Download Key Strategies to Marketing on a shoe string

MARKETING IS BRINGING INFORMATION TO CUSTOMERS SO THAT THEY ARE
ENCOURAGED TO BUY. MARKETING DOES NOT EQUAL ADVERTISING ONLY.
What is Marketing
Marketing is an attitude of mind about satisfying customer needs and wants, which could make all
the difference between success and failure in your business. You cannot underestimate the
importance of marketing to your business.
It involves identifying customer’s needs and wants and satisfying them – at a profit or in a way
which achieves the objective of the organisation/business.
Planning ahead for a profitable future by assessing an ever changing market.
Selling goods that don’t come back to be business to the customers that become repeat
customers to the business.
It is important to get the product/service:
1. To the right place
2. To the right time
3. At the right price
The term marketing sometimes causes confusion. Some see selling or promotion of product or
service and marketing as the same thing but Marketing and Selling are NOT the same thing.
The Sales-orientated business is driven by what the sales people can sell. A sales-oriented
business makes profit based on what the sales people involved can sell through the process of
persuasion.
A market-orientated business follows a process of:
 Finding customers
 Finding out what their needs are
 Satisfying the customer needs
 Keeping those customers
 Adding new customers.
The Aim of Marketing
Key Strategies to Marketing on a shoe string budget
 Know the size of your market, your competition and what they offer, how you are
positioning yourself in the market, where is the profit in the market and the growth – how
you will focus your marketing campaign in these areas.
 Know your customer(s), what they need/want, their profile, how to reach them, their
spending power as users & buyers, who makes the decisions, frequency of their
purchases, extra product lines or services, product enhancement, what customers think
of product/service, is the product or service branded, is price right, product/service life
cycle, specials, personalised/customised products/services, returns or service
improvement policy and very important after sales service requirements.
 Identify why you are different from your competitors – future proof what you are planning
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What would your customers look to buy - your product, your services – use local media,
radio, papers, poster in prominent places, target specifically well used places in the
community etc, consider setting up a website. Use email as far as possible but
remembers that using email requires the setting up of a customer database - (very useful
business tool in any case).
Build a customer database – marketing should earn company money Consider your “Brand” – Brand Marketing different - product/service awareness is
purpose of brand
Encourage your customers to spend more and shop more often – Promotions – they
bring in customers earlier.
Plan your marketing activities – decide appropriate times of year – seasonal interests,
weather, types of customer groups
Track and measure everything – train customer to do referrals for you – no cost to
company.
Secret of turning a small marketing budget into a creative and effective marketing budget
 Use lots of marketing strategies at the same time – targetted at all times with a specific
purpose in mind.
 Invest return from marketing strategies back into marketing budget within the company.
 Test, track and measure everything you do. Don’t waste money on ineffective marketing
strategies.
Questions to ask before starting in business with regard to your marketing strategy
 How important should marketing be to my business?
 Do I really need marketing when I am a small business?
 Do I need a marketing budget?
 Do I know my customers and how loyal are they?
 How can I explore the active and passive strategies of marketing
 Direct marketing promotion - Response rates = ½ -1% is normal but how much useful
feedback will this provide for your business - Send 100 - 99 messages are ignored – is it
worth it given the cost?
 Research studies have proven that there are three days in the week when marketing
information is best to send out. These are Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Key learning
point, make sure the information is received and awareness is raised with customers – is
it worthwhile to follow-up communication by direct contact, telephone or visit?
 Essential to communicate with customers – must have a regular communication strategy
in place in the organisation. - relationship management is key to customer loyalty and is
more effective that “sales literature”.
 Consider where you can add value to your product or service – do not discount if
possible.
 Consider the fact that more information required by buyers in a tighter market.
If using a “Marketing Website” it must be visually attractive and must use best practice visual
strategies. The website must be user friendly and give the customer what they want, quickly and
easily. The website must be content relevant with no jargon. Consideration should also be given
as to whether the website is for information purposes only, or whether it should be interactive.
Finally, if you wish visitors to your website to be able to make a purchase you must provide this
service for customers in a secure way.
Demonstration demos are also used to provide information to new and prospective customers.
The information on the demo must be kept relevant and up-to-date at all times.
ENDS 2011