Develop a Marketing Strategy: Positioning for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

The website is new. In the storeroom there is still a box of last year's flyers, and the company car carries a slogan nobody in the business has used for ages. Each piece tells a different story. Customers aren't annoyed by it. They simply don't remember any of it.

A marketing strategy helps here. It answers the three questions above before money goes into ads, posts or new vehicle lettering. The order of the steps is a practical way of working, not a standard.

What is a marketing strategy?

A marketing strategy sets out how a company intends to reach its marketing goals. It is shaped by the market and the competition, and by what the business can manage in terms of staff, money and technology. A joiner with three people therefore needs a different strategy from a wholesaler, even if both want “more orders”.

Three terms are often mixed up. The specialist literature usually distinguishes them like this:

• Marketing concept: the overarching design for all activities in the market. According to the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKO), it includes a situation analysis, the marketing goals and strategies, and the planning and implementation of the measures.
• Marketing strategy: the part of the concept that defines the route by which the goals will be reached.
• Marketing plan: the operational planning, meaning which marketing measures are actually carried out and which tools are used.

So a post or a new brochure is not a strategy. At best, it puts one into practice.

What types of marketing strategy are there?

A common way of dividing marketing strategies into four is the Ansoff matrix, also called the product-market matrix. It sorts growth by two questions: new or existing products, new or existing markets. That gives four directions:

• Market penetration: selling more of existing products in existing markets.
• Market development: offering existing products in new markets.
• Product development: new products for existing markets.
• Diversification: new products for new markets.

A second classification comes from Michael E. Porter. According to him, a company gains a competitive advantage through cost leadership, through differentiation or through focusing on a particular market segment, in other words a niche.

The “4 Ps” are often mentioned in the same breath, but they are tools: product, price, promotion and place. Combined, they are called the marketing mix. With it, a company puts the chosen strategy into practice in the market.

In our view, small businesses can hardly win on cost leadership, and diversification rarely comes up. Strategically, it is usually about differentiation or a niche, and so about positioning.

Why marketing strategies matter for small and medium-sized businesses

Austria's market-oriented economy consists almost entirely of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to KMU Forschung Austria, the Austrian Institute for SME Research, there were 604,123 SMEs in the market-oriented economy in 2024, which is 99.7 % of all companies in this sector (provisional figures). According to the Austrian Ministry of Economic Affairs, which relies on the same data for 2024, around 92 % of these are micro-businesses with fewer than ten employees.

That means few people, a limited budget, and the boss doing the marketing between two appointments. Without a plan, money gets wasted on people who were never going to buy. You are a little bit on every channel and properly on none. A strategy sets priorities that fit your budget and goal, and it says what you deliberately leave out. The scattergun stays in the cupboard.

Develop a marketing strategy in six steps

1. Situation analysis: take an honest look at strengths and weaknesses

It starts with a look at the business and its environment. The WKO distinguishes internal factors such as expected sales, production capacity and technical standard from external factors such as the market, the industry and the economy as a whole.

A common tool is the SWOT analysis: it sets internal strengths and weaknesses against external opportunities and threats. A sheet of paper with four boxes is enough. It also includes a look at the competition: what do they offer, where are they strong, where weak, and is there a niche nobody has taken yet?

2. Define your target group

“All companies in the area” is not a target group. For target group analysis, you divide the market into groups (segments) that are as similar as possible inside and as different as possible from one another.

The so-called STP model sums up the work in three steps: dividing the market into groups (segmentation), choosing the attractive groups (targeting) and standing out from the competition there (positioning). Buyer personas help, meaning written-out profiles of your target group: who makes the decision, what annoys this person, where do they search? That makes your messages more concrete.

3. Find your positioning and unique selling proposition

Positioning determines where a company places itself compared with the competition and what it wants to stand out with. Brand positioning is the same question, applied to the brand. The WKO describes the unique selling proposition (USP) as “the uniqueness and distinctiveness of a product, a type of business or an overall image” (our translation). People also often talk about the value proposition, the promise of benefit to the customer.

According to the WKO, a USP only works if it matters to customers, is noticed by them and is hard for competitors to match. Innovation consultant Hans Lercher puts it like this in an article by WKO Styria: “Either I find something I'm better at, or I find a niche that nobody has served so far.” (our translation)

A USP is rarely invented at a desk. Often it is already there in the business, for example in what satisfied customers praise without being asked.

4. Set measurable marketing goals

Marketing goals should fit the company's goals. Typical ones are turnover, profit, profitability and market share. The WKO recommends formulating goals as SMART: specific, measurable, active, realistic, time-bound. In other versions, the “A” stands for “achievable”. Only one thing matters: can the goal be checked? “Becoming better known” can't be checked; a certain number of enquiries from one region within a fixed period can.

5. Choose channels and measures

Only now do the marketing channels come in. Each one has to be measured against the positioning:

• SEO and local SEO: search engine optimisation brings organic, meaning unpaid, reach. Local SEO targets searches with a local reference, for example in Google Maps.
• Content marketing: expert knowledge in the form of blog articles or guides shows you know your trade before anyone gets in touch.
• Social media marketing: makes the business tangible and can raise brand awareness if the posts fit the message.
• Email marketing: a newsletter to contacts who have subscribed keeps the relationship warm and supports customer loyalty.
• Referral marketing: satisfied customers recommend you. You can't buy that, but you can look after it deliberately.
• Signs, shop windows, vehicles and printed matter: they work where potential customers walk or drive past.

Planning includes an advertising budget that fits the available resources. Whether paid advertising makes sense on top depends on budget and goal.

6. Measure and fine-tune

The market changes, so the WKO advises checking measures continuously and adjusting them when needed. That calls for key figures (KPIs, key performance indicators). A WKO guide for the construction sector names, for example, the closing rate, the ratio of marketing budget to turnover and the share of new customers who come through recommendations. For online channels, there is also the number of leads, meaning enquiries from prospects, and the conversion rate: how many visitors actually enquire or order.

Where a business ranks on Google and whether AI assistants such as ChatGPT or Perplexity mention it is, however, decided by the providers themselves. Clear details that are the same everywhere can help. Nobody can promise it.

Positioning doesn't stop at the screen

A positioning that only appears on the website is half finished. The same message belongs in the Google Business Profile, on the company sign, in the shop window, on the vehicle and on business cards and brochures. When the same thing appears consistently everywhere, people recognise the business more easily. Hans Lercher says in the same WKO article: “You don't become a brand by generating a logo.” (our translation)

Vehicle lettering isn't swapped as quickly as a post. Plotting is the easy part. The line that will then drive around town for years has to be settled beforehand. How design makes positioning visible is covered in Corporate design: goals, impact and benefits and in 5 tips for a consistent corporate design. What speaks for everything from one source is explained in Why full service saves time and money. For putting it into practice on site, see vehicle graphics and signage.

Twelve services, no clear profile

An invented example: according to its website, a plumbing and heating business offers “everything for the home”. The van carries a different slogan, and the brochure lists twelve services with equal weight.

The situation analysis shows that customers always praise the same thing in conversations: clean work in occupied homes, with no dust in the living room. The positioning is sharpened to exactly that. Target group: owners who live at home while the work is going on. The twelve services stay on offer but move to the back.

After that, the homepage, the Google description, the van and the business card tell the same story. Whether that brings more enquiries only the measurement will show.

Leaving things out is the hard part

On this we are blunt: if you offer something to everyone, nobody remembers you.

Plenty of businesses advertise with “high quality and good service”. That rarely works as a unique selling proposition, because customers can't check it. A good marketing strategy thinks long term, in years, and dares to move services to the back.

A strategy that only sits in a folder isn't one. It has to hold up on the company car just as well as on the website. That is why we combine strategy, design, digital implementation and production from one source. Our focus is on organic visibility.

Conclusion: thin, but checkable

A marketing strategy doesn't have to be thick. It has to answer three questions and stay checkable. Who are you, meaning which strength do your customers mention without being asked? Who is it for: which target group do you really want, and which not? And why you: what is the competitive advantage that others find hard to match?

If you want to know where your business stands today, request our free Visibility Check. We check your website, how findable you are on Google and in AI assistants such as ChatGPT, your Google Business Profile, your social media presence and how you come across on the street. You get three to five recommendations, ranked by impact. You can put them into practice with us or without us.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan?

The marketing strategy sets out the route by which a company intends to reach its marketing goals: for whom, with which positioning, using which levers. The marketing plan is the operational planning underneath. It determines which measures are actually carried out and which tools are used. First the direction, then the individual steps.

How do I find the right positioning for my business?

Start with what customers praise about you without being asked, and look at what competitors offer. A unique selling proposition only works if it matters to customers, is noticed and is hard to match.

Does a small business need a written marketing strategy?

Yes, but it doesn't have to be long. What matters is that the target group, positioning and measurable goals are written down and can be checked later. If you don't know where to start, you can begin with our no-obligation Visibility Check. You get three to five recommendations, ranked by impact.