Most people tend to think that marketing equals promotion: an ad on television; a poster on the subway a promoted post on Facebook. By definition, “marketing” is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services. But in practice, it’s a much larger and broader discipline.
As a small business owner, marketing is integral to your success, but if you don’t have a background or past experience in it — where do you start? If you look past the viral marketing fads, guerrilla gimmicks, and multi-million dollar ad campaigns from the Fortune 500 world, you’ll start to see that marketing is both a science, and an actual art.
Marketing is the entirety of how you present yourself and your business to the world. From how you identify your customers, to understanding your competitors and your advantages over them, to social media and ads in the newspaper. It’s the raw data of who your business serves, the way you price your products and services, to the way you talk about yourself on your website, to neat idea you have for a holiday sale.
So what are the basic ideas?
- Offering a product or service that you can produce consistently and with quality.
- Identifying who your target customers are
- Finding cost-effective channels through which you can reach your audience
- Developing consistent, thoughtful communications with your current and potential customers
- Delivering the products, services, and benefits you’ve promised — never promise what you can’t deliver
- Learning from what you do, listening to your customers, and repeating
Are you worried that you don’t have the time to take this on? In this series, we’ll take you through the basics of marketing your business, and show you how to incorporate these tools and practices into your daily work. The series will cover:
- Understanding your market and customers
- Your brand and unique value proposition
- Creating a marketing plan for your company
- Developing campaigns
- Digital marketing strategies, including websites, email, and social media
- Advertising basics: Where to start
- Targeting new customers and retaining your existing ones
We’ll provide some real-world examples along the way, and arm you with the tools you need to bolster your business, and to create new jobs in your community.
Is there a specific topic you’d like to see us cover? Let us know in the comments! If you’re interested in finding a marketing advisor to help your small business grow, check out our advising program.