Marketing

MARKETING

Marketing is something that is essential to all businesses if they are to been successful and yet it is something that many businesses do very badly.You can have a fantastic website with excellant products but if nobody sees it you are not going to sell anything.

The purpose of your website

The purpose of your website is to sell your products or services.Be sure to keep the site focus on business and not on yourself.Customers do not care about you or your life but about what you can offer them to improve or enhance their lives.Be sure to offer free items and always have a way of capturing those all important email addresses.Offer a newsletter,a questionaire or even a survey to get the customer to part with their addresses and once you have the addresses use them.Invest in an autoresponder and learn how to use it.

One of the first rules of marketing

Test and measure every aspect of your marketing campaign.Test all your marketing methods and every ad,headline,sales letter,email etc.Are the methods successful,did they make a profit,if so how much and at what cost.If the returns are good continue to use the ad etc.Discard any methods which show poor results.

Advertising

There are two types of advertising.

Brand Name
The advertising is gear to build and increase awareness of a companies brand.This method is really only used by the big boys of business like Coca Cola as it is costly.

Direct Response
We advertise,it produces a response so allowing us to know instantly wether it is working or not.We can then decide whether to discard it or continue running it.

Writing a ad.

When you write a ad it should always be personal,put yourself in the customers shoes and address the customers needs,desires,fears and hopes.Show the customer how your product or service will benefit and satisfy their needs.Remember the golden rules when writing that ad.

ATTENTION Capture the customer attention
INTEREST Keep the customers interest
DESIRE Make the customer want or need your product or service
ACTION Encourage the customer to take action.E.G Order

Pay attention to any ads that you read.Take notice of the ones you like and dislike.Keep a copy of the ones you like and use them as models for your own ads.

Marketing strategies

You will need to have a marketing strategie or plan in place to promote your business.Some of the following are methods you can use

Online marketing

Search Engines
Free and paid ads
Viral marketing
Ezines
Link exchanges
Email

Offline marketing

Business cards
Brochures
Printed ads
Radio
TV

Always present a professional image in all your marketing methods as you only have the one chance to make a good first impression.

Customers

While your marketing methods are gear towards attracting new customers be sure to look after the customers you already have.Follow up with them turn them into friends and they will buy from you for years.
Good luck in your marketing efforts

All the best
Sue
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