1. Small Business Marketing Top Ten Tips

2. Create a Marketing Plan A marketing plan is a detailed idea of what you are going to do. Before you start this you need to ‘prepare to write’ so have documents such as budgets, the products you are marketing etc. Once you have got the relevant documents you need to look at the objectives of marketing. What do you want to achieve from it? How are you going to market and how much will it cost?

3. Attend Networking Events Desiree Scales of Bella Web Design is a master networker. She attends and presents at almost every event in town. Her contribution to the overall community makes her one of the first people that come to mind when anyone looks for an expert in her area of concentration: small business websites and drip marketing.Bella Web Design Attending networking events will get your name recognised by a range of different people. This will bring you a vast amount of opportunities that you never had.

4. …Or, Create your own event If you don't like the events you are attending, invent your own! Darrah Brustein has created one of the most successful networking events in Atlanta: Atlanta Under 40. The event, which Darrah created to connect with other young entrepreneurs in her city, is now being franchised to other cities. Hello I am the… EVENT PLANNER

5. Market to the right audience Everyone is not a potential customer. Identify your target market and research what appeals to them. What do they find comforting or reassuring in a product/ service or company? Some questions to consider when you’re working out your target audience are: What are their needs? Are those needs being met? Where are they located? Are their any seasonal or purchasing trends?

6. Develop a Branding Strategy A consistent mood/theme for all marketing efforts. Make sure fonts, sizes and images are consistent across all your marketing materials. Once you have a logo place it everywhere – letters, memos, presentations, work clothes etc. Integrate your brand into everything that you do! It will model how you answer your phone and what your email signature looks like. Also create templates for documents that you use, this will also display your brand/logo.

7. Give your things away! Ari Fleischer and Aly Moler of Frozen Pints have grown their craft beer ice cream business by leaps and bounds by attending craft beer shows and farmers markets to do one thing- -give their product away. Once customers taste this unexpected combination (which happens to be delicious) for free, they line up at their local store to buy it or even request that the store carry it.Frozen Pints

8. Build a Simple and Effective Website The website is the central component of any business’ digital strategy; it’s how your current and potential customers can most easily find and connect with you. Make Contact Information Visible & Consistent Design An Appealing, Easy-To-Use Interface Use Defining & Searchable Keywords On The Front & Backend Keep Current By Regularly Updating Content Monitor Website Analytics

9. Build an Engaging Social Media Presence Consumers today spend a considerable amount of time on social media interacting not only with family and friends, but increasingly with brands as well. Businesses in a variety of categories — ranging from retailers to restaurants — are successfully building social media channels to generate loyalty and engagement with their customers and potential customers.

10. Be Cost-Effective As with any company there are budgets with marketing. There are a few cost-effective ways of marketing that will be beneficial. The main one is Social Media. Get yourself a Twitter and Facebook page then you can advertise daily and keep people up to date on your latest promotions. The next thing is a pay-per-click advert. This is when you can put a certain amount of money towards an advert and every click/like or interaction someone has with it will deduct money. This way you know you aren’t spending a huge amount of money and you won’t go over your budget. The last thing that is a good way of marketing is E- Newsletters. These can be weekly updates on what promotions you have going on etc. You can create them in your free time and then send them to a whole group of people, a site that can help you do this is MailChimp. (http://mailchimp.com/)http://mailchimp.com/