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Article:
Marketing 101 by: Erin Banister Marketing 101 What is marketing? Marketing is the activities of listening to client needs, assessing the competition and the designing and creating your services. This is accompanied by messages that will shape your audience's perceptions, and hopefully will to lead to opportunities for revenue. The main purpose of marketing is to deliver the right services to the right audience at the right time! Marketing is everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and client. Many people confuse marketing and advertising; think of it like this: Marketing is a pie, made up of slices of advertising, customer support, public relations, community involvement, media planning, market research, sales strategy, and product pricing/distribution. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the entire marketing strategy, and all of the pieces must work together and independently toward the bigger marketing goal. Strategize! To achieve superior marketing results, you must begin with analysis, then action. You must develop your strategy, and then logically implement it; this is the way to customer satisfaction and increasing your profit. The steps to use are: Analyze your clients and their business environment Identify your key opportunities (to better meet your clients needs) Figure out how to act on those opportunities Implement your plan Have a niche! Don't make the mistake of marketing your service before you've defined your client. If you do, you're just throwing your marketing money away. Think carefully about your service. Who would want to purchase it? How old is this person? What is their marital status? Where do they live? How do they like to spend their spare time? What are their hobbies? What other products do they buy? Where do they go on vacation? You need to develop this target as specifically as possible if you're going to market your service effectively. When you find your niche, get in their minds. You know what they like so now you can speak to them effectively, in their language, and gauge their key needs. Differentiation is essential; clients will flock to you if you completely meet their needs. If you highlight your talents you will find that clients are seeking XYZ talents. These clients are your foundation; they will be the people you can help the most. Conceptualize your brand! Keep in mind your branding techniques through all your marketing ventures. Your brand image is your company image, which is an integral part of marketing. This is how your customers see you, and successful branding evokes feelings/loyalties to your company. Brand image is how your customers recognize your company (via your logo and tagline) and how they feel about your products and services. You will also want to set a brand a high brand identity, which is your strategic goal for your brand; this is how you want to be perceived. Finding a way to integrate both of these into your marketing will make a profound impact on return business. Use different marketing techniques! If you're a coach, networking will be an integral part of the marketing plan. The key is finding the people you want to talk to, and then just letting them talk. Networking is not about selling anymore '“ online networking, for example, is most effective when individuals share information and discuss the issues. Nobody wants to see ads all the time '“ show your value right from the start and you'll have no problems. Marketing is involved in all aspects of the business from advertisements to correspondence to invoices, and is truly effective when practiced consistently. In addition to this define your brand right from the start, so the image that is portrayed is always in line with your brand identity. So, who are you and who are you portraying? About The Author Erin Banister is the president of TrinityJacobs '“ Your Personal Virtual Assistant. Erin's expertise includes marketing and desktop publishing, amongst other administrative specialties. For more information, visit http://www.TrinityJacobs.com. ebanister@trinityjacobs.com This article was posted on April '01
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