Advertising, Marketing & PR

Understanding Marketing

It is hard to underestimate the importance of marketing. You may have the most fantastic, desirable, appealing product - but unless enough people know about it your business won't thrive.

Five main steps

Marketing is all about five things: understanding what you've got, understanding who wants it, finding the right way to present it, finding the right places to reach your customers, keeping track of what works.

• Understanding what you've got
  This means taking a good look at your business: looking at all your 'products' and services? What do you provide? What do your customers get, both in real terms and in terms of experience? What do you really excel at? What do they like about you?
• Understanding who wants it
  This means two things: analysing your existing customers to see who they are and where they come from (so you can get more of the same) and thinking about who else you could attract that might like what you offer.
• Finding the right ways to present what you've got
  Although this is all about image and setting the right tone it is anything but superficial. Unless you present your product in a way that appeals to the people you are trying to attract (and in a way that creates a strong, positive, clear idea of what you offer) your advertising spend will be wasted.
• Finding the right methods to reach your customers
  You know what you've got, you know who you want to reach and you've got great images, text (and maybe even a logo) - now you need to find places and ways to advertise that will reach those customers effectively.
• Keeping track of which methods work best
  Marketing costs money - not just the cost of adverts and literature, but the cost of your time. You have to keep track of which methods are working, what they cost and what they produce, so you can keep refining what you do.

Understanding what makes customers buy

As well as understanding who your customers are, you should also be aware of what motivates them. Some people are traditionalists, some are adventurous. Some are swayed by brands, others are more independently spirited. Some are keen on function, others are motivated by style. Whatever their motivation, understanding it - and appealing to it in your advertisements - is important to success.

That said, irrespective of their triggers, actually convincing customers to buy means: tempting them, giving them confidence, getting them excited, making it easy to purchase. Therefore all adverts should do the following:

• Display - attractively lay out your wares
• Reassure - show you're good to do business with
• Motivate - get people excited about buying
• Capture - make it easy for them to buy

Developing good habits

Like so many other aspects of business - financial management, health and safety, staff training, customer service - marketing isn't something you do once a year, it's something you do all the time. And just like paperwork and dealing with red tape, it isn't a good idea to let it build up. Get into the habit of thinking about how to promote your business and reach more customers all the time. Keep your eyes open for marketing opportunities. What papers and magazines are your customers reading? What competitions do your local papers and radio run? What events have you got coming up that you could do some PR on? What reciprocal links could you get on your website? Where are your competitors advertising?

Make time

They say that you should budget 5 - 10% of your turnover to spend on marketing. A really good rule of thumb is to spend 5 - 10% of your time on marketing. So, if you are fortunate enough to be working only forty hours a week in your business, then 2 - 4 of them - every week - should be on marketing. Most business owners spend far more than forty hours a week working. Yet how many can honestly say they spend even two hours a week dedicated to marketing?

Making the time to actively think about marketing will have a direct impact on your bottom line. Keep your eyes and ears open to what your competitors are doing and get into the habit of thinking about where else you could be advertising to reach your customers. What are they doing, reading or looking at that gives you an advertising opportunity?

Do the preparation

As with so many things, success is in the preparation. Even if you've been in business for years, looking afresh at what you do can have a major impact on the success of your adverts. Take the time out to review your products, customers, how you present yourself in your advertisements and at the marketing opportunities out there.

Take the next step in this section:

• Analyse your business