How to Market a Business

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Increasing the volume of your sales or making your products known especially if you are just starting your business is never easy. Hard work, diligence and advertisements just are not enough.

Finding your target market and developing a strategy to market your products is the best way to increase your sales and making your products known.

The dictionary defines marketing as the “total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling”. For businessmen, however, marketing means more than just transfer of goods from the seller to the consumer. It involves determining the demand of the consumer and meeting such demand through the goods or services that are offered and promoting such goods and services to potential customers.

The mechanics of marketing can be simplified into three categories, research and analysis, development of strategy and preparation of the budget. This article would focus on research and development of strategy. Marketing does not merely mean advertising. It means being able to pinpoint the particular market or group of people one is advertising on and recognizing the product that is in-demand or could potentially be in-demand. Research involves both non-published data, such as customer interviews, questionnaires, sales analysis reports and the likes, and published data such as those readily available through government agencies or census information. The goal of your research is to know your customers better. What do they want? What do they need? Given the location of your business, how many competitors do you have? What are the products that are in the market and how can you compete with them? Remember that what you are selling is not only the product but the results and quality of your product and the name of your business. One badly manufactured product can have adverse effects on your entire business and conversely, one outstanding product can increase all of your sales. Try to look into both the economic trends, such as employment, mortgage and debt rates, as well as political and social trends such as current government policy and demographics of age, sex, nationality, lifestyle, income level and the likes.

Once you’ve studied your market you are in a better position to know what they want and how best you can address that want. You can try promos like discounts and added products or special offers during specific days or hours of the day. You may also tie-up with other businesses for servicing your product or for advertisements. If you are a manufacturer of gym equipments , for example, you may want to tie-up with the local fitness centers for advertisements as well as provide discounts to such fitness centers. Another strategy may be to re-invent your product or its packaging to meet the demands of your consumers. Advertising and publicity are also great ways of promoting your product.

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How to Market a Business

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