Introduction. Increasing the competitiveness of small towns and historical settlements is an important task of state and municipal government, which is reflected in strategic planning documents at all levels. The national policy of increasing their role and importance in the country's spatial organization system and the already formed trends demonstrating the growth of tourist flow in small towns, positive reproductive attitudes, indicate the need to create a sustainable «demand for small towns» and, along with external support, require the mobilization of internal resources of places, their self-determination and giving a «unique meaning», which is perfectly facilitated by territorial marketing. To this end, the authors have developed practical and methodological recommendations for using certain strategic marketing tools based on the accumulated experience of developing strategic planning documents in the Vladimir region.
Materials and methods. The strategic aspects of territorial marketing have formed the methodological basis of this study – the construction of a focused profile of the development of small towns and the positioning of small settlements. In order to develop practical and methodological recommendations on the use of strategic marketing tools aimed at increasing the competitiveness of small towns, methods of generalization and systematization of the experience gained by the authors in developing strategic planning documents in municipalities of the Vladimir region have been applied.
Results and conclusions. To increase the competitiveness of small towns, an algorithm for the formation of a territory profile focused on «growth points» and recommendations for the positioning of places have been proposed. Using the example of municipalities in the Vladimir region, an approach to defining strategic priorities and graphically interpreting priority areas with «growth points» within them has been demonstrated. Basing on the materials developed with the participation of the authors of the strategies, the content of the main elements of the goal-setting stage in the chain has been revealed: vision – mission – strategic directions – strategic priorities – goals and objectives – «growth points», the possibilities of using territorial and sectoral approaches to identifying «growth points» have been demonstrated. In order to reveal the thematic potential of small towns, the information sources used by the authors in developing strategies in the process of searching for the identity of places have been systematized, practical experience in positioning and branding municipalities based on a unique name, historical and natural features of places, economy and crafts has been analyzed.
Discussion. Ensuring a stable competitive position and increasing the tourist attractiveness of small towns and historical settlements indicate the need to redirect investments into small settlement formats. Along with external support, the focused allocation of limited resources of territories and the search for the identity of places becomes important. Marketing tools help small towns become a so-called «place with meaning» and increase interest in the territory from significant target audiences. The generalized experience and methodological recommendations for their application, proposed by the authors, have been tested on the example of a number of municipalities in the Vladimir region and may be useful for improving the competitiveness of other territories.