Marketing your Business

To market your business, you must define your customer. To maintain consistent sales growth, you must become knowledgeable about your market. To help better understand your market, develop an outline of your “typical” consumer:

• Where do your customers come from? (city centers, suburbs, tourists, international)

• What are your customers buying patterns?

• Why should they buy from you? (convenience, price, quality, service)

• Should you try to appeal to a niche market segment or the entire market?

• Have you missed a new customer segment or special market?

• How large is the potential target market (in units or dollars)? Is it growing, stable or decreasing? What percentage of the market do you have?

Research will provide the answers to these questions and will help you create a successful marketing strategy. When creating a marketing strategy, keep in mind the four P’s of marketing:

• Product—What good or service will your business offer? How is that product better than those offered by competitors? Why will people buy/want it?

• Price—How much can you charge? How do you find the balance between sales volume and price to maximize income?

• Promotion—How will your product or service be positioned in the marketplace? Will your product carry a premium image with a price to match? Will it be an inexpensive, no-frills alternative to similar offerings from other businesses? What kinds of advertising and packaging will you use?

• Place—Which sales channels will you use? Will you sell online, or will your product be carried in retail outlets? Which channel will economically reach your market?

The marketing strategy should summarize your findings about the key target buyer, market segments the company will compete in, the unique positioning of the company and its products compared to the competition, and the reasons why your product is unique or compelling to buyers. In the case of building your business, knowledge is power, so know as much as you can about your potential customers. Once you land them, be sure to keep them with exceptional customer service.

More information about customer service coming soon, stay tuned!