What’s The Best Marketing Medium For Your Small Business Marketing Needs?
How do you as a small business owner decide who is going to not only run and manage your marketing operations but how do you know which method or combination of marketing methods will produce the types of ROI and profits that your small business needs?
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Over the past few weeks I have been run through the ringer with some of my own personal and business challenges and I figured this would be the best time to stop and look at some things that matter to your overall campaign performance and directly to your small business.
While I have been recovering from injury to my back and rib area I had plenty of time to think about several ways you can test and measure how you can see which type of marketing medium is working for you and which ones need testing or to be eliminated from your marketing efforts.
For starters when you are stuck laid up in a bed due to the non ability to move around your mind starts to wonder. You begin to think about things that weren’t top of mind and then BAM! Suddenly a streak of genius hits you like lightening.
Many small business owners feel that making a successful marketing campaign is difficult, time consuming and not a profit generating method. They say that they have tried social media, ppc, paid affiliate networks, ran blogs and still they have seen no return on their investment or at a minimum very little.
This tells me that many small businesses and their owners don’t understand marketing and they aren’t doing anything except throwing money at consultants or methods which they have no business doing until the business has a record of successful marketing campaigns.
So which marketing methods are best for your business and which ones are costing you time or money and not providing you a decent ROI for your ad budget or marketing dollars spent?
Marketing Medium Number One: Above the line 
Television
Print
Radio
Outdoor (Billboards)
In-Store (Consumer awareness) (Product Trial)
Direct Mail
Marketing Medium Number Two: Below the line
Image Ads
Video Ads
Gadget Ads
Websites
Email
Search
As you see there are mountains of methods just under the surface of the two above the line and below the line marketing. When you use them, how you use them and how they produce for you all depend on the same circumstance, target your audience, research competition, research demographics, psycographics and buying habits. Tailor a message designed to pique interest and engage them.
It doesn’t matter the marketing medium as much as the message. So which marketing medium ius right for you? It all depends on your small business marketing plans and budget. A true marketing plan has both paid and free marketing methods used in conjunction to push or pull your customers with a marketing message.
Since we encourage our clients to use blogs as a primary marketing medium we rely heavily on web 2.0 marketing methods and social media marketing but we would never just say that’s all you need. Consistent marketing innovation, continuous messaging, ongoing consumer communication, push advertising via, main channel branding and affiliate or marketing partners all work in systemized fashion to bring in the business.
If you really want to know where the4 best dollars to spend for marketing are first review what your current metrics are then start from there. If you don’t have any metrics it’s time to start tracking them to determine which marketing methods are best for your business.
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