All marketing resources will eventually talk about your marketing mix, but what do they mean exactly? Marketing mix is a term that the marketing world tries to hold as a private term that only the industry knows about, but as a small business owner, you need to understand how to plan and implement your marketing mix. The marketing mix is defined as the four P’s of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. These four areas make up the complete outline for product or service marketing. Once you have defined the variables for each P, you have a basis for proper marketing. Market research will play a major role in each area of your marketing mix. You must understand what you are competing with in regards to products and pricing. Although you may have a new and unique item with an innovative type of distribution, you still must compare your product or service to existing ones. Here are the four P’s of your marketing mix for small business marketing. P #1: ProductThe product or service or selling must be defined first. What are you selling? How will it be packaged? Determine your product’s features, and then build the benefits from them. At this point, you will make all of the decisions relating to your product or service: style, quality, packaging, warranty, etc. P#2: PricePricing actually plays a vital role in the branding and image of your product. Determining your price can be difficult, especially if you product is in a widely-variable industry. You must determine pricing strategy, retail and wholesale pricing, possible bundling, and any type of discounts. P#3: PlacePlace refers to how you will distribute the product. Will you sell to retail stores, or will you sell directly to customers? Is your product a wholesale item? The decisions made about distribution will affect your marketing mix in terms of how you will warehouse your products, how you will process orders, what types of channels will you use, and how will you cover the market. P#4: PromotionPromotion is the area where you will make decisions on how people will learn about your product. What types of sales strategies and promotions will you use? What kind of sales force will you need to sell your product? How will you use public relations and publicity to support your product? There are many aspects of the promotion element of your marketing mix. In fact, the other three P’s will affect your promotion strategy. Decide on the first three P’s before you tackle Promotion, but ultimately, each P will coordinate with the others. Once you complete your marketing mix decisions, review the entire plan to make sure you have a consistent and precise marketing mix plan in order to properly sell, distribute, and promote your product.

Using these Internet Marketing Strategies to market your small business online will get the best return on investment and allow you to dominate your competitors plus you will be paying less for your clicks than your competition.
You don’t have to be afraid of the Google slap when you apply these basic rules when using Google Adwords.
When you are using Google adwords for an affiliate campaign your job will be to pre-sell the prospect before they go to the company sales page. There are several ways to do this.
When you are writing copy for your pre-sale landing page keep in mind you are helping someone find a solution to their problem or pain. People will always move away from pain into pleasure, you just have to show them how.
If you always keep solving the person’s problem your focus you will never have to sell them, they will want the solution you are offering them.
Google is doing the same thing. Their concern is on the millions of eyes that read their search results and ads. These are the people they are trying to please by giving them what they are searching for. So if you always keep your solution as relevant and targeted to the problem of your prospect the easier it will be to sell the product.
When you do this Google will reward you by charging you less for your clicks. The people in the number 1 spot of the Google sponsored links are paying less than the people below them. It is all about relevancy.
Give the people what they want and Google will give you what you want.
The best way to do this is to keep your keywords, ad copy, ad groups and landing pages, all congruent. If you do not follow these simple principles Google will raise your cost per click, ban your ads and slap your pages. Google can suspend your account for as long as they want also.
This is not a good thing because Google is really the only game in town for advertising if you are talking reaching the major part of the market. It is much more effective to learn to give Google what they want, which is to satisfy the people searching.
Buyers know what they want and are on Google searching for it. There are also other ways to use Google Adwords in the content network. Most marketers just focus on the search network because the buyers are more aggressive. The content network can be a goldmine if you write your ad copy with thought streaming in mind.
Keeping these basic ideas in mind when using Google adwords to market your small business online will help keep your expenses down and keep you from being banned by Google. These internet marketing strategies will greatly increase your ROI when you market your small business online.

Many articles on recession marketing begin something like, “you should increase your marketing in times of a recession. . . ” But the tacit reaction from the typical small business owner is often “oh yeah, how?” “How do I keep marketing with decreasing revenue? I barely had enough money before the economic downturn. ? The answer: make careful and shrewd adjustments. Most importantly, don?t just worry about your business?ACT. Act with discipline and meticulous attention to detail. This article will get you started. THE ACTION PLANOne – Google AdWords?. Even with a modest budget, the upside potential here is superior. People are already searching for your goods or services when they see your ad. The filtering process of Internet search gives you a great opportunity to capture a qualified potential client. Google has the broadest reach and generally costs the least. Go with best-of breed. From auto parts dealers to real estate agents and all points in between?what many insiders are saying is that they are cutting back on TV, print, and Yellow Page ads and actually increasing their AdWords push, because it gives them the most bang for the buck. Want even more validation? Look no further than Google’s October, 2008 and January, 2009 earnings reports. They not only hit the ball out of the park, but they knocked the cover off the ball. There is a reason why Google is growing while virtually everyone else’s growth is suspended until the economy gets stronger. Caution: First-timers should become familiar with bidding strategies and keyword usage so that you can hit the ground running. There are many free resources available on the Internet. As with all marketing strategies, the more knowledgeable you are?the higher success-rate you will have. Read between the lines?like anything, you can waste your money if you don’t know what you are doing with pay-per-click. Most importantly, make sure your website is ready to receive guests and convert them into customers. The last thing you want to do is advertise a weak website. Two – Partnerships. Look for high quality strategic partnerships with other relevant businesses. Make sure that this is a win-win situation and that you have equal incentive to refer good customers. Be wary of companies contacting you for referral programs. Take time develop lasting strategic partnerships. Three – Negotiate Advertising. According to “Advertising Age” the price of advertising is going down by some 4%. Advertisers are worried about the recession, too. When you advertise in print or on the web look for good deals and if you don’t see them, try to negotiate a better deal for yourself. Four – Web Links. Continue to find directories and relevant websites where you can post a link to your website. This will help increase your web rankings and Internet exposure (boost your SEO). But keep in mind that the goal is traffic, quality traffic–getting a company to put your link on 1500 irrelevant directories won?t help. Five – Printing. Don’t let the cost of printing stop you from creating brochures, direct mail pieces or other marketing collateral. You MUST continue to spread the word. Search online for discount printers, some even offer 10% off for new customers. Don’t know who to trust? Just email Momentum 18 and we’ll give you a list. You can get A LOT of printing done very cheaply. Six – Advertising. This could be as simple as a small web button that goes to a special landing page on your website or as ambitious as a trade magazine advertising campaign. Try not to create “a who we are ad. ” Instead, offer an incentive, a reason for the potential consumer TO ACT. Make sure to emphasize THE VALUE of your offerings. People will be drawn to the lowest price in a recession, but they will also be convinced by quality goods or services for their money. Seven – Gratitude. Take extra care of your existing clients. Let your loyal customers know how much you appreciate their business. Tell them directly. If budget allows, create “Thank You” packages or incentives for your loyal customer base. Eight – Find New Clients. Spend some time focusing on the clients that may not have been the ideal in thriving times. If you can piece together a number of small revenue streams, then you add value to your bottom line. You can accomplish this by expanding your reach, both geographic and capabilities. One way to entice them is by offering a free service along with a paid service. Nine – Quality. When many people begin in the stock market, they pay “investor tuition. ” They lose money trying to make quick profits. Warren Buffett made his billions by investing in Quality and Value. You should do the same. Quality printing, advertising, marketing, and design are essential. Your branding and marketing should not take a hit just because money is tight. Confucius says “cheap man travel road twice” (once to pay cheaply and once to get it done over again properly). The cheap route can be costly.

Small businesses need innovation and resourcefulness as they do not generally have the necessary resources to launch huge marketing campaigns. If you are running a small business and looking for cost efficient marketing solutions, this article tells you how you can use the internet to your company’s advantage.
Five ways to market your small business online:
First of all, build a website – This is the means for prospective customers to find out about you and the products you have to offer. You don’t have to pay for web hosting even if you’re running a website that is commercial just as long as your company can be properly labelled as a small business. Compared to other online media, a website enables your customers to see and hear about what you are offering and perhaps even to interact with you also.
Know about search engine optimisation (SEO) – This is important as your work is not just about building a website. In order for your website to work as a marketing tool for your business, you need to incorporate search engine optimisation elements in it. It can help your website soar to the top of search engine rankings therefore providing desired exposure.
With search engine optimisation, ensure that you focus on design and content. The website must have easily located links to facilitate navigation, as well as its layout being visually attractive. HTML should be used as much as possible as this is more search engine optimisation friendly than for example, CSS. Refresh or update the content as much as you can as new information will always encourage old and new readers to visit your site. Think about appropriate keywords for your website and use them wherever possible. DO NOT commit grammatical errors or ruin the coherence of your content.
Build your network contacts – A website does not operate by itself. You should do your best to build a network which can be done by establishing good working relationships with other website owners. Be ready to give as many favours as you hope to receive in return. As you make good friends with these people, you will end up exchanging links and this is called affiliate marketing.
Get involved with pod casting – Make new pod casts regularly and insert your ads in between. You need to make them short and interesting so as to discourage your listeners to switching off.
Start blogging! Blogs are one of the most effective online marketing tools today. If you don’t have one, you are missing you on huge opportunities. They allow you to directly interact with prospective customers and instantly send updates about anything new happening with your company’s services or products. In order to increase the marketing effectiveness of your blog, make sure you are writing about only one topic. This must be directly related to your company’s products or services. It must also be something you know and love to enable you to write in a convincing and interesting way.

When considering different forms of advertising, always think about postcards. When I refer to postcards I mean 4 inch by 6 inch (4″x6″) flyers. I have many reasons to use them, especially in small business marketing, and I have found them to be very effective. Here are five good reasons why postcards should be included in your marketing campaign. Reason #1: Low cost to print. 4″x6″ postcards are pretty inexpensive to print in comparison to most other printed items. I can have a box of 5,000 cards designed, printed, and delivered for under $500. Brochures can cost that much for 500. When dealing with small business marketing, these flyers can save a huge amount on marketing and printing costs. Reason #2: Size. I’m sure everyone has seen a 4″x6″ flyer at some point. Many times they are placed on your car or left in your door. These flyers are easy to handle, distribute, and save. If someone receives a 4″x6″ flyer with coupons on it, they are more willing to save it than if they receive the same coupons on an 8. 5″x11″ sheet of paper. Obviously, everyone will have different reasons for using flyers, but 4″x6″ postcard-size flyers are effective in just about every situation. Reason #3: Postage Costs. Postage goes up quite often. It seems like every time I go to the post office, it has gone up again. When determining how small businesses will market to their target markets, postage is always part of the equation. If you are mailing a 4″x6″ flyer, it will cost you the postcard rate, not regular first class, which saves you almost half. Many people tell me they use a mailing house and it helps reduce costs, but I have used them before also. The savings you receive in postage is usually eaten up by the mailing house’s fees, and even before those fees, you still save money with 4″x6″ flyers. Reason #4: Quality. 4″x6″ flyers are used quite a bit, especially by the entertainment industry. For this reason, there are many printers available for 4″x6″ flyers. You have to be selective in choosing your printer, but the better printers provide a top-quality finished product. The price I quoted earlier is for UV-coated, 14 pt stock, and full-color on both sides. Most small businesses struggle with price of printing because they usually can’t order large quantities. They usually end up using weaker quality products to save money, but 4″x6″ postcards can be top-quality and still save money. Reason #5: Attention-Grabbing. Many direct mailers tell me I should send a letter, sample, pen, and other garbage in an envelope. Besides the outrageous cost this brings, it weakens the response. People see a marketing piece in the mail a mile away, including postcard flyers. Will they take the time to open the envelope, maybe. Will they read the postcard flyer because the information is staring at them, definitely! Test the theory yourself: see how many envelopes you decide to open versus the number of postcards you read.