Business owners/workers: how does your business market itself and why is it a good location to set up business

[I have no imagination]

As the question says above^^.
Would also be particularly interested in owners/ employees of Chinese restaurants and why you set up at the location that you did and how you market your business.
Thanks in advance. :-)

[jt66250]

I have an online business but here are some general marketing tips I used ...

Marketing in its basic form involves the 4-P strategy, product, pricing, promotion and place. Small business marketing adopts these elements in a different manner than larger entities but first lets define them. The product or service you offer must be right for your target market so you must ensure its properly branded, its comprehensive in its function and you constantly test and tweak it to continue to meet the needs of your customers. The pricing strategy you use must also be tailored to your target market but based primarily on the laws of supply and demand. You must ensure that you price it at a profitable level, one that isn't too low if demand is higher, and one that isn't too high if demand is lower. Your promotion strategies must blend with the pricing because how your price is based on supply and demand but how you craft your advertising, positioning, and communication will also flow with how receptive your target market is to your product. The place is focused on how and where you sell your product or service to your customers. You could have a sales team, it could be online, it could just be you talking directly with your customers. The place also is where you provide the service you offer your customers as well.

The key for small business marketing is how to mesh these elements with the right balance to affect the bottom line for your business. Within these elements there are then going to be a wide range of marketing techniques deployed, such as competitive analysis, detailed research into consumers needs allowing more effective product development, advertising and various marketing communications strategies. Basically, we're talking about understanding customer's needs and fulfilling them with appropriate products, where there is profitable opportunity. It's then down to controlling all of the various strands of marketing and your other internal business activities and processes to forecast revenue with sufficient profitability. Also don't forget, the work you do and the performance of you and your employees goes with your marketing efforts. Having a company whose performance is consistent with how they market contributes to your overall marketing plan.

Marketing theories and principles can only take your business so far you must know how to implement them, simply put, what specifically can you do to market your small business. The prevalence of the internet cannot be ignored, so if you think you can market your business without using the array of online services your small business will be dying a slow death. Having an online presence as well as offline presence will enhance your overall marketing strategy. A website is important but it is not the only way to have an online presence, here are some other examples:

* Opt-In email marketing
* Banners
* Press releases
* Article marketing
* Pay per click advertising
* Blogs
* Rss feeds
* E-books
* E-zines
* Online Newsletters
* Online video (You Tube)
* Social Networking Profile (Myspace, Facebook)
* Podcasts

All of the above can be done without having an official website but having a your-business-name-here.com website can only be enhanced by the above online marketing elements. Not to mention having a a web presence will also enhance some of your offline marketing efforts and blending them together will enhance the power of your overall message. As with any combination you must maintain consistency of your marketing efforts where the same message is being sent across all channels, because you want your business to be representative of who you are and what products or services you will provide to your target market.

In the end your carefully planned small business marketing efforts still may not garner the result you want but sometimes he work you put in allows you to discover your best results occur sometimes by accident. For example, you may focus a lot of your energy into one aspect of online marketing, such as pay per click and discover that what your customers really respond to is a newsletter or blogs. As a small business owner you are afforded flexibility in implementing new ideas on the fly, so take advantage of that and think outside of the box sometimes when it comes to marketing. You may discover what works best, isn't what is traditionally done, but you are unique so there is nothing wrong with your small business being the same.