|
|
|
Get More Customers – With Less Work!
A lot of website owners work tirelessly at increasing their traffic. They submit to FFA pages and classified sites. They participate in startup programs and pop under exchanges. There is no end to the gimmicks they will try, all in the hopes...
How To Hit The Competition Without Losing The Customer
Get over it! If you run any type of business, you're going to have competitors. Even if your product or service is a unique one, soon you'll have copycat products start surfacing. Competition is therefore just a fact of business life and one of the...
How To Ruin Good Customer Relations...In Two Easy Steps.
This article may be freely used in ezines, on websites or in e-books, as long as the by-line is left intact. Notification of publication would be greatly appreciated, and if possible, a copy of the relevant ezine or newsletter. Please send...
Loyal Customers Take Commitment
In today’s competitive world of retail, many stores are implementing external marketing programs designed to attract new business. Unfortunately, the cost can be very high with little return on investment. What is often lost in the mix is the fact...
Streamlining Customer Interaction for Business Success.
Whether on the phone placing an order or in the checkout line,
people hate to wait. Rarely am I physically present to make a
purchase in a place of business where the facilities are not
optimized for fast service. In those cases, it is often a...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
First Steps to Picking the Perfect Marketing Method For Your Home-Based Business
Part of running a successful business is making it grow. Home-based businesses are no exception. In fact, it can be even more important if you are just starting out or lack a potential client base. The key to growing a business is marketing.
Marketing is how you connect with individuals who may become customers or clients and includes methods such as affiliate programs, newsletters, trade shows, web sites, brochures, advertising, and more. The potential marketing methods available are almost limitless in scope and deciding on an approach may seem daunting, but a little preliminary effort can help you narrow down the field of options and help you make the best choices for your business.
Determine Targeted Audience
No matter what marketing method you choose, you first need to decide to whom you plan to market. Mass marketing to a general audience simply is not cost-effective for most businesses so you must decide early on which segments of society are most likely to purchase your products or services. Begin by asking yourself some simply questions:
* What needs does my product/service fulfill? * Will businesses or consumers be more likely to need what I offer? * Who are the clients I already have? * Who does my competition market to?
With the answers to these questions, you can begin to decide on your targeted audience. However, you can refine it further by contacting sample populations of that audience and getting feedback from them on whether or not they would be interested in your product/service. You can use surveys, chat rooms, email questionnaires, or telephone polls to generate that feedback.
Set a Budget
Many inexperienced business owners make a major mistake when they begin their marketing efforts: they do not set a budget. Without a budget, these business owners can easily find all of their profits being funneled into marketing efforts.
Before you make a decision about what types of marketing methods to choose, you need to first establish how much you can spend in order to receive the desired results. Most businesses use the 10% rule. According to this rule, if you decided to implement a marketing
program that would generate $5000 in monthly sales, then you should spend only $500 a month on marketing.
Applying the 10% rule prevents businesses from spending more on the marketing efforts than is generated by those efforts. You must also remember to be realistic. If you currently generate $200 a week in sales, do not anticipate marketing results of $10,000 a month and use that number as the basis for your marketing budget. Instead, start small at first and build on successful marketing attempts.
Evaluate Marketing Methods
There are a wide array of marketing methods available, but not all of them are appropriate for every business, audience, or product/service. Before deciding on a method, you need to carefully evaluate what will work best for your situation.
For example, if you run an online business, you may want to focus most of your marketing efforts on the Internet medium instead of mailing brochures to people who may not even own computers.
Also take into account your audience. If you are marketing to businesses, your methods will be different than if you are marketing to consumers. If you sell to parents, your methods are different than if you sell to college students. You may even need to develop more than one method in order to meet the needs of all of your potential audiences.
Finally, remember your budget. A television commercial may be more effective than an ad in the yellow pages but it may also use your entire marketing budget. To make the most of your budget, you want to start small and test your efforts before plunging into a major investment. After all, if the commercial flops, you won't have anything left in your budget for alternative marketing.
Once you complete these preliminary efforts, you can begin to explore marketing methods more effectively which will allow you to pick the methods which should provide the best results for your particular business.
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com - One of Internet's leading website dedicated to starting, managing and marketing a home based business.
|
|
|
|
|
|