1. Small Businesses: Start Marketing the Year
off with a Bang
“The aim of marketing is to know and
understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.” Peter
Drucker
New Year, new beginnings, new challenges and the same old business. By now small business
entrepreneurs should have weighed their profits and losses of the past year and are looking
forward to a positive economic growth. If the past year has been a grilling one, change your
marketing strategy by coming up with fresh ideas. New marketing strategies will help turn your
business and win new customers. Here are a few strategies that will be useful for you.
 Grab Attention – If your business does not have a website, let it be your priority to get one.
If you already have one, be sure to revamp the content to make it more SEO friendly. You
can start by creating a unique title for each page. However, see that the title has a phrase that
is frequently searched for. This will make the site more SEO friendly and will show in results
that are related to your product/service. Another point worth mentioning is when sending a
marketing proposals and/or sales letters, make sure you have a catchy and curios
headline/subject. This will help increase the opening rate for the email.
© 2012 Apptivo Inc. All rights reserved.

2.  Goes Mobile – Smartphones are widely used today and tablets are the upcoming trend. Host
a mobile version of your website. It goes without saying that you have to test your site on a
variety of screen-sizes to ensure that web content can be read clearly. Online branding is an
up andcoming trend and there are many mobile apps that can help you build your brand.
 Social Community Channels (Bite only what you can chew) – As you may know, there are
many social networks out there to choose from, and the choice is yours. Choose wisely
though. Instead of jumping from one social network to a more recent one, have your business
profile in one that you feel most comfortable with. Monitor and track the hit ratios carefully.
Never spam all the social channels with the same advertisements. Understand the strengths
and weaknesses of each network and create your business content accordingly. Cross-
platform applications and mobile apps are making it easier for small business owners to
manage and update their website and business from anywhere. You can say that 2012 will be
the year the year of the mobile phones as well as social networks, taking businesses to a
whole other level. So do not miss the bus.
 Social Curation is the in-thing – An upcoming trend is social curation. People gather
information from the Internet, blogs and discussion forums. There are bloggers who blog
about their niche area but also hand-pick links, news items, commentary, quotes and all the
latest developments pertaining to his niche area. He does this to share it with his readers.
Therefore, you need to think twice about your web marketing content because it is not just
the customers but curators are also going to be your audience. Ensure that your web content
facilitates two-way conversation and is very engaging. This will give people a reason to share
your content with their friends and family. If you have a news section of your website, give
© 2012 Apptivo Inc. All rights reserved.

3. reviews and news about the local community businesses. People will surely visit your site to
check out the latest news.
 Give a thought to integrated marketing – There is only a hairline between your business
and brand „in real life‟ and „online‟. Try embedding new gimmicks such as QR codes (Quick
response) on your website, marketing leaflets, and products. This is going to be one of the
marketing strategies this year. If your smartphone has an app that scans a QR code, the
content of the QR code can be opened and stored. This is considered to be a remarkable way
to get access to information and also save it on the go.
If you can think of any other marketing strategies that small business owners can take
advantage of please put in the comments.
© 2012 Apptivo Inc. All rights reserved.