What you should know about marketing

Business owners who want their business to succeed for the long term would do well to learn everything they can about marketing. Effective marketing is the key to making sure that your business will grow and develop for a long time to come. Unfortunately, many business owners make the mistake of thinking that they don't have time for marketing or that a simple ad will be enough to bring customers to them. This can be a fatal mistake. Failing to market your business and what it offers can often mean the difference between success and having your business quietly fade away. Here is what you should know about marketing.

It is crucial to know how growth happens within a business. There are basically 4 different ways that you can increase the profitability of your company. You can use marketing to-
1. Acquire more customers.
2. Persuade every customer that comes in to buy more of what you sell.
3. Persuade every customer that comes in to buy more expensive products. This is known as up selling.
4. Persuade every customer that comes in to buy the products with the highest profit margin.
While each of these methods will increase your profit and bring growth to your business the first 2 methods is often the direct result of effective marketing. It is important to keep in mind that marketing is not just about getting more customers but also convincing the ones that you already have to buy more of what your business offers. There are certain steps that can help you to do this.

The steps that you can use to help your marketing be as effective as possible are as follows:
- Develop a strategic marketing plan that is based on sufficient market research. Putting together a marketing plan that is based on what you hope for or vague guesswork most likely will not be effective. Thorough market research will help you to determine who your target market is and how to best reach them.
- Gather insight from your current customers. You need to find feedback on what you're offering in order to find out if that is what your current customers want and if you can modify products or service in order to attract potential new customers.
- Know what your competition is doing in terms of price and marketing. You should never assume that you don't have competition. Every business has competition. The reality is that because of the internet today's consumer can shop from businesses around the world so it is imperative that business owners find out what how their competition is marketing and pricing and then respond appropriately.
- Focus on using solution marketing. You want to let your customers know that you are the solution for their need or want. Positioning your business as the expert in the field will help your customers to view you with trust and creditability. When they are looking for a solution to their need or want they are far more likely to turn to you if you have marketed yourself as the solution they are looking for.
It cannot be overstated the importance of determining your target market. The most common marketing mistake that new business owners make is thinking that everyone will want to buy their product or service. This is simply not true however; there will be a segment of the population who is more likely to buy your product or service. These are the people that you need to find. Sufficient market research will allow you to determine the demographics, buying habits, and needs of your target market which will in turn direct the efforts of your marketing.