5 Main Principles of Small Business Marketing and Promotion

1. Strategy - This is where branding should begin. All the goals of the branding program should align as closely as possible to the overall business strategy. This is also where critical marketplace questions need to be answered. Questions like: What business are we in? What service(s) do we provide? Do we provide significant benefits to our clients? What is our end-game or strategic goals?
2. Differentiation - I talk a lot about differentiation because I believe that a clear differentiation strategy is the foundation of real competitive advantage. Prior to developing a branding strategy, small businesses must understand the ways in which they are uniquely valuable to their customers.
3. Positioning - Don’t confuse positioning with branding and differentiation. Positioning is a separate principle that relates to a firm’s placement on a client’s mental map. Before creating a branding program, a firm should know what “spot” it holds in the marketplace today and whether or not their strategic objectives anticipate their customer’s future perspectives.
4. Branding - I’ve said it in the past - branding is more about fulfilling an intangible emotional promise than about a logo or color scheme. Everything a firm does and says will be conformed to build a customer’s expectation.
5. Marketing Communications - Perhaps the most familiar pillar. Many small businesses haven’t fully aligned resources to effectively communicate branding promises through carefully crafted messages and images.