Small Business Marketing Forecast in 2011

Marketing the small business can certainly raise the revenue and establish the company worldwide. Of course Small businesses must be flexible in order to be successful. When economic times change, business firms must change their sales forecast. The marketing and finance departments can work together to provide a meaningful sales forecast.

As a new year begins small business should keep track on all these for sales accurate prediction and promotion.

• Study the economic data and find out how much are sales in your particular line of business (retail, manufacturing, etc.) expected to drop or rise?
• Confer with your marketing department and sales force. What are they experiencing out in the field?
• Based on your particular line of business, adjust your sales forecast up or down? For example, some businesses are recession-proof and actually do well in a recession. Other businesses, such as those offering luxury items, will not do well in a recession.

When discussing about Small Business Marketing Forecast in 2011, the results tend to show there will be remarkable improvement in online marketing tactics. The reason behind it is online marketing is cheaper. Small business firms may not have the resources of big businesses, but things like online and social media help level the playing field.

With social media only growing stronger, we're starting to see more companies using email to drive a conversation within social media. Companies always link to their social media properties, such as their Face book, You Tube, and Twitter pages, as well as blogs and email marketing campaigns.

Simultaneously, there seems to be some relatively untapped, cost-effective digital options like online videos, as well as increased mobile advertising, as viable marketing options this year.

Small companies are putting energy into their websites and e-mails also.

Researches say

• 45 percent of businesses plan to use online video in their marketing in 2011, vs. 28.4 percent in 2010.
• 35.9 percent of small businesses surveyed plan to use mobile advertising in 2011, vs. 21.3 percent in 2010.
• Approximately 15 percent say group deals and social couponing sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are beneficial to business.

Other key results say

• Nearly half of SMB owners plan increased ad spending for 2011; just 29 percent said that for 2010.
• Twenty two percent say trying to understand online advertising frustrates them.
• Sixty four percent report having a website, up nearly 20 percent from the surprisingly low 53 percent last year.
• Fifty percent say they plan to devote more resources to trade shows in 2011.
• Traditional media types such as direct mail (24.9%) and newspapers (19.2%) also should see increased resources in 2011.

Corporate Social Reponsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility is operating a business in a manner that meets the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business. To be more precise it is a continuing commitment by business towards economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large. CSR is most significant in large companies and small business organizations too.

Instilling and maintaining values of CSR in the employees is very important in an organization. This can certainly be done through few activities like:

Corporate governance: Ensuring sound corporate governance and compliance practices. Effective governance system includes good internal control System, management System, and auditing System.

Compliance policies are to create awareness around white-collar crimes such as bribery, dishonesty, corruption and fraud. Campaigns include

• War on Corruption: Raising the profile of white collar crime
• Identity Theft: Reminding staff to verify client identities and to keep information confidential
• Know Your Customer: A training programme for staff as required by the Financial Intelligence Centre Act.

Reporting: CSR Reports now not only include the environmental performance of the organization but also the most organizational social issues and non-financial key performance indicators. Increased transparency on reporting should be adopted.

Ethical policies: Maintain ethical policies and provide training to ensure that all employees perform with high standards of integrity and trust. Ethical policies include real concern and respect for employees (training, development, rewards, work-life balance, incentives, perks), for customers (safe, quality, value for money products and good customer service), and for suppliers (fair trade policies etc.)

Products and services: Develop and enhance products and services that provide social and environmental options for clients and prospects.

Well-being programs: Continue to provide talent management and well-being programs on stress management, physical fitness, nutrition and counseling through which employees can thrive and excel As part of employee assistance, these programs may offer health assessments, wellness workshops, counseling sessions and fitness center memberships, among others. Employee wellness programs aim to enhance employee health, leading to more productivity in the workplace.

Relationship: Build relationships with suppliers whose CSR goals and activities are aligned with expectations of the company.

Security programs: Ensure proper risk management, data security and privacy programs are in place.

Though there has been considerable research into the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability, the results proposed no relationship between them. Specifically, varying levels of social orientation were not found to correlate with performance differences too.

Boost your small business traffic

On the internet, search engine optimization and marketing is vital to gain an edge over your competitors.

Listed below the basic seo and internet exposure strategies to be followed inorder to boost your small business sales.

Basic Elements of SEO Strategy:

-Client expectations and objectives
-Keyword research to identify the right keywords
-Website analysis
-Competitor analysis
-Website optimization using the right keywords
-Content strategy development
-Linking strategy – reciprocal and one way link building campaigns
-Submission of website in search engines
-Directory submission
-Social media optimization strategy - news releases, forum postings, article writing and submission
-Use of natural and white hat SEO strategy to promote website
-Evaluation and tracking
-Maintenance

Achieve Better Internet Exposure:

-Establish a more successful website with better usability
-Enhance your reputation as a professional
-Boost your brand visibility, traffic and revenue
-Generate increased referral business
-Establish tremendous client loyalty
-Establish long term client relationship
-Establish your credibility