Studies show that most growing businesses plan to maintain or increase spending on marketing and business development in the months ahead as the economy recovers. Moire Marketing Partners, a strategic branding and communications agency specializing in professional service firms, offers these five small business development tips to help you become more competitive in 2010:

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1. Build ROI into your marketing plan. Reviewing and evaluating your previous marketing plans as part of the business development process will help you create a more strategically focused marketing approach. If you haven’t used metrics to evaluate your marketing, you’ll want to identify objectives and measurements of success for the year ahead. This process will allow you to see which marketing tactics have produced positive results, bring new opportunities to the forefront, and focus more time and marketing dollars on measurable efforts that reach your target audience.

2. Use social media to reach your audience. When considering social media, think about how it will fit within your current marketing strategy, and whether or not the people you want to reach are using these platforms. For example, are you trying to establish yourself as a thought leader? Interact with customers, prospects, and peers? Drive traffic to your Web site? Build awareness of your brand? Social media can help you achieve all those goals, but before diving in, remember to listen and contribute to conversations where you can provide something of value.

3. Create brand ambassadors. Your employees should be armed with key messages that can help them become informal spokespeople for your brand. These brand ambassadors raise awareness of your brand and the benefits you offer customers. This creates a culture of strategic involvement that unifies a business and allows everyone to speak with one voice.

4. Check in with customers. Make sure your customer relationships are on solid footing by touching base regularly. Institute a formal customer service program to show customers they are important to you, and identify potential areas where you can grow the relationship. The opportunity to build trust, encourage dialogue, and foster meaningful relationships is vital to the success of your business, your brand, and your customers’ happiness.

5. Turn former employees into referral sources with an alumni program. In a competitive marketplace, alumni programs have become an important tool for developing new business and promoting your brand. Gauge your company’s culture and decide what initiatives would work best to achieve your goals: events, publications, or online forums.

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