Why Marketing 101?
The business marketing world is not without its charlatans promising the moon if you’d only put your trust in their secret techniques/program/software for success in marketing and sales.
Small business owners have better things to do—like producing and delivering valuable products and services for their customers—than sort out the truth from the trash. No one would blame you if you ever found yourself feeling overwhelmed and confused, and thinking effective marketing is out of reach.
That’s why we’ve put together this primer on marketing basics: Marketing 101 for small business owners.
If you look past the fads and gimmicks and complicated marketing techniques, you’ll find that marketing is a science. And like any other science, the more you understand the basics, the easier it becomes.
Contents:
Lesson 1: How to Detect Bad Advice
Lesson 2: What is Marketing?
Lesson 3: The 7 Customer-Building Basics
Lesson 4: Evaluate Your Own Marketing
Lesson 5: Utilizing the Web for Business
Lesson 1: How to Detect Bad Advice
As business owners, we all want more customers—and the faster/easier/cheaper it is to acquire them, the better… right?
Yes, of course. We can certainly agree on that.
But it’s important to realize there are no real shortcuts to customer acquisition. You need to put the work in and establish a systematic approach… that’s the only viable road to long term consistent success.
So how do you spot the difference between a fad or gimmick and a legitimate tried-and-true marketing practice?
People tend to fall for bad marketing advice when they have misunderstandings, confusions or false information about what marketing actually is and how—and why—it should be done.
So your best defense against making poor (and costly) marketing choices is to truly understand the basics of marketing… and then evaluate any new marketing advice you come across against this.
If you do this, you will soon become adept at discerning which advice is worth considering—and which you should drop like a hot brick.
Lesson 2: What is Marketing?
Marketing isn’t just putting up a slick business website and waiting for sales to come pouring in. There’s a bit more to it.
You can read a detailed explanation of what marketing is in our Marketing vs. Selling article.
Some important points to keep in mind about marketing:
- Marketing is an ongoing process, not a one-time project.
- Promotion and marketing are not the same thing. Promotion is just one of many aspects of marketing (and usually one of the last steps of the marketing process).
- Marketing starts with product conception—determining the needs and wants of customers and then researching and developing products and services that excel at meeting those needs.
- Marketing involves pricing your products in the sweet spot where you maximize overall profits (balancing a low enough price to encourage a sufficient volume of sales and a high enough price to keep profit margins good). Pricing also involves planning strategies such as offering coupons, discounts, etc. to fuel sales.
- Once you’ve developed your products and priced them strategically, you need to work out distribution channels—i.e. how are you going to make your products available and accessible to customers?
- Promotion can only be done effectively once you have researched and developed your products, priced them strategically to optimize cash flow and profits, and set up sufficient distribution channels. Without successfully completing the full marketing cycle, promotion is expensive and will fall flat.
Lesson 3: The 7 Customer-Building Basics
So what is the fundamental basic process of successful marketing?
High-volume sales, customer acquisition, and overall success results from:
- Offering a valuable product/service you can produce/execute uniformly and consistently.
- Identifying your target audience(s), potential consumers who will find value in your product/service.
- Making your products/services easily accessible, and actively asking for and closing sales.
- Finding cost-effective communication channels through which you can reach your target audience.
- Communicating well (and frequently) and building affinity with each target audience through the appropriate channels.
- Delivering the products, services, and benefits you’ve promised your consumers. Never promise what you can’t deliver.
- Repeating and expanding the process.
That’s it—no smoke or mirrors necessary. These marketing basics apply both to online and offline marketing and promotion, and are as applicable to the smallest mom-and-pop shop as they are to the largest multinational corporation. Apply your skills and talents as you learn the basics, honestly and fully follow these steps, and you will achieve success.
Lesson 4: Evaluate Your Own Marketing
If your business is currently struggling (or even if it’s doing well), review the definition of marketing and the basic marketing process to determine where you might improve your efficiency and effectiveness.
Ask yourself questions such as…
- Have you developed products and services that meet a real need of your actual customers?
- Have you surveyed your customers (or just talked to them) to discover how they feel about your products and what you can improve?
- Can you make further improvements to your products to get them to the point where your customers feel they cannot live without them?
- Have you priced your products low enough to make them affordable to your target customers?
- And have you priced them high enough that you’re making sufficient profit on each sale to make it worthwhile?
- Do you have special pricing strategies (coupons, discounts, sales, etc.) in place to encourage people to buy your products consistently and repeatedly?
- Have you made your products easily accessible to customers?
- Are they available through multiple channels (e.g. in your store, on your website, through third-party distributors)?
- Are they always in stock when your customers want to buy them?
- Do you have a promotional plan in place?
- Are you promoting consistently and continually?
- Are you testing your promotion to find what works best?
- Are you reinforcing successful promotion and dropping/tweaking ineffective promotion?
- Are you investing enough into promotion to get your sales to the level you need in order to be viable?
These and other questions will help you evaluate your strengths as well as areas where you can improve. From there, you can build a strategic plan for taking your marketing to the next level.
Lesson 5: Utilizing the Web for Business
Most successful businesses maintain an online internet presence to help achieve their business goals. This includes…
- A business website showcasing the brand and promoting its products and services
- Ecommerce to sell products directly online
- Social media for public relations and communications
- and various other online channels.
At the heart of any successful online marketing is the business website. Building a successful business website can result in increased brand and product awareness, goodwill, sales and profits for a business.
But many businesses struggle to get results from their website, simply because they don’t have a full grasp of the basics of how to provide an excellent user experience on their website.
See our article about how to make a website that gets results.
If you use WordPress for your website, check out our detailed WordPress Tutorial to help you get your website set up and configured exactly the way you want it.
You Can Do It—Make Your Marketing Awesome!
It’s not a quick fix; like running other aspects of your business, it requires skill and focus. But implementing these marketing basics is well worth the effort, resulting in long-term stability and success.
If you need help with any aspects of your marketing, or have any questions, let us know in the comments below (or contact us). Please be as specific as possible when asking questions, so we can reply with detailed information. We’re always happy to share helpful advice and direct you toward useful resources!
How could i market a copiers repairing firm
Hi Jude, I’d suggest putting together a professional-looking website that demonstrates the value of your services. Then I would focus on building up a mailing list (either email or postal mail) of people who own or are in charge of maintaining copiers. Stay in good communication with them via your mailing list to stay top-of-mind so when they need maintenance for their copiers they will contact you. This is just a general plan — you’d need to plan out all the specific details. There are a lot of variations to this marketing plan you could do, based on your particular… Read more »
How would you market a translation/interpreting agency?
Hi Ailie, marketing a service agency such as yours follows the same basic principles of marketing that would apply to any other business. Essentially it comes down to figuring out exactly who your ideal target audience is, finding some communication channels through which you can reach them, and then presenting something to them that will grab their interest. From there you capture their contact info as leads and continue following up with them to nurture them into paying customers. Those are the basics, but there are various approaches you can take to achieve this. If you need guidance in designing… Read more »
how to market medical device to a doctor ? Which we designed recently?
Hi Srikaanth, the marketing basics are the same no matter what your product is. It’s important to have a good product that solves a real problem. Given a good product, the next most important thing is to discover as much as you can about the people who are your target customers — the people who make the decisions to buy. In your case, you will need to do your research to find out who makes buying decisions for hospitals, doctors, or whoever your specific target audience is. Learn everything you can about them — what problems they’re trying to solve,… Read more »
How can I Market a smart homes (wifi based) company .. problem being the market doesn’t have any competitors in the area which gives no market insights what so ever , any advice ?!
If you have no competitors, it most likely means one of two things: (1) You’re the first to enter the market in your area, or (2) Other companies have tried and failed in your area. Your market research would include first finding out how much potential your market really has. Find out how many potential customers there are and if they need/want products like those you are offering. Find out if other companies have tried and failed in your market. If your research leads you to believe you can be profitable in your market, your next step is to research… Read more »
I just got hired to work for a podiatrist. He wants me to do some marketing, something I have never done yet. Its easy for me to talk and connect with folks, I’m fun, goofy and easy going, plus I’m 62. I want to be a success, but my computer skills suck. What advise can you give me ??
The most fundamental thing to know about marketing is that all marketing activities are ultimately aimed at achieving one thing: communication between you and your customers/supporters. By “communication” I DON’T mean “talking AT somebody”. That’s not communication. Communication is the sharing of ideas. It includes getting others to agree with your ideas and you considering and agreeing with their ideas. It’s a two-way street that builds mutual agreement, affinity and understanding. If you look at all effective marketing activities, they are all doing this very thing. For example, advertising attempts to share your ideas about your products/services with your prospects… Read more »
How do I market a singer (artist) who wants to gain a fan base and get a record deal?
That’s a good question, Aeru. I actually owned and operated a record label for many years, so I have a little experience in this area. The interesting thing about promoting musicians is that there are several different audiences to promote to depending on what your objective is. And to be successful you have to treat them as separate audiences and market appropriately to each audience. You mentioned you have two objectives: (1) gain a fan base, and (2) get a record deal. For gaining a fan base, you need to find out who and where those potential fans are. That… Read more »
How would you market a business with jewelry photography, retouching and video services?
The first step in marketing your services would be to do some research to discover who exactly your target customers are. Your business is a niche business, which is good because it lets you focus your marketing. But you may need to do some work in finding and growing a customer base that is large enough to support your business. Start by finding out who is buying services like those you are offering, and then find a way to get into communication with those people. You can do this in-person, via phone, through your website, advertising, email marketing, etc. If… Read more »
How to market Sealants and adhesives to consumer?
The first step is to do some research and figure out exactly who your ideal target customers are. You haven’t provided much detail about what exactly your products are, so you’ll need to look at it yourself and see who you think would most benefit from your products and be willing to pay for them. Is it home owners? Is it contractors? In your research you may also discover other good potential customers that aren’t quite so obvious at first glance. And, if part of your marketing plan is to sell your products through retail outlets (e.g. Home Depot), you… Read more »
Thanks for a great article! This was very helpful to me 🙂 I always looking for marketing advice from different sources. My favorites are Neil Patel blog and BitDegree courses. These two are a really great combination!
Thanks, Gabi. Glad you found it helpful!
Peter, I have been out of sales and marketing for about twenty years now. I was working as a drug and alcohol counselor but realized my true love was sales and marketing. Today I work as an independent contractor for independent pharmacies. My job is to bring in new patients to the pharmacy. So far I have been really stinking do that and I have only brought in one new patient in the almost one year I have been there. I have never stunk so bad as I do in this sales and marketing job. I used to be the… Read more »
Mark, your situation is actually very common. Don’t let it get you down. You’re doing the right thing, which is to seek out more knowledge on how to improve your situation and then do your best to implement what you know. I don’t personally have much experience with marketing pharmacies specifically, but the basics of marketing would apply. Here’s what I’d recommend as a starting point: -Make sure the “product” you are selling (in your case, the “product” is the pharmacy and the customer experience it provides) is high quality and meeting the needs and wants of its customers. I… Read more »
hi i was wondering the most effective ways to market a business as a marketing consultant? all our employees are independent and either sit with clients or refer clients. theres more than 30 agents marketing for one company.
Hi Tatiana — thanks for your question. To fully and properly answer your question, we would need to do some research into your business and the specific market you are targeting. We could then create a marketing program to help achieve your business goals based on your current circumstances. While the same principles of marketing apply to all businesses, the specifics of how it is successfully implemented is individual to every business. This is because every business and the environment in which it operates is unique. Your marketing program needs to be customized for your particular situation. If you are… Read more »