How to create a marketing plan for your small business - build a brand, target customers and set prices that will maximise sales.
The internet has transformed business marketing. No matter what you do, the internet is likely to be at the heart of your marketing strategy.
Good advertising puts the right marketing message in front of the right people at the right time, raising awareness of your business.
Customer care is at the heart of all successful companies. It can help you develop customer loyalty and improve relationships with your customers.
Sales bring in the money that enables your business to survive and grow. Your sales strategy will be driven by your sales objectives.
Market research exists to guide your business decisions by giving you insight into your market, competitors, products, marketing and your customers.
Exhibitions and events are valuable for businesses because they allow face-to-face communication and offer opportunities for networking.
Advertising online - through pay-per-click (PPC) adverts, banners and other messages - can be an excellent way to promote your brand, boost traffic to your website and generate sales. It should be an important part of your internet marketing strategy.
Unlike traditional methods, advertising on the internet can deliver visitors immediately - through a simple click on your ad with easily measurable results.
You want to advertise where your target market will see your ads. Your advertising options include advertising on search engines like Google and Bing, on social media, and on any of the millions of websites that display ads.
Search engines offer the unique advantage that they deliver your ad to people who are actively looking for what you offer. You choose the keywords and phrases that your customers are likely to use. Your ad is displayed when someone searches using those keywords, giving potential customers a direct link to your website.
Running your own searches using those keywords lets you see what advertising your competitors are doing. It also helps you see which other websites your customers might be visiting. Provided they aren’t competitors, they may well be good places to advertise.
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is ideal for putting your product in front of people who are ready to buy. You only pay for people who actually click on your ad to come to your site. This enables you to track visitor journeys while monitoring the effectiveness of your search engine keywords.
You can also pay for website advertising according to the number of times the ad is displayed. So the more people who visit the web page on which your advert is featured, the more you pay. Often referred to as CPM ('cost per mille' or 'cost per thousand displays'), this is good for brand exposure.
You can even pay for your online advertising on a cost per action (CPA) basis, where you only pay for the number of viewers who actually buy your product as the result of an ad. This kind of payment scheme requires a close relationship with the website where your ad is published, and is typically part of an affiliate marketing relationship.
Your choice of where to advertise, what ad format to use and which keywords to focus on will all affect your advertising costs. At the same time, a well-written ad can be a critical part of encouraging people to act, clicking on the link that takes them to your website.
Online advertising is ideally suited to trialling different ideas and seeing how well they perform. Focus on what you are trying to achieve – whether that’s immediate sales or longer-term brand-building – and measuring the results you get.
Advertising platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads put you in control of managing how much you spend. They also offer free tools to help you plan your advertising, test different approaches and continually improve performance.
