Conceptually, all of marketing is based on the idea that you must thoroughly know the environment in which your business operates in order to successfully promote and sell your product or service.

Businesses based on the idea of providing less expensive products and services to customers can be extremely competitive. One problem such companies face is that the customer base is not loyal and will rapidly switch to another company depending upon what is on sale.

There are many ways for a business to be unique, from small pricing, packaging, and service differences to significant feature and benefit contrasts with the competition.

Many small companies believe there is little they can do to really position their products and services because they spend little or no money to promote their products to their target buyers.

If the universe of all potential buyers is your "market," then the market can be divided up into sections or "segments" based on any number of factors. For example, you might divide up your customers by age group and find that you sell most of your products to people aged 18 to 34. You might divide them up by family size and find that you sell most of your products to married couples with young children. You might divide them up by economic status and find that you sell most products to people with an annual income of about $50,000 to $100,000. You might divide them up by geographic location and find that you sell most of your products to people living within two specific zip codes.

Most marketers know that "20 percent of buyers consume 80 percent of product volume." If you could identify that key 20 percent and find others like them, you could sell much more product with much less effort.

Once you've identified what's unique about your business and who your target buyers are, you need to take a good, long look at your competition.

Do you know precisely who your customers are? You may know many of them by name, but do you really know what type of people or businesses they are? For example, if you sell to consumers, do you have demographic information (e.g., what are their average income ranges, education, typical occupations, geographic location, family makeup, etc.) that identifies your target buyer?

Intuitively, or based on sound research, you believe your business will succeed because you are doing something different from some or all of your competitors. The first test of any business, small or large, is its uniqueness when compared to its competitors.

In order to successfully market itself, every business owner needs to focus on what's special and different about his or her business. The best way to do this is to try to express this uniqueness in a single statement.

One of the quickest ways to go out of business is to market a product or service that hardly anyone wants, needs, or understands. Find out if there is a real need for your idea. Who and how many people will pay for it, and how much will they pay?

For most small businesses, highly effective marketing is a make-or-break necessity. It's really impossible for you to be successful without good marketing and sales techniques — that's what brings the dollars in the door. You've got to let people know about all the wonderful things your business can provide to them, which means that your business must first provide those wonderful things that people are willing to pay for. And that, in turn, means knowing who your customers are and getting so close to them that you can virtually anticipate their needs and desires.

What do we really mean by "marketing?" To many time-starved business owners, marketing means two things: advertising and selling. However, we think that ultimately you'll be more successful if, every so often, you try to look at the "big picture" by taking the time to thoughtfully analyze your products or services and your business as a whole in relation to your competition, your customers, and to societal and regional trends and conditions.