Marketing strategies for small businesses are not significantly different from those of large businesses except for three key elements - focus, focus, focus. Large businesses can afford to place generic advertisements on television without accounting for its value, simply going for "awareness" and "number of impressions". Small businesses have to be very focused on return on investment on each of their marketing techniques- revenue generated versus cost of marketing. Large businesses may not use techniques such as direct marketing - while direct mail, e-mail campaigns and other "direct-to-customers" methods are often the life-blood of small businesses and key elements of their marketing strategy.

Before developing a marketing strategy for your small business, it is important to take care of the basics: Quality Product backed by Quality Customer Service. Once you these fundamental areas taken care of, we must assume that you know who your target audience is. This is the starting point of your marketing strategy. At this stage, figure out:

1. What do your customers read?
2. Where do they get their product-relevant information from (online, magazines, newspapers)?
3. What is their age range?
4. What is the gender ratio?
5. What is their income range?

The more such questions that you have the answer for, the more focused your marketing strategy could become. With the above data in hand, it is possible to begin mining from a variety of marketing strategies that are available. The following list begins giving you a starting point for your investigation:

1. Direct Mail Offers: One of the oldest and most successful methodologies for small-businesses is to mail offers to their target audience. Very sophisticated tracking, copywriting and offer techniques are now available for the average small business owner. The cost of a single mailing, depending on size of the mailing list, can range from $2000-$4000, with some low-cost variations available at less than $1000. Usually the cost of the mailing lists is worth it - but this also shows the importance of having a quality product and customer service first. It will take at least a few mailings - only three if you are very good at it, but usually up to ten - before you are able to zone in on the more profitable segments of your target audience. This pushes the cost of this method to near $20,000 - but once you have identified your profitable segment, you can milk it for a long time to come.
2. E-mail campaigns: E-mail campaigns are the online equivalent of direct-mail offers. A typical list of 1000 addresses may cost $1500 to $15000 and a typical open-rate of 3% and click through rate of 0.1% to 1%. Conversion rates thus get pushed to about 0.005% to 0.01% of the original mailing list. Add to this the spam issues associated with e-mailing, this form of campaigning is becoming less profitable by the day. However, if your business is entirely online - this is still a very valuable technique.
3. House E-mail list: As opposed to purchasing a list, you can develop a list of your own by asking visitors to your website to register or give their email address for other reasons. These lists are very valuable as visitors are at your site out of their own interest. These lists tend to convert better as well.
4. E-zine advertising: These work well depending on the relevance of the e-zine to your product or offering. The conversion rates are better than typical email campaigns, as the open rate is closer to 30-50%. But click-throughs are likely to be low, perhaps at 1-2%, though conversion may be higher owing to qualified traffic. Costs of e-zine ads may be around $100 for 100,000 addresses that the e-zine is mailed to.
5. Internet paid search ads: AdWords from Google and others from Yahoo! and MSN has revolutionized Internet search by allowing small and large businesses to drive traffic to their website by paid advertising. You have to be very careful about conversion rates versus the cost per click that you are paying. Cost per click can range from $0.01 to $2(!) or more. You can get excellent tracking information - use that data to make wise decisions.
6. Natural search engines: A well-crafted website with terrific keywords will attract qualified traffic naturally - still one of the best ways to get customers to your website!
7. Holding Seminars and Workshops: If you are in the business of selling information products, it is useful to position yourself as an expert. Holding seminars and workshops is a great way to give out useful information, position yourself as an expert, develop leads and sell your information products. However, there is cost associated with this technique:
   1. Cost of location to host the seminar
   2. Cost of getting the word out and bringing in people
   3. One time cost of preparing material
   4. You will need a partner or assistant to help you

   Figure out the cost versus revenue for such workshops before making this a serious part of your portfolio.

8. Mass-media techniques such as advertising in a magazine, newspaper, TV or radio are generally not recommended unless you have a clear way to track your results - example through infomercials, specially placed low-cost radio interviews and so forth.
9. Yellow pages make a great way to advertise your services, though there is an ongoing annual cost for doing so. If your service is more utilitarian (electricity, plumbing, acupuncturist), yellow pages is a great way to get the word out.

The above is a listing of some of the marketing strategies available to your small business. It is important to track revenue versus cost for each strategy and then focus on only two or three that work for your business.