Top Ten Small Business Marketing Environments

April 29, 2008 – 6:23 am
by Linda P. Morton

Small business marketing environments influence your small business marketing in numerous ways besides just marketing strategies and tactics.

If you, as a small business owner, only think of marketing as what you do to promote and advertise your product or service, you are missing many opportunities to improve your marketing.

This article covers the top ten small business marketing environments that you need to consider as you plan and market you business.

Small Business Marketing Environment 1: Your Business, Your Employees

Everyone working in your business enhances or diminishes your marketing. If your employees make positive comments about your business to others, that’s good marketing. If they make negative comments, it hurts your ability to market.

Small Business Marketing Environment 2: Vendors

Some people from whom you purchase will help your marketing through cooperative advertising and promotions. In addition, they determine how effectively you can make your product.

Small Business Marketing Environment 3: Distributors

Some distributors enhance your marketing by telling others they serve about your business. Because distribution is an important part of the marketing mix, how well they deliver your products also influences your marketing, your ability to get products to customers, and even your price.

Small Business Marketing Environment 4: Businesses That Carry Your Product

The businesses that retail your product influence your marketing and sales. They can promote your product, feature it, or just stick it on a back shelf. Thus, they can help or hurt your marketing efforts.

Small Business Marketing Environment 5: Competitors

Knowing all you can about your competitors and their products has a great effect on your marketing. If you know the pros and cons of their businesses and products and how yours compares, you’ll know what to emphasize in your marketing messages.

Small Business Marketing Environment 6: Other People

People external to your business still have an influence on it. For example, government officials can help or hurt your marketing, business and industry with regulations.

Small Business Marketing Environment 7: Customers

The more you know about the people who buy your product or are likely to, the better you can design your marketing to meet their emotional and rational needs, and thus to appeal to them effectively.

Small Business Marketing Environment 8: Firmographics and Demographics

Whether your customers are people or businesses, knowing facts about them can reveal many characteristics that helps your marketing. For businesses, these facts are called firmographics. For people, they’re called demographics. Whatever, you call them they help you discover the best appeals to use in your marketing.

Small Business Marketing Environment 9: The Economy

The present state of the economy influences how you must market your product because the economy affects people’s income, their spending habits, their information needs, what appeals most influence them and what they can afford to buy.

Small Business Marketing Environment 10: Nature

Natural resources influence your product’s price because the less a resource is available, the more you have to pay for it. To continue to make a profit, you have to pass that price on to your customers. This, in turn, influences if and how much of your product will sell.

Small Business Marketing Environment: Summary

Marketing is much more than what you say and do to attract potential customers. It includes a mix of product, price, promotion, distribution and other elements that are influenced by different small business marketing environments.

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