What is marketing?
According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing the definition of marketing is -
Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.
Translating this into something a bit simpler - selling more to more people.
To be successful in marketing there are some key areas you need to define before you start on your marketing journey.
The first of these is know your customer, and this applies whether you are a product-orientated business or a customer-orientated business. When you know who your customer is, what they think and what they like, you can develop products or services which will meet their needs and then start to develop ways to present your business to them.
If you are starting in business you probably have a product or service which you want to promote. Before you do anything you need to make sure you have an interested market. It's no good spending a fortune on marketing your new business if there isn't anybody interested in buying it.
Test Your Market
You need to test your market. Do ask friends and family - but they are likely to give you a warm reception - 'Sounds like a brilliant idea' etc. OK, so this may give you some confidence to take another step but you should take the advice of someone with business experience. A very good free place to start is your bank. Your bank will have business managers. Their job is to manage business bank accounts and they will have a lot of financial understanding and experience of having seen similar businesses. Another good call is the free initial introduction accountants offer, again as an accountant they will have the experience of how different businesses perform. These are two free options - if you want a qualified assessment including market research then a business consultant will be able to provide you with a hard fact based assessment - although you will have to pay for this it could well be money well spent. Have a look through some old Dragons' Den episodes to see the number of inventors / new businesses who have developed and invested money and time into something that nobody will ever want - and there have been some serious amounts of money wasted on ideas.
Customer Research
So having decided you have the service or product that people will want you need to undertake some customer research, so you can understand your customer's needs. Understanding this can be the difference between success and not much success. Why? Because what your customers see as important may not be the same as what you see as important. To illustrate this - how many times do you come across websites that do nothing for you, they are all about 'We' - 'We do this' - 'We are important because' - 'We, we, we'. Nothing about what is important to you the customer.
So do test your new product and see if retailers are interested in it. If it is a service you are going to provide knock on doors and ask if anyone is interested.
Finding Your Customers
You now know that your business has legs, you now need to find customers. You need customers because customers will give you cash and cash is what you need to have a business. To gain sales you need to find your customers and communicate to them about what it is you can do for them. This is the beginning of your marketing journey. Below are links to more information about each of these marketing practices.
