Marketing for Small Businesses

Does marketing fall to the bottom of your to-do list? Do you jump on Facebook, hoping it will magically help increase sales?

Unless you have a marketing plan and specific goals, social media and other free and inexpensive marketing tools can be a waste of time. Fortunately, even a simple marketing plan that focuses on a few manageable activities will help you make better use of your resources.

Here are some questions to address in your plan.

  1. Which tactics, sales, or promotions that you tried last year were most successful?
  2. What are your sales goals for the coming year?
  3. What are 3-5 things you can do that will help you achieve your goals?
  4. Who are your most loyal customers? Why do they keep coming back? (If you don’t know, ask!)
  5. Who are your most profitable customers? How did those customers find you?
  6. Which marketing tasks are you willing and able to do yourself? What can you delegate or hire someone to do?