Marketing includes every activity that helps to sell your products, goods or services. What are activities that help to sell what you are selling?
Marketing can be done many ways. It should not be viewed in the same way as advertising. Advertising is part of marketing, but marketing includes many other activities. Some marketing activities cost money, while others are free. Some marketing activities take little time and work, but others take a lot of time and work.
Marketing should be seen as the most important part of business. Marketing helps to find customers and sell what the business is offering. If nobody is buying, there will be no income, and the business will not succeed.
Think about your own business idea, or use Sally’s business idea as an example. How would you do the marketing and sell the products?
The marketing activities given below can be useful for any starting small business.
Word of mouth: Tell your friends and family members about your new business and that you are looking for customers. They will be happy to put the word out and tell others about your products, goods or services. If their word-of-mouth marketing bring customers to you, it is normal that they should get a small favour or commission from you for their work. Maybe they can get a free product in return. This marketing activity can be surprisingly effective. If it is done well, maybe no other marketing activities will be necessary.
Asking happy customers to tell others about your business: This should be done immediately after a sale is completed and when the customer is happy. A happy customer will tell many others about their good experience of doing business with you. Asking customers to tell others does not cost anything. But if that happy customer brings new customers to you, the same principle applies as with word-of-mouth: the person doing marketing work should get a small favour or commission from you. Maybe you can give the person a discount or a free product.
Putting up a sign: If you run a shop, production or service facility, it may be a good investment to put up a sign that gives information about your business. The sign helps customers to find your business. The sign advertises that your business is operating here. Include your business name, telephone number and maybe a nice picture that shows what your business is doing. The sign should be well prepared, clear to read, and the spelling must be correct. Whenever you move around town, it good to have a look around to find a good sign, take a picture of it and find out where to go and have a similar sign produced for your business.
Printing leaflets: It may be a good idea to print paper leaflets and distribute them around. A leaflet gives information about what your business is offering. This will help to make people aware that you are selling something that they might want and need. The information on the leaflet must be clear. There must also be clear instructions on how to find your business location and on how to get in contact with your business, including a telephone number, etc.
Free offers: One effective way of marketing is to offer free samples of products, goods or services. For example, you could employ a person to stand in the supermarket for a day, handing out small cups of fresh juice for free so that people can taste your product. If you are baking bread, it may be a good idea to break a loaf into small pieces and offer people bits to taste for free. After tasting the bread, people will know where to buy more bread if they like. If you provide motorbike maintenance service, why not offer to wash bikes for free on Saturdays? This will attract people with motorbikes to your business, and some of them will become your customers.
SMS and phone calls: Use lists you get from contact companies and communicate with customers to tell them about your new products and offers on goods and services.
Advertising and selling in social media: Advertising in social media can be done for free, and you can create an advertising page for your business. It is good to search the internet for good samples from other businesses and make your own page in a similar way. Copying a good idea from others also works well if you want to make a business website. A key to success is to contact your market (those who may be interested in what you are selling) and let them know that you have a social media or internet site.
Giving a business presentation: For some businesses, it may work well to have the sales people arrange a business presentation. A juice producer may want to invite restaurant owners to visit the plant to see how fresh juice is produced. A motorbike repair shop may want to invite bike owners to come and visit the repair facility to see a demonstration on how to repair a punctured tire on the road. A catering specialist might want to visit a school and give a presentation to teachers about catering services, including small samples to taste for free.
Think of ideas that all these people could use to market their business. Be as creative as you can.
Look for advertisements in social media. Find one site that you think is advertising well. See the links for more information.