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Small
Business, BIG Marketing™
by Will
Dylan ©2007
CHAPTER 1 - THE
MARKETING CHALLENGE OF THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
In
a word : money.
In
a few words : money, time, and expertise.
Traditional
Marketing is not cheap. A sizable advertisement in any
major newspaper will easily cost you hundreds of dollars
(at least), to say nothing of the cost of creating the
ad itself. Even if you can afford to do it, you
competitors can do it ten times over. You can’t match
them in terms of money, you are busy running your small business and don’t have a lot of time for marketing
activities, and although you’re an expert at what you
do, you probably don’t have hands-on marketing
experience.
So
what’s a small businessperson to do? Well, you’ve
started out on the right foot by reading this book.
We’ll give you the ideas you need to start marketing
your company more effectively.
Have
you ever wondered how to get your business on TV, Radio,
and in the newspaper at NO COST….I’ll show you how.
Have
you ever wondered what radio and newspaper advertising
sales reps don’t want you to know…..I’ll tell you.
In
fact, I’ll tell you all you need to know to market
your business more effectively, starting today.
So let’s get to it….
What
Business are you In?
First
things first…figure out what business you’re in.
Sounds easy, but really think about it for a moment
because this is important. It defines who your
competitors are and how you will fight them for market
share and for business.
A quick
example : You own a catering company. You deliver hot
lunches to local factories and also stock vending
machines in those factories with food, snacks and
beverages. You also cater to business functions and
corporate picnics.
If
you think you’re in the food business, then you are
competing with all of the other alternatives that your
customers have to your product when it comes to food.
That means major fast food chains, frozen dinners from
the grocery store, sandwiches from home, and so on. When
you make marketing decisions, you must keep these
competitors in mind. Don’t offer a new frozen dinner
product for $2 if your competitor (the grocery store)
sells them for $1.50. (unless yours is better)
Maybe
you looked at the examples and determined that you are
in the hot food business. That eliminates the cold
sandwiches from home, but still leaves you up against
the fast food outlets and maybe the microwave dinners
from the grocery store.
What
if you determined that you are in the business of
providing food services to local factories. Now that’s
a different outlook, isn’t it? The focus is now off of
the individual buyers and onto the factory that provides
you with the space and opportunity to sell your product
to their employees. If you look at it that way, you are
in competition with catering trucks and other companies
who stock vending machines. You are not in competition
with fast food outlets, since they don’t market group
meals to companies. Sure they might sell meals to
factory employees and you need to be aware of that, but
you won’t be focusing your competitive efforts on
fighting them off.
Why
does all this matter?. If you want to market on a tight
budget, you need to know who you are up against. You
also need to know who NOT to fight with. Remember, with
a small business, your
resources are limited - so let’s focus them on the
competitors who stand to directly impact on your market
share and your business. On your tight marketing budget,
you won’t win a battle with any fast food outlet I can
think of, especially if you divide your attention
between that and other forms of competition.
By
deciding which of the above markets you are in, you can
focus in on the competitive activities of your
opposition and use the tips in this book to go after
their business.
Continue Chapter 1
>>
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