Marketing a small business in today's economy can be challenging. However, with a sound small business marketing strategy, even new businesses can get a jump on the competition. Whether you're just starting a small business, putting together you marketing plan or are an established business looking to grow, laying out an actionable small business marketing plan is a key to success.

Looking for ways to increase your sales while the economy plods along the path to recovery? Why not expand your target market by opening your business to the world?

It's been a tough year for sales, and we're moving into the home stretch. Here are five tips to help you boost sales and reach your revenue goals as the 2009 shopping season gets underway.

WordPress is one of the most commonly used blogging tools on the Web today. It’s a powerful , open source publishing platform with an administrative interface that doesn’t require a lot of experience to use—making it one of the more attractive blogging opt

Your Web site linking strategy has two goals: 1. To drive traffic to your Web site and 2. To increase your rank with the major search engines. If you secure links on Web sites that are popular with your target audience, you could gain a new stream of t

Visitors will type your domain name into a browser or lick on it a search engine results page before you have a chance to wow them with your Web site. It's your first impression, so make it good. Your domain name should fit the style and tone of your Web s

What is an elevator pitch? One of the most important things you can do as a businessperson is to learn how to effectively tell others about your business. You should be able to sum up the most unique and compelling aspects of your service or product in a way that catches a person's attention and piques their interest. An elevator pitch will help you articulate your message, close deals, find new prospects and help your audience understand what you are talking about and why they should care. And as the name says, you should be able to do this in the amount of time it takes to ride the elevator – about fifteen to thirty seconds!

For many small companies, the secret of continued business success in competing against larger companies is to do everything a little bit better than the competition.

Continuous quality improvement is the hallmark of successful companies, worldwide. Many successful Japanese companies have adopted continuous quality improvement as the number one operational principle for all employees and departments. Chrysler, Procter and Gamble (P&G), 3M, Compaq Computer, Microsoft, and many other less well-known U.S. companies clearly practice continuous quality improvement. P&G is famous for consciously developing and introducing improved versions of its own current products under different brand names as a method for continuous quality improvement and significant technological advances (e.g., improved effectiveness in laundry soaps).

The idea of "quality" is free. Studies on successful implementation of TQM programs and customer service show a significant improvement in company efficiencies, sales, and profitability, often with fewer people and at less cost than before.

The personnel in a small company are analogous to the famous "20-mule team" that pulled Borax raw materials out of Death Valley. If a single team member is not doing his or her best, the performance of the entire team is negatively affected. Quality and customer satisfaction is everyone's job!

When was the last time you sat down with any of your customers and presented your company mission or values? Do you have a written list of services that customers can expect of your company? Quill Corporation has a one-page "Customer Bill of Rights" that was created in the early days of the company by the founders. Every company employee must read and commit to providing these "customer rights." Quill is as well-known for its customer service as its extensive office products, competitive prices, and frequent promotions.

You can maintain and deliver the quality of your products and services only if all personnel and all companies involved in your chain of suppliers are quality-oriented and customer-oriented. By definition, superior quality and customer satisfaction compared to your competition depend upon the exceptional. You and your suppliers will have to go above and beyond normal procedures, delivery dates, lead times, and other standards to maintain quality and provide superior customer satisfaction.

Today's competitive market, in almost every category of products and services, is characterized by accelerating changes, innovation, and massive amounts of new information. Much of this rapid evolution in markets is fueled by changing customer needs. Significant customer behavior and market changes happen almost overnight. Changes in market preference or technology, which used to take years, may now take place in a few short months.

The more participation by company employees in quality programs and the more ways they think up to improve customer satisfaction, the better the quality! Once your people understand and accept new TQM programs, regular discussion sessions should be scheduled to discuss quality problems and opportunities at least once each month. Ideally, these discussion sessions should be held across functional or departmental boundaries.

A small company has great potential advantage over larger companies in implementing a TQM program with employees. There are fewer people to communicate with, and the manager in charge of implementing the TQM program is generally the owner or CEO. The CEO can make timely, binding decisions about TQM programs.

Every business owner should develop a written guideline that sets forth the business's marketing strategy. This document is used to judge the appropriateness of each action that the business takes. If a company has to take an action that is off-strategy, it may indicate a temporary emergency action prompted by competition or other factors beyond normal management control. Or it may indicate the need to change or revise the company's marketing strategy.