Download What is Long-Term Marketing? When you start a small business, you

What is Long-Term Marketing?
When you start a small business, you may have to focus on immediate sales to pay the bills and fund
growth, but you also need to think long-term. Marketing for future sales involves a different mindset than
short-term marketing. A wise small-business owner will dedicate some time and money to developing
markets that can pay off down the road.
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is the opposite of transactional marketing. In transactional marketing, the marketer
wants to close a sale as soon as possible. The focus is on getting the customer to buy. In relationship
marketing, you develop an ongoing dialogue with a customer, taking time to get to know the customer’s
needs, and establishing your business as the place that can solve those needs in the future. You also
offer customer service that indicates you want to resolve any conflicts and continue to be worthy of your
customer’s loyalty.
Long-Tail Marketing
Long-tail marketing is a phrase that was coined by Chris Anderson, executive editor of “Wired” magazine.
In the book, “The Long Tail,” he describes modern marketing for small-business owners as a type of
niche marketing. Filling a small niche can provide you with loyal customers for the long term. You have to
constantly position yourself as the business that best fills the demands of your niche. You actually sell to
only a certain segment of the market, but sell repeatedly to them. This kind of long-term marketing can
provide a steady income and even growth if you continue to offer new products to your niche.
Long-Term Online Marketing
If your website makes too many overt appeals to “buy now,” you will alienate a lot of potential customers.
Web surfers have come to expect a lot of free information online. You have to offer articles and
newsletters that appeal to people searching the internet to solve problems. These do not pay you, but
they can attract viewers who think of you as a reliable source of information. As they return to you over
and over, they will notice your offerings and may eventually become paying customers.
The Marketing Mix
Your small business needs agility to survive. Align yourself with long-term goals and review your marketing
decisions in terms of their ability to get you to the position you want to be in for the future. While looking
long-term, keep one eye on market changes and prepare to take advantage of them in the short term.
Doing this will keep your cash flow up. Try to choose short-term objectives that can contribute to your
long-term goals.
Source: Kevin Johnston