Oftentimes, marketing is an afterthought for small businesses, but it should really be leading the business. Nothing happens until an order is taken, and the only way to really get on someone’s radar is through marketing. The conventional approach to marketing follows what is called the Four Pillars of Marketing. The four Ps are Price, Product, Placement, and Promotion.
Price: Setting a price structure that assures a healthy gross margin is important.
Product: Introducing new products, when to retire products and replace them with something else, or when to expand your product line.
Placement: Placement has a lot to do with the channels of distribution where the products are available, whether you have an e-commerce page on your website, or whether you sell direct or have salespeople that go out and get orders.
Promotion: Promotion is what we what to concentration on, for this, anyway.
The first thing any company ought to do in order to work within a budget is determine their unique value proposition. What do you do that other companies like you either aren’t willing to do, don’t know how to do, or don’t think to do? Some people call it your competitive edge. I like to call it unique value proposition (UVP) because you are basically making a proposition to prospective clients that show value, and it’s something that they can’t get from just anywhere. It might not have anything to do with the product line. It might have everything to do with the contact person at that company. They buy from them because they like the salesperson or the person that they go to with questions, to place orders, and to get support for products they purchased and they need either a warranty or a return policy.
-Vince DiCecco, Your Personal Business Trainer
