| As a business owner, one of the things that
would keep you very busy are marketing your business. This means you
would be spending quite a large amount of time looking for ways to
generate customers to your business.
You plan for marketing campaigns such as brochure and business card
printing just so you can have as many clients as you can possibly have.
This would also mean getting your custom business cards for example to
as many hands as you can imagine.
Hence, marketing can be either fun for you or downright stressful. The
key to having an easier time with your efforts is being aware of the
different types of methods would fit to your requirements.
Blanket Marketing – This is a marketing strategy where you advertise to
everybody hoping to reach out to as many people as you can. Many big
businesses use this type of strategy because they believe that blanket
marketing has the potential to reach many customers.
Sure, you can convey your message to as many people as possible. You
can even hand out your 100,000 pieces of custom business cards in a
week. However, blanket marketing is not only an expensive type of
marketing but it also helps you waste so much of your resources, e.g.
your money, time and energy. As you market to many customers, you will
not have any control on who sees and receives your ad. These people may
never even become your clients at all. If you were a small business,
this type of marketing would only deplete you of your budget, without
knowing whether your campaign generated leads or not.
Target Marketing – This method helps you to focus on a certain segment
of the population so you only market to them. You choose a particular
demographic and fit your marketing campaign to their needs and wants.
The advantage of target marketing is that as a small business, you are
able to concentrate your budget as well as your efforts on those
clients who are most likely to buy your product or service.
Nevertheless, the hard work is in the preparation stage where you have
to research to determine who your target market is and what marketing
campaign will work to get your message across.
Social Media Marketing – This one is very popular right now, what with
the Internet and all. When you use this type of marketing, you are
basically utilizing the online social media networks and sites to
advertise your business. This means integrating yourself to Twitter,
Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, etc., so you can advertise your company
to the members of these sites. You can also write your own blogs to
help you have an image of an expert in your field.
Again, you may be sending out your message to many people just as
blanket marketing and you may end up with nothing. As with the blogs,
you need to really give time to it, as you have to keep it updated so
your target audience will not get bored with the same old stuff from
you.
Knowing what marketing type to suit your needs means that you will be
able to make your budget fit your campaign with the outcome you expect.
By understanding full well the type that will work best for your
business, you can pinpoint the actions as well as the budget you need
in order for you to achieve your objectives. | 
