Small Biz

How To Create A Small Business Marketing Strategy

A small business marketing strategy is the master blueprint for how you attract, engage, and retain customers. However, its scope and purpose are often perceived in two distinct ways:

Some entrepreneurs view it as the long-term engine for growth. From the outset, they integrate marketing into their comprehensive business plan, designing a sustained strategy to build their brand, cultivate customer loyalty, and systematically achieve overarching business objectives over years.

Others equate it with a short-term campaign. Their focus is on promoting a specific product or service with a targeted set of tools and tactics, aiming to generate a concentrated burst of sales over a period of weeks or months.

While both approaches involve strategic marketing, the core difference is fundamental: one is a tactical project for immediate revenue, while the other is a strategic framework for consistent, long-term viability. The campaign drives a single stream of income; the overarching strategy ensures multiple streams flow reliably.

To move beyond sporadic campaigns and build an effective, enduring marketing strategy, three foundational elements must be in place:

1. A Clear Target Audience: Deeply understanding who you are serving, their needs, challenges, and behaviors—so every marketing effort resonates and connects.
2. A Compelling Value Proposition: A crystal-clear statement of the unique benefit you provide, answering why a customer should choose you over any alternative.
3. Defined Goals & Metrics: Specific, measurable objectives (e.g., brand awareness, lead generation, customer retention) and the key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress, ensuring your strategy is accountable and adaptable.

With this foundation, your marketing transforms from a series of disconnected promotions into a cohesive system that fuels sustainable business growth.

1. Multiple marketing tools in place. Every day a person is marketed to 60-100 times. You see banners on the sides of buses, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and coupons in your mailbox. It’s easy to see why marketing tends to become almost non-existent in our minds. But the thing that a good marketer realizes is that he has to use different marketing tools to reach different target audiences. Everyone has a different attention span. Everyone is searching for different products and services at different times. A good small business marketing strategy has multiple tools in place to capture a prospects attention when he or she is ready for our product or service.

The foundation of effective marketing is a deep understanding of your ideal client. The more precisely you define their demographics, challenges, and habits, the more effectively you can connect with them through the right channels, at the right time, and with the right message.

A robust marketing strategy leverages a mix of proven tools, tailored to your audience. Common and effective options include:

Direct & Local Outreach:
Direct Mail (personalized letters and postcards)
Door Hangers & Flyers
Neighborhood Coupon/Postcard Packs
Local Sponsorships (e.g., school athletics, community events)

Traditional Advertising:
Print Advertisements (local newspapers, niche magazines)
Billboards & Transit Ads (bus stops, regional transportation)
Brochures & Lookbooks
Tradeshows & Industry Events

Promotional & Tangible Items:
Branded Promotional Products

Digital Presence:
A strategic online platform (website, social media, email marketing) is essential for modern integration.

For a small business, the most successful approach is integrated and seasonal. Rather than using all tools at once, develop a year-round plan that combines a consistent online presence with targeted offline campaigns. Select a few key tools for specific promotions, product launches, or seasonal pushes, ensuring every effort works together to guide your ideal client toward taking action.

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2. Use those marketing tools over long periods of time. Once you have your marketing tools in place, continue to use them again and again. Probably the biggest mistake a small business owner makes is to grow tired of his own marketing campaign, and abandoning it before it’s realized its full potential. The average campaign takes a person 8 – 12 times of viewing the same material to recognize the information and take action. If you quit running a campaign before you reach the 8 – 12 times average, you won’t achieve your desired results. An exemplary small business marketing strategy will provide goals to seek out longevity in marketing campaigns. While nuances of a campaign can change (i.e. changing ad advertisement to showcase seasonal products) the structure of the campaign should always remain the same.

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3. Use those marketing tools in many different places. Your prospects come from a variety of different sources, and have a variety of different interests. Mailing your brochure out to prospects is a great way of marketing; but you may also do well by placing your brochure in offices of complimentary businesses.  Advertisements may work well in your local newspaper; but they may do just as well in an industry trade publication. Direct mail postcards may inspire a lot of people to pick up the phone and call you; but it may motivate more people to visit your website. Creating a handful of tools to use in your campaigns provides you with the resources. Getting those tools into the hands of your prospects is what requires a plan. An ideal small business marketing strategy will be a long-term plan that involves creating marketing tools, putting them into the appropriate places, and leaving them in place long enough to let them work.

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