- it can become an online dialogue between you and your target audience.

Popular blog programs include Blogger (owned by Google), WordPress and TypePad. Different blog programs have different features, but they all do essentially the same thing. They convert your text into an HTML web page (known as a blog post) at the click of a button. You simply type your blog post, add links or images as desired, and click a "Publish" button. The blog application will then publish your post onto the web, making it a part of your blog.

As your blog grows in size and popularity, it can support several marketing objectives at once. It can increase the overall size of your website, which will help with search engine visibility. It can help you position yourself as an expert in your field. And it can help you generate valuable leads that you can then follow up on. Best of all, many blog programs are free, which is an ideal price for the small business owner!

To learn more about business blogs, pay a visit to the informational website CEOblogwatch.com.

4. Direct Mail Postcards
"Postcards," you say, "aren't those a little outdated?" Not at all. Most small businesses can use direct mail postcard to put their message directly in front of a select audience. Landscapers, deck-builders and real estate agents can send postcards directly to homeowners. B2B marketers can send postcards directly to certain types of businesses. Hospitals, clinics and dentists can canvas entire zip codes. The possibilities are endless.

On top of that, postcard marketing has become a lot more affordable in recent years, thanks to the Internet. Modern printing companies use web-based interfaces and streamlined workflows to compete with others in their industry, and this drives the price per postcard down. Postcard marketing can be especially effective for small businesses that provide products or services that can be visually presented (in product photos, before-and-after photos, etc.).

To learn more about postcard marketing for small businesses, pay a visit to the informational website PostcardSmart.com.

5. Referrals and Word-of-Mouth
The best salespeople for your small business are those who aren't even on the payroll -- your past customers / clients. The reasons are obvious. As consumers, we are much more likely to trust the word of a friend or colleague than the words of a marketing pitch. Obviously, you can fuel referrals by providing a good product or service at a good price. But the farther you go beyond that, the more referrals you will enjoy.

It's the little things that get people's attention. A thank-you card after the sale, a discount coupon, a follow-up phone call 30 days post-sale ... these are all easy things for the small business owner to implement, and they go a long way toward generating referrals and word-of-mouth advertising.

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