Small business marketing environments influence your small business marketing in numerous ways besides just marketing strategies and tactics.

Considering these environments can complement your marketing strategies and tactics. They also impact your business across the marketing mix.

This article covers the top ten small business marketing environments that you need to consider as you plan and market you business.

Small Business Marketing Environment 1: Your Employees and Business

Your employees affect your business by more than the tasks that you pay them for. They also influence your marketing by what they say about your product and business. Treat them well and use ethical business practices, and they will make good comments to others that enhance your marketing.

Small Business Marketing Environment 2: Vendors

The businesses that you purchase from determine how efficiently you make your product and conduct your business. Some even provide cooperative advertising and promotion opportunities.

Small Business Marketing Environment 3: The Businesses That Deliver Your Products

Some distributors enhance your marketing by telling others they serve about your business. Because distribution is an important part of the marketing mix, how well they deliver your products also influences your marketing, your ability to get products to customers, and even your price.

Small Business Marketing Environment 4: Retailers

The businesses that retail your product influence your marketing and sales. They can promote your product, feature it, or just stick it on a back shelf. Thus, they can help or hurt your marketing efforts.

Small Business Marketing Environment 5: Competitors

Knowing all you can about your competitors and their products has a great effect on your marketing. If you know the pros and cons of their businesses and products and how yours compares, you’ll know what to emphasize in your marketing messages.

Small Business Marketing Environment 6: External Publics

Many people, who are not customers and don’t have a direct involvement with your business have an effect on it. For example, if a special interest group likes what you do, they may support you and enhance your marketing. If they don’t like your product or business policies, they can create barriers to effective marketing.

Small Business Marketing Environment 7: Customers

The more you know about the people who buy your product or are likely to, the better you can design your marketing to meet their emotional and rational needs, and thus to appeal to them effectively.

Small Business Marketing Environment 8: Firmographics and Demographics

Knowing factual characteristics (demographics) about your target market reveals much about their attitudes, values, concerns and buying preferences. People differ by factual characteristics such as income, type of occupation, amount of education, their race and gender. The more you know about them, the better you can design marketing that appeals to them.

Small Business Marketing Environment 9: Economic Situations

Economic situations influence what sells and how much of those products sell. During recessionary economies, people often eliminate unnecessary expenses. During inflationary economies people spend more and on more luxury products. Thus, different economic situations call for different marketing strategies and tactics.

Small Business Marketing Environment 10: Natural Resources

When resources are in short supply, prices go up on that resource and every product or service that uses that resource. Because price is such an important element in the marketing mix, it affects sales. Attitudes about the use of resources also influence marketing. Just consider the many businesses that are promoting their “green” resource use..

Small Business Marketing Environment: Summary

Marketing includes every element in the marketing mix, not just what you do and say to get customers. Thus, you should consider the influence of the ten small business marketing environments covered in this article because they affect elements like pricing, promotion and distribution.

Learn more about small business marketing environments or get a free report on marketing your small business marketing your small business.

Submitted to Article Directories 4-28-08: Top Ten Small Business Marketing Environments

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