The first thing any business needs to develop a marketing strategy is to do a comprehensive market analysis. The things that a good analysis should tell you is what customers interested in your product or service want from the product. The second thing to look at is how they are looking for that particular product or service. The third factor should be who are these people? The fourth part is what your competition is doing to market the same product to potential customers.

Local internet search will help you to determine what people want from a product or service. I would take a look at Google local places and review the comments of customers for a service product. If I don't find any information there I would go to Yelp.com and find out what they have to say. A visit to a companies Facebook fan page and you can view what the company is doing that their customers truly like.

Taking a look at these websites will give you lots of insight on what your competition is doing to keep their customers happy. It will also tell you what they are not doing so well. You will find the little chink in their armor that will help you to get the best return on your advertising investment.

Product base business need to take a look at Amazon and see what people are saying about the product. Read the reviews find out what they like and do not like about any product. If you offer a product that is not on Amazon you will want to go to Google and do a search for your product. This will offer a wealth of valuable information. Here you will find out who your strongest competitors are and why. Go to their website and see what they are offering the customer.

After you have done your research you will be able to determine if you can compete and how. It is now time to think strategy. Half of all small business owners do not even have a website. Every company needs a web presence to have a viable business today. You need to show up in Google, Yahoo and Bing local search results. You can accomplish this without a website and all the expense and time that it would cost.

Follow what the research tells you your potential customers want. Then give them what they want. A simple marketing strategy that is time proven and works.