The New Rules of Marketing

American Express OPEN is dedicated to helping businesses grow – and we are especially committed to supporting women business owners, the fastest-growing segment in small business.  We created these New Rules Guides to provide women business owners with valuable information and tips to help grow their business, including expert insights from our Women’s Business Summit in Houston, TX. For post-event updates, visit OPENForum.com/women.

Marketing your product or service used to mean putting your message out to everyone. Now, it means being more selective, both in the ways you choose to reach your target audience, and in what avenues to pursue to ensure the greatest return. 

Two opportunities are getting a great deal of buzz among marketers that, only recently, were not on the radars of most small business owners: 

• A new generation of social media marketing tools now makes it possible for businesses to connect with prospects and customers more easily and inexpensively than ever before. With it, a new paradigm has emerged for getting to know your customers and letting them learn about your company. 
• Because of last year’s federal stimulus package, entrepreneurs have an unprecedented opportunity to sell to the government, which has tremendous buying power and a mandate to buy from small companies. Even if you never thought you would have products or services that the government was seeking, you might be surprised to learn of some of the needs of America’s largest buyer of goods and services.