While a plethora of marketing tools are available to small business owners the most important marketing tool any small business owner needs is a marketing plan.
Without a plan you are literally operating blind with no notion of what is effective or non effective in terms of achieving your objectives.
However within the marketing plan the focus on marketing tools is there not just because the actual tools are a collection of activities you can do to get your message across to your target market. They are the only way you can connect with people in order to encourage them to buy your product or service.
Within the marketing plan framework people tend to refer to 11 Marketing Tools. These are; Direct Marketing; Internet, Public Relations, Advertising, Sales Promotion; Sponsorship; Exhibitions/Events; Promotional Items; Personal Selling; Social Responsibility and lastly Internal Marketing.
As you will know some of these have hefty price tags and some of them cost very little to implement. The trick for effectively using any marketing tool is to select the one that enables you to control your message and get it to your primary target market most cost effectively.
Which ones do you employ? Are there other options you should be investigating?
Remember, whichever marketing tool you use you need to ensure your message is worth hearing, is truthful, encourage people to act, and contains the critical contact information necessary for people to connect with you.
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