Small Business Management

Marketing plays a critical role in the thriving of small businesses. Marketing helps in creating awareness of the business products to potential customers. Some marketing challenges small businesses encounter include a lack of marketing knowledge, lack of time, and lack of leads.Lack of marketing knowledge is a major challenge for small businesses. For instance, most entrepreneurs start a business without figuring out how they will integrate marketing techniques, increasing uncertainties, unsustainable growth, and lack of a competitive edge (Riserbato, 2022). Creating a marketing plan is crucial to keep the business on track (Lundin, 2022). Thus, small businesses should have adequate marketing plans to thrive in the market.

Another challenge is lack of time as most small businesses have limited employees who have highly occupied with the management of sales and distribution hence a lack of time to plan for marketing (Lundin, 2022). Most employees need to pay more attention to marketing to enhance business growth. Hence, small business owners and employees should have a plan and allocate time to marketing.

Also, small businesses need leads, leading to a limited number of customers, which could hinder successful marketing for the business (Lundin, 2022). However, the business should specify its target market, study its needs, design a marketing message relevant to the target market, and use viable marketing channels to establish a customer base.

References

Lundin, K. (2022, October 13). 5 biggest small business marketing challenges (and how to overcome them). crowdspring Blog. crowdspring.com/blog/small-business-marketing-challenges/

Riserbato, R. (2022, August 25). 5 steps to create an outstanding marketing plan [free templates]. HubSpot Blog. blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-plan-template-generator

Response

Most small businesses encounter different challenges in marketing, but if well managed, they can overcome them in the long run. Some challenges include low visibility, where small business products require popularization. Also, a lack of patience to succeed leads to the failure of many small businesses and a lack of budget. For instance, some businesses could have higher costs in marketing which could fail to yield the expected returns leading to frustration. Thus, adequate marketing and planning play a critical role in the success of small businesses.

Although most small businesses may overlook marketing, it plays a crucial role in creating awareness, creating a competitive edge, and enhancing the brand image to help in increasing market share (Riserbato, 2022). Therefore, small businesses should embrace marketing to thrive in highly competitive markets.

References

Riserbato, R. (2022, August 25). 5 steps to create an outstanding marketing plan [free templates]. HubSpot Blog. blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-plan-template-generator