When you start a new business, even a small one, you want to have a marketing plan in place. Even small businesses that run out of homes, or only set up at craft markets and farmer’s markets, need to have a marketing plan. How else will people know you’re on Etsy or that you will have a table at the local business expo.

There are a few things that go into marketing a small business. You don’t simply want to have business cards and have an ad in the local paper. You don’t want to just have a website, but not utilize all of the ways out there to share that site and attract people to it, as well as get people to stick around.

Know Your Market And Audience

Aside from having a business, you want to make sure that you know your market, and that you know your market audience. These things can greatly help your business when it comes to marketing in general. Knowing who is interested in what you have to sell helps you plan how to sell to them.

Look at the market and determine how much competition you have, as well as how popular common interest in your idea is. You want to make sure that you have a business that is going to be lucrative, and in demand, but that you don’t have a major amount of competition in.

Use Alternative Methods

Once you know who you are marketing to, it’s important to use every alternative method you can think of for getting the word out to those people about your business. That includes using social media, and even blogging. Direct the wording and concepts in your blog posts to the specific demographics your business is shooting for.

When it comes to social media advertising, take some time to research which sites are more popular with which demographics. You may find that some social media sites are more popular with younger generation, while older generations may only like a specific few. Get the most out of your time on social media by knowing which will work best for your company.

Have A Marketing Fund

While blogging is basically free advertising, and so is social media, you are still going to want to set up a marketing fund, since not all marketing is free. If you want better chances of people finding you in search engines you may want to invest some money in things like Google ads, and even the pay-per-click advertising offered by Facebook.

You may also want to consider advertising in local newspapers and magazines. Go on foot, especially if you cater locally at all, and leave business cards and brochures at places that have bulletin boards and tables set up for such things. It’s more technically free advertising, and well worth the time and effort to use it.