marketing

A business cannot succeed if potential customers do not know that it exists. These publications discuss marketing and advertising strategies including online advertising, television and newspaper ads, mailing campaigns and more. Tips are given on keeping a business involved in the community and maintaining good customer relationships.

These resources have been compiled from various resources and agencies and are provided here for educational purposes only. Please if you find information that needs to be updated, broken links, or if you have an additional resource you feel is pertinent.

• Internet Marketing/Search Engine Optimization Tool - Arkansas Small Business Developoment Center. This is a free service to provide an analysis of how well your website markets to your clientele using keywords and other search engine optimization tools.
• Business to Consumer E-Commerce: Selling on the Internet - Mississippi State University Extension Service. Since the popularity of shopping online is growing quickly, many small businesses are turning to the Internet to increase business. The first step in constructing a successful website is studying existing websites and figuring out what the customers want: quick, secure, professional service. Creating and registering a domain name, designing a product catalog, ordering method, payment system, ways to communicate with the customer and a tracking system are steps to e-tail success, as well as finding an Internet service provider to host the site. This publication also provides information on technicalities and design of the e-tail website and marketing suggestions.
• Advertising Basics - Mississippi State University Extension Service. This publication briefly describes many types of advertising. This includes word-of-mouth, business cards, letterhead and envelopes, brochures, mail, bulletin boards, newspaper and classified ads, portfolios, displays, cooperative advertising with another business, the phonebook, radio and TV, local organizations, networking and the Internet.
• Advertising 101 - University of Tennessee Extension Service. Advertising is often beneficial to agri-entrepreneurs. This publication defines advertising and gives examples of advertising media with a chart listing pros and cons of media ads. It gives advice on developing ads so that they appeal to the business’ target audience and portray the business in a positive manner. Advice is also given on buying ads and determining which types are successful.
• Make Mine Mississippi Program - The Make Mine Mississippi program allows registered local companies to use its logo. This is beneficial promotionally because it allows products that originated in Mississippi to be easily identified. A list of benefits and guidelines for the Make Mine Mississippi program are provided.
• Making Nature Your Business: Marketing - Texas Parks and Wildlife. This article provides six marketing steps to a successful business: designing the product or service, identifying the people you are trying to market your business towards, deciding how much to charge for the product, recognizing complementary businesses, promoting your business and keeping involved in the community.
• Marketing Your Enterprise - University of California Small Farm Program. Marketing your fee-recreation business so that potential customers know that it exists is important. In the written business plan, include a section on marketing that identifies some of the strong selling points of the business. Advertisement is a good way to inform people of your business. Determining what the advertisement will say, how the message reaches people, and whom you want the advertisement to reach are the three basic steps to advertising. The cost of marketing is discussed as well as the benefits of having a good relationship with the public.
• Marketing your website - Arkansas Small Business Developoment Center. This publication explains how to market your website so that it will be found amongst the millions of existing web pages. It discusses e-mail marketing practices and Internet methods such as registering with search engines, blogging and putting a lot of information on your site. Marketing your website offline, for example, putting the web address in printed ads is also beneficial.
• Marketing Basics - U.S. Small Business Administration. This website contains links that lead to websites that will help with the planning of a business, how to start the business and how to manage it once started, and how to leave the world of business ownership.
• Marketing strategies for farmers and ranchers - Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. Writing a business plan, considering finding outside help and taking into account the legal aspects of starting a business are all steps that should be taken when starting a business. It is important to carefully consider what products and services will be profitable before beginning a new enterprise. This publication discusses these topics and gives examples.
• Marketing for the value-added agricultural enterprise - Agricultural Extension Service, The University of Tennessee. This publication gives an in-depth definition of marketing, who is involved with it, and the methods of marketing for agricultural enterprises. It explains niche and alternative marketing, how to determine which types of marketing work, pricing and estimating sales, competition, how to make products desirable through packaging, and how to develop a marketing plan.
• Top Marketing Ideas for Agri-tourism Operations - University of California- Davis. This is a list of ten ideas for agri-tourism business owners about starting the business, advertising and marketing and keeping the guests happy.
• Planning a successful direct mail campaign - University of Tennessee Extension Service. Important factors of a successful mailing campaign include an accurate mailing list and making sure that what is being advertised will appeal to the people receiving the mail. The ad should be professional and the envelope should invoke curiosity in the recipient. Using first class mail and sending it in the appropriate season can also be beneficial.
• The World Wide Web as a sales tool - University of Tennessee Extension Service. This publication contains statistics from 1998 on how much was spent on internet and internet users. It also contains information on how much people spend and what is purchased online.
• Customer and Prospect Communications and Marketing Costs - University of Tennessee Extension Service. This publication provides data on the cost of different marketing strategies such as direct mail, internet and in-person sales calls. It also gives information on how to determine the success different marketing techniques.
• Tips for increasing web site traffic - University of Tennessee Extension Service. Many things can increase the number of people that access a website. These include putting the web address on all business materials, making the address close to the name of the business, registering with search engines, and more.
• Creation of an Internet Presence - University of Tennessee Extension Service. There are three main reasons websites are created: to educate, inform, or sell products. This webpage covers developing a webpage, finding a host for the page, registering it with search engines, and advertising it.
• Demographics and statistics about Mississippi counties and localities are available on the Mississippi Development Authority's website: www.mississippi.org under "Resources."
• E-commerce guide - Arkansas Small Business Developoment Center. This contains links to information that will help small business owners design a successful e-commerce webpage.
• Using E-commerce to add value to small farming business in California - University of California
  • In conjunction with Cornell and Iowa State - Funded by the fund for Rural America. The farmers interviewed for this case study were very positive about the value of the Web as a business tool to augment their whole business. But they offer some cautionary words.