The ultimate small business marketing strategy is really no secret if you stick to the fundamentals.
As a small business owner, you are constantly being barraged with what someone is telling you is the latest and greatest marketing strategy.
Before you waste your time and money on something new, you really need to ask yourself if you are doing the basics well.
Take a moment and remove yourself from your business and think of your business as your athletic team.
It's the beginning of the season and you are psyched about the year ahead.
What is the first thing that you are going to do to prepare for the year? Do you start by practicing trick plays? Of course not! You practice the fundamentals.

• If you're a baseball team, you practice hitting and fielding.
  
• If you're a football team, you practice blocking, tackling, throwing and running.
  
• If you're a soccer team, you practice kicking and passing.
  
• You don't start running plays until your team is in shape!

Okay, now that practice is over and you have showered and cleaned up, it's time to get back to your small business marketing strateg! 7 Critical Small Business Marketing Strategy Fundamentals Is your team (staff) in shape? Do they know the fundamentals? Do you have them practice and rehearse the right way to do serve your customers or do you let them wing it and hope they'll such a great job that your clients will be magnetically drawn back to your business? Guess what? If you leave it to chance and assume clients will return, you risk taking your business into the world of mediocre results where you will join the legions of small business owners who are wondering where there next customer is coming from.
Don't leave your success to chance and then grasp for the magic bullet that will save your business.
A powerful small business marketing strategy begins with the fundamentals.
Here are 7 critical steps to your business success:

1. Critical Fundamental #1: You must have a Unique Selling Proposition, which answers the question "Why should I do business with you?" Your USP is much more than we give good service or do a good job.
   Your competitors are saying the same thing.
   Your USP should have the prospect saying "Oh really? Tell me more!"It helps get your prospect interested in buying from you.
   Give them a powerful reason to do so.
   
2. Critical Fundamental #2:Your business must be living your USP.
   If you make the claim, play the game by making sure everyone in your company lives the USP.
   If you claim great customer service but you let your phone ring 10 times before anybody answers it, your are not living a USP founded on customer service.
   FedEx doesn't claim packages will usually get there overnight, they get them there overnight.
   If you make your clients go through 5 phone prompts to place an order, you are failing on a service claim.
   If your delivery driver doesn't thank your customer, your competition's will.
   
3. Critical Fundamental #3: You must know the fundamentals of selling.
   It usually costs a huge amount of money to get a prospect to come to or call your business.
   Once they are there, doesn't it make sense that you should have the skills to sell to them and maximize the value of the transaction?You do so by cross-selling and up-selling.
   Don't expect the customer to ask for more , you must help them along.
   Sales training is one of the best investments that you can make in your company.
   Everybody who comes into contact with a prospect or client should know the basics of selling.
   
4. Critical Fundamental #4: This fundamental is one of the most critical and obvious but most overlooked element of a successful small business marketing strategy! You must have a system to capture client and prospect information such as name, address, phone number, email address, buying history, preferences and other information relative to your business.
   Today's technology makes that very inexpensive to do.
   When you have this information, you can develop a close relationship with your clients based on what THEY like.
   
1. Here is a real world example: My wife and I eat out at a nice restaurant at least once a week and we like to go to different places.
   There is only one restaurant in the Cincinnati region that has ever even asked for my name and address.
   They send us coupons regularly so we eat there regularly.
   All of the rest are wondering how to get new clients in the door and spend a lot on advertising to get them there.
   Now that doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?Why don't the others ask about me and what I like?It is real easy and inexpensive but most business owners are out of touch when it comes to knowing their clients.
   
5. Critical Fundamental #5: You must have a system in place to regularly communicate with your prospects and clients.
   You should be frequently hitting them with unique offers, birthday cards, newsletters and special customer only specials.
   Your customers DO WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!! The research proves it.
   If you don't talk to them, you are communicating an attitude of indifference towards clients and opening the door for your competition to take them away from you.
   
6. Critical Fundamental #6: You must leverage your marketing efforts by establishing joint ventures and alliances with other companies who have similar client profiles in a non-competing business.
   
1. Look at this scenario: You own a restaurant and have 1,000 clients who know and trust you and like your food and service.
   The florist down the street also has a 1,000 clients who know and trust her.
   You approach her with an idea.
   You will pay for amailing to her list in which she endorses your restaurant and offer a special coupon for a free appetizer to her clients.
   You mail a similar endorsement for her shop to your list.
   You will both get a huge infusion of new business.
   Now doesn't that make more sense than running an ad on the radio or in the paper?
7. Critical Fundamental #7: First of all, notice all the above fundamentals don't ask you to risk money on media advertising and any one of them can easily increase your sales 20% or more.
   However, if you choose to advertise in the media, TRACK YOUR RESULTS! Don't fall in the trap of building a brand or getting your name out there.
   If you are investing in something, know your return on your investment.
   If you put $5,000 dollars into an investment portfolio, you expect a minimum return and you closely track your results.
   Do the same thing when you invest in marketing.
   

You Must Get the Fundamentals in Place Or You Are Losing Business! As we discussed earlier, a good small business marketing strategy starts like a sports team does in preseason, by getting back to fundamentals.
If you are following these small business marketing strategy fundamentals, you should congratulate yourself because you are one of the few who are getting repeat business, referrals and new customers for a fraction of what the average small business spends to attract a customer.
If you are not doing so, get started.
It is a lot easier and less expensive than you think and your returns will be huge and you will literally reap exponential increases in sales.