[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Marketing Plan"]
[/caption]
A cook starts with a recipe. A tourist starts with a map. An architect starts with a plan. So why do many
small business owners think they can run their business without a
marketing plan?
To many small business owners, marketing means advertising - which means big bucks. And yes, some sorts of advertising are costly, but marketing also includes lots of less costly ways to engage prospective customers. With some research, planning, preparation and execution, business owners can be successful with marketing without spending enormous amounts of their budget on advertising.
Do be sure and include some marketing in your budget, but it doesnt need to be a high ticket item. A word of warning: as you look at what your competition is doing, remember that it might not work for you. Dont copy them or customers might mistake you for them.
Here in brief are four main insights that can lead to marketing success: