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Marketing Basics - Wise Counsel
Category: Affiliate Marketing
When we ponder the world of marketing, we will discover that there are several concepts and misconceptions that need to be addresses. The basic definition of marketing describes the various tasks that determine your continuing efforts to meet the needs of your customers and, of course, that you are getting a valuable return for your efforts. One consistent misconceptions of marketing is that marketing only concerns your advertising your product or service. Though marketing your product is a serious consideration, it is only one component in the marketing process.
Developing a good understanding of the needs and wants of your customers and developing a plan that addresses those needs is the essential element of ‘marketing.’ For a business owner to want his business to grow is a natural aspiration. Giving close attention to ‘organic growth’ is the most effective way to help your business grow.
The most effective way to grow or expand a business is to focus on ‘organic growth.’ In order to understand ‘organic growth’, we need to realize that a business is a living organism. We can either let it fend for itself or we can determine what it needs to help it grow. By determining what the business needs we can thus determine what we need to do to make it thrive.
Let’s look at two basic elements of marketing to help us get a better idea of the activities that we need to do to create a successful business. The first element of marketing that we need to consider is ‘developing a marketing plan.’ The second element is your ‘ongoing promotion.’ A serious mistake that many business owners make is to create a product or service and immediately begin an advertising campaign. After a further explanation of these two basic elements, you’ll understand why this mistake can be a disappointing and costly one.
When we develop a ‘marketing plan’ or ‘marketing strategy’, we create a guide that is necessary for the well being of a business. The first consideration in creating a marketing plan is research and analysis. This is not as difficult as it may seem. It may take a little time but it will be well worth the effort.
Let’s begin by looking at a simplified explanation of ‘marketing analysis.’ We can apply two of Solomon’s Keys to Success at this point.
Proverbs 1:5 (NASB) “A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,” Wise counsel can be found in many forms. We should also remember, for those of us who think we know best, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.” Proverbs 12:15 (NASB) In a nutshell marketing analysis involves the following:
A well planned market analysis contains the following:
1.) Discover which groups of potential customers (or markets) there are,
2.) Determining our ‘target market’ or those clients that we prefer to serve,
3.) Determining the needs of our target market,
4.) Decide which of your products or services might meet their needs,
5.) Determining how our potential customers might use our products and services,
6.) Understanding what our competitors are doing,
7.) Determining the pricing structure that we should use and
8.) Developing a plan for the distribution of our products and services to our target markets.
There are a number of researching your target market that can be used to discover information about markets, target markets and their needs, as well as the actions that your competitors are trying, etc. The Internet has given us a great instrument for this type of research. A little refined searching on the major search engines will reveal many sources of specific information. You must remember to target your searches. Get specific!
After having developed our marketing plan, we should look at our plan for ‘ongoing promotions.’ Our plan for ongoing promotion will include advertising, public relations, sales and customer service to name a few. These terms (advertising, marketing, promotion, public relations and publicity, and sales) can easily become confusing. These are terms that are often used interchangeably. However, they refer to different but similar activities.
Look at a list of simplified definition of each term.
1.) Advertising — effectively presenting a product (or service) to potential and current customers. Advertising must be focused on one particular product or service. This demonstrates that an advertising plan for one particular product or service might not work for another product or service. Advertising is done with signs, brochures, commercials, direct mailings or e-mail messages, personal contact, website banners, etc.
2.) Promotion — Promotion can be defined as the tasks that maintain the product in the minds of the customer (product recognition). The ongoing effort of advertising, sales and public relations are often considered aspects of promotions.
3.) Public Relations — ongoing processes we use to ensure that our business has a strong and positive public image. This is referred to as “PR.”
4.) Publicity — being mentioned in the media. This is always the opinion (good or bad) of someone else but can include news releases.
These are only a few terms that are good to learn. The health and well being of a business, your business, is truly determined by the amount of diligent study that you do and the application of the principles that you learn through study. To best know your product or service or customers or competitors, you must develop a sincere determination to be as diligent as possible.
Memorize these success principles found in Solomon’s Proverbs to help you develop a growing and successful business.
Proverbs 10:4 (NASB) “Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
Proverbs 12:24 (NLT) “Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave.”
Proverbs 13:4 (The Amplified Bible) “The appetite of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the appetite of the diligent is abundantly supplied.”
Proverbs 21:5 (NASB) “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.”
Memorize this last Proverb. It will help you to focus on the tasks at hand.
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