Marketing 101

Marketing is a powerful tool to boost revenue and grow your business. Effective marketing comes down to understanding your audience, using resources effectively, and playing to your strengths. In this article, we’ll take look at the basics of marketing.

Target customers

Every business attracts target customers. As a group, target customers are those most likely to use your products and services. Members of this group represent a specific demographic who share common characteristics such as age, occupation, and income.

Identify your target customers and determine what attracts them to your business. From there, create incentives especially designed to get your target customer in the door.

Assess your competition

Competitors draw customer’s attention away from your business. Understanding competitors and their marketing strategies can inform your marketing efforts. Learn what outlets competitors use to advertise their products and get a feel for your competitor’s online reach.

Once you’re familiar with the competition, pick and choose what works for you. Feel free to get ideas from similar businesses as well as find ways to set yourself apart.

Capitalize on your uniqueness

Talk to customers about what makes your business stand out. What unique product, experience, or environment do you provide? Incorporate it into your marketing. Use this knowledge to perfect your website, streamline advertisements, and tailor promotions.

Perfect your brand and voice

Use your brand and voice to reflect the character of your business. Capitalize on what attracts customers to your business. From your imagery to your décor to the type of employees your hire–your brand communicates what you’re about. Continue asking how you can stand out, establish trust, and increase visibility.

How can you stand out, establish trust, and increase visibility?

Regardless of your specific persona, keep things consistent. Keep your voice and tone consistent across your website, email, and social media outlets and strive to make your brand highly visible in every context.

Learn what works for you

Look at past marketing efforts and get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. Pinpoint what contributed to past successes and keep striving to increase traffic and profit.

Keep in mind that marketing to existing customers typically generates more upfront revenue than marketing to new customers. Keep these two groups separate when evaluating outcomes.

Cater to customers

Invest in marketing that maximizes visibility and plays to customer’s interests. Select social media platforms based on customer preferences and talk to customers about what products they gravitate toward.

Budget for success

Every business depends on marketing to boost revenue and sales. Yet few small business owners can afford to hire consultants or use expensive marketing tools.

Investing resources wisely. Focus on increasing customer traffic and generating revenue. Use tools like Smart Pickle that reduce workload and eliminate guesswork.

Stick to a plan

Once you’ve creating a marketing strategy, stick to it. Eliminate inconsistencies and decrease workload by creating a small team of employees dedicated to help marketing your brand.

That’s where Smart Pickle comes in. Once you have a plan in place, Smart Pickle keeps the promotions rolling – sending the right promotions at the right time to bring in the right customers all year long. With our tools, you’ll soon be expanding your reach and watching your business grow.

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