Small Business Marketing Resources: Don't Waste Yours | Small Business

By LindaP.Morton
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Word Count: 693

Poor small business marketing is one of the major causes of early small business failure. Poor small business marketing not only fails to get new and loyal customers, it also wastes small business marketing resources. Three major reasons account for this waste.

1. Not investing in small business marketing research.

2. Failing to target your best potential customers.

3. Failing to create and follow a small business marketing plan.

Small Business Marketing Mistake 1: Not Investing In Small Business Marketing Research

Some small business owners think they can't afford to research their target market, competition and product development. But if you desire to be successful, you can't afford not to.

Without the information acquired from research, small business marketing is built on incomplete and inaccurate information. This dooms marketing efforts from the beginning.

Without this research, you will be more inclined to build a marketing program that lacks focus. Research provides the groundwork to build a strategic marketing plan, to assure that every marketing tactic contributes to your marketing and business goals, and to attract your best potential customers.

Although small business marketing research is a cost that many small business owners are reluctant to pay, it's a smart investment that saves wasting resources on marketing to the wrong people. That leads to the second mistake.

Small Business Marketing Mistake 2: Not Identifying The People Most Inclined To Buy Your Products Or Services.

Business owners who don't do research often don't know the best target market for their products and services. Because they don't determine who is most likely to buy their products, they market to everybody, and often don't sell much to anybody. This type of small business marketing wastes marketing resources.

No matter what you think, everybody will not want or need what you sell. Marketing to those who won't ever buy from you just wastes your limited small business marketing resources. Instead you should spend all your marketing resources reaching the people who comprise your best potential market.

Spending a small amount of resources on target market research can save small business owners much more in wasted marketing efforts and expenses than the research costs.

With target market research, you'll also be able to:

determine best potential customers,

gather vital information about this target market, and

plan at least seven marketing efforts that you will deliver each year to your target market.

By conducting target market research, you'll discover much about:

the people most likely to buy,

the best media to reach your target market members,

what they want to know, and how to deliver that information through your marketing messages.

how much spending power they have and what price they will pay.

Including this information in a small business marketing plan, will greatly improve return on marketing investments.

Small Business Marketing Mistake 3: Failing To Create A Small Business Marketing Plan To Guide Your Business.

The third mistake is a result of the first two mistakes. Until you have done research on your product, competition and target market, you can't plan the best way to spend your small business marketing resources. When you haven't planned how to best spend your marketing resources, you can be persuaded to spend ineffectively.

If you think the only value of a marketing and business plan is to complement a business loan application, you're wrong. Both guide your decisions and actions to keep you on target and focused.

If you haven't decided what marketing tactics and strategies are needed to reach your marketing goals, you are more likely to be persuaded by sales people to pursue tactics that are less effective and often just waste your marketing resources.

You need to have your marketing goals in place and make every marketing decision based on your goals. Otherwise you may fall victim to sales people who are more concerned with their sales goals than your marketing goals.

Some mass media sales people approach new business owners, convincing them to buy advertisements that primarily reach the wrong people, and sometimes reach few people because of the time or placement of the advertisement.

Likewise, without a marketing plan, you may be persuaded to buy marketing services and products that aren't right for your target market. Every penny that you spend on effective marketing is a penny that you no longer have to spend on effective marketing.

About the Author

To learn to more about avoiding major small business marketing mistakes go to http://strategicmarketsegmentation.com/blog/market-segmentation-for-small-business-marketing/. To improve you marketing you can get a free report: at "Marketing Your Small Business".

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