In this struggling economic times even big company are slashing their marketing budget, so you as a small business should you do the same. Before answering this question you should look at your marketing budget.
- Do you have one?
- How much is it?
- What percentage of your overall income is it?
- What has been the ROI on those campaigns?
Those questions are important as you need to asses your pass marketing campaign and see where you are and if any variable in your business has change so you can focus your marketing effort in those area that are lacking. Now that you know your position, you will need to see if you are viagra 50 mg going to continue with the same type of marketing strategy or adapt one of the new trends that will be more suitable to your business need.
Here is a list of the marketing trend for 2011 this is not all inclusive but are the one that will definitely make it.
- Be Outstanding: Look at the area you are strong in and excel in it. This year small business need to focus on their uniqueness and niche. They should position themselves as the expert to go in their relative business; be it for services, product or information. Time for being all thing to everyone is long gone and the specialty trend proven to be a definite winner last year.
- Have a core of raving Fans: Social media marketing has been around for a while now, however what has transpired from it is that quality is more important than quantity. Let me explain it was previously thought that have a following of thousand of Twitter followers, Facebook friends or fan, linkedIn connection or blog subscribers was required to build a business has proven not to be quite effective. On the other hand, quality interaction with a little group who is loyal to the business works best in spreading the message of the business.
- Have quality content: Offering quality content should be an integrated part of your marketing tools. Social Media Marketing can be synonymous to Content Marketing. To year again content will be crowned king. Small business will have to create useful content that will be valuable to the lives of their customers involved in the online conversation. Remember Social Media Marketing is Conversational Marketing, and the web is a noisy place and the only way to make yourself heard is to provide remarkable content.
- Have good tracking mechanism in place: Since the social media is an open forum it is imperative as small business owner to track the reputation of your business in great detail. With tools such as Hootsuite and Spreadfast, it is easier now to keep tab of what is being said about you in cyberspace. At the same time can develop strategies that will help you nurture your good name online.
- Diversify social media exposure: Just having a Facebook or Twitter account for your business will not suffice this year since more business will be using these media you will need to found other outlets such as LinkedIn profile, Flickr profile, YouTube channel, LinkedIn profile and a blog should be other channel to exploit to brand as a small business owner. Also remember that you need to brand those media so as to create your brand awareness. Such diversification will also help your customer to interact with your business using the medium they use or are comfortable with. A word of caution though, makes sure that as you maximize your opportunities you do not compromise your content.
- Adjust Social Media Marketing budget: Increase your social media marketing dollars by moving money from other conventional marketing medium. We have seen this tend last year in a lot of large as well as small companies. There is a definite shift of budgeted fun from radio and print advertising towards social media advertising. Do not reinvent the wheel follow the leaders and have meaningful web presence.
- Adopt Mobile Marketing: With an increase of 34% in the usage of smart phone since Christmas, mobile marketing will be the buzz word for the year. Mobile Marketing is still at the developing stage, it has however proven to be effective. As mobile advertising gain ground and with new mobile branded apps surfacing everyday along with marketing app such as Foursquare, consumers are getting savvy and would be expecting your business to have a mobile presence.
- Put your business on the map: Geotargeting and localized marketing is already a norm in business like Bestbuy, PizzaHut and other big brands, here again follow the leader. During the Black Friday shopping geotargeting was put to the test. With sites like Groupon, which offer local discount, and local review site like Yelp, consumers can easily find the best deal or value in town. So to stand out in your market place targeted local marketing campaign is a must.
- Create marketing alliance: Since every one is trying to make more with less you should not be left hanging up and dry because you do not have enough cash flow. The new marketing trend that is emerging from this economic short fall is what has been coined as co-marketing. Small complementary businesses are joining their marketing dollars to buy advertising that will benefit both of them. This strategy works by allowing cross-promotion and exposure to a bigger audience.
- Implement what I call the 3 prong Marketing strategy: The 3 prongs are online, offline and mobile marketing. With a well thought and plan campaign, customers can be lead through the different medium to your product thus providing greater return on your investment.
If you opt to use one or more of the trends above now is the time as they have not hit the mass yet, have proven that they are effective and you may be the pioneer in your niche. The early birds always get the worms
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