What Marketing Do You Do?

[Findermonkey]

I read plenty of business/sales/marketing books and am constantly seeing that I should work ON my business not IN it.

What do you do specifically to work ON your business?

Personally, I am going to get stuck into some telephone calls this morning and try and get the details for the decision makers in each organisation. I have already been building relationships on Twitter this morning and this afternoon I am going to write a blog.

Anyone else got any pearls of wisdom?

 

[JamieM]

At the moment only adwords, Facebook and a bit of email.

 

[S-Marketing]

At the moment only adwords, Facebook and a bit of email.

That's not marketing, that's advertising, or more specifically marketing promotion.

 

[zukiestyle]

I do a lot of events at the weekends to get my name out there. People are already starting to recognise my name and images of my dogs in bandanas!
I use facebook, was just starting to get orders through my page then had to change it to timeline, now it is so confusing, my customers can't see who else has requested items/posts are disappearing and when images are tagged they are not showing. So if anyone can help me fix this I'd love your feedback!

I use twitter too, but have been told to not constantly update with products, to just try building relationships.

I have just sent my first mail out too using mailchimp. It's interesting to see exactly who opens and reads your mails!

I also have several stockists who help spread the word.

I'm interested to see what works for other people

 

[S-Marketing]

I do a lot of events at the weekends to get my name out there. People are already starting to recognise my name and images of my dogs in bandanas!
I use facebook, was just starting to get orders through my page then had to change it to timeline, now it is so confusing, my customers can't see who else has requested items/posts are disappearing and when images are tagged they are not showing. So if anyone can help me fix this I'd love your feedback!

I use twitter too, but have been told to not constantly update with products, to just try building relationships.

I have just sent my first mail out too using mailchimp. It's interesting to see exactly who opens and reads your mails!

I also have several stockists who help spread the word.

I'm interested to see what works for other people

That too, is also all promotion or advertising, and not marketing in the sense the Op is asking.

When people refer to working on the business rather than in it, they should be looking at marketing strategy, rather than simply arranging advertising and promotion.

 

[zukiestyle]

That too, is also all promotion or advertising, and not marketing in the sense the Op is asking.

When people refer to working on the business rather than in it, they should be looking at marketing strategy, rather than simply arranging advertising and promotion.

Can you expand more please, as would like to know more! I'm all for learning how to work on my business

 

[S-Marketing]

Can you expand more please, as would like to know more! I'm all for learning how to work on my business

What most people describe as marketing is actually just advertising, or as I said above, marketing promotions. If you actually want to improve your business and make more money you should be concentrating on strategy, and more specifically gaining advantages.

Advertising is what you do to communicate your offering to potential clients once you have got your marketing sorted. Personally i'm not a big fan of advertising for small businesses. A lot of the time if your marketing is up to scratch, you wont really need advertising.

If you want to be working 'on' your business in a marketing sense you should be looking to negotiate strategic alliances, researching lucrative opportunities in your sector, working on the internal structure of your business to gain maximum profit from what you do, looking to perfect your physical evidence to maximise conversions, or changing processes or maybe even tooling in your business to gain an advantage.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

 

[Zara Accountancy]

People are already starting to recognise my name and images of my dogs in bandanas!

I am intrigued, hopefully nobody would mind if you posted a linky with pics...

 

[JamieM]

That's not marketing, that's advertising, or more specifically marketing promotion.

Advertising is a part of marketing.

Plus social media and email 'marketing' is not necessarily advertising.

 

[S-Marketing]

Advertising is a part of marketing.

Plus social media and email 'marketing' is not necessarily advertising.

Yes it is. But its those who concentrate on these things who will find themselves left behind by those who work more strategically on the kind of things I described above.

We could argue about definitions and semantics all day. I purely make a definition between marketing and advertising to make my posts more useful.

 

[Findermonkey]

Good debate going on which is great. I think people (myself included) do get confused with the term marketing. Most business owners think that if they are advertising they are marketing when this isn't the case.

Although I would struggle to list 10 things that would constitute marketing, anyone?

 

[S-Marketing]

Good debate going on which is great. I think people (myself included) do get confused with the term marketing. Most business owners think that if they are advertising they are marketing when this isn't the case.

Although I would struggle to list 10 things that would constitute marketing, anyone?

Technically, as Jamie pointed out, if you are advertising then you are marketing. Reversely, when you are marketing you shouldn't usually be advertising.

I tend to make a very clear definition between the two as I find it helps clients to get 'on the right track'.

Many marketeers (although often ones fresh out of Uni) use the 7 P's of marketing (Google it) to demonstrate that promotion is only one seventh of your over all marketing plan. It is a good place to start though. All other decisions you make around the other 6 P's (price, product etc,etc) are also 'marketing'.

When you actually understand marketing you get to realise that everything you do in the course of business is marketing. There is nothing in business that cant be thought of or improved by looking at it from a marketing perspective.

 

[ludwig]

First off I came up with a product. It's by no means unique but all the serious competition was quite a way away geographically .
I then created a way of selling to my customers that gave them no good reason to not take my product.
I created some unique point of sale material that drew attention to what I consider to be my most important selling point (main one is that they are produced locally). I produced a simple web page and a blog to back this up. Also a page on facebook just for the hell of it.
Then I took my produce around and showed people. Everyone that I have approached so far bar one place has taken my produce.
Now I need to tweak the production so that I don't let anyone down and that is the hardest part so far.
This year has been a big step. I have produced a lot more and taken on more customers. The next two months are very important for my business

 

[businessfunding]

Many marketeers (although often ones fresh out of Uni) use the 7 P's of marketing (Google it) to demonstrate that promotion is only one seventh of your over all marketing plan. It is a good place to start though. All other decisions you make around the other 6 P's (price, product etc,etc) are also 'marketing'.

.

For goodness sake; I struggled to learn the 6P's - where has the other one come from?

 

[CKG]

Look up a guy called Jay Abraham - specifically his book 'Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got'.

It describes in detail the application of the type marketing 'Stretchy' is describing.

 

[S-Marketing]

For goodness sake; I struggled to learn the 6P's - where has the other one come from?

You must be really old.

When I was at University we were taught 4 for product marketing and 7 for service marketing. Although my belief is that all 7 should be applied to all businesses.

 

[businessfunding]

I'm ancient - I can even remember that 'Punk rock'

Seriously, I never got heavily into theory, but a very simple exploration of Ps (however many you choose) can reveal a lot about the business model, and help to focus thoughts.

Lots of people go on about 'seeing the big picture', but often it pays to concentrate on the smaller picture.

 

[S-Marketing]

Look up a guy called Jay Abraham - specifically his book 'Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got'.

It describes in detail the application of the type marketing 'Stretchy' is describing.

Jay Abraham is an excellent choice if you want to really understand what marketing is. He has loads of videos on-line if you don't want to buy the book.

 

[S-Marketing]

I'm ancient - I can even remember that 'Punk rock'

Seriously, I never got heavily into theory, but a very simple exploration of Ps (however many you choose) can reveal a lot about the business model, and help to focus thoughts.

Lots of people go on about 'seeing the big picture', but often it pays to concentrate on the smaller picture.

You are quite right. 90 % of marketing theory has little relevance to small businesses and is purely used by large companies to make tiny decisions. For a small business, looking at the smaller picture and making a couple of significant internal changes is much more effective.

Theory does have its place though. Simple theory is how we teach others to make great decisions.

 

[Moneyman]

What all you marketing boys forget. us 40 plus decision makers dont tweet facebook blog or whatever. We have friends we have actually met.
So if you are aiming at the higher up guys in an organisation; the people who have the time to read the tweets or do all that sort of thing are time wasters and not decision makers.

 

[S-Marketing]

What all you marketing boys forget. us 40 plus decision makers dont tweet facebook blog or whatever. We have friends we have actually met.
So if you are aiming at the higher up guys in an organisation; the people who have the time to read the tweets or do all that sort of thing are time wasters and not decision makers.

I hope you are not including me in your 'marketing boys' quote. See my signature.

 

[Banned]

I've always said it, Stretchy has always said it, and isn't it nice to see others now saying that social media isn't the way forward - unless your 12 and arranging a bottle of Lambrusco under a bridge somewhere with your mates.

All facebook etc are really good for, business wise, is cheap advertising to very few people who already know who and where you are. Yet some will have you believe that is marketing!

 

[zukiestyle]

Fantastic, thanks for all the advice here, very interesting to read what has been said. It's just as well as the flippin' timeline thing on facebook is really annoying me and I've lost hours trying to make my page more manageable!

 

[S-Marketing]

Fantastic, thanks for all the advice here, very interesting to read what has been said. It's just as well as the flippin' timeline thing on facebook is really annoying me and I've lost hours trying to make my page more manageable!

That is exactly the mistake people make with social media. They spend hours and hours on it with little results, but see it as something that is free. Its not free, it costs time, time that could be better used actually marketing your business.

I specialise in marketing service based businesses, and don't often get involved with online, retail or product based businesses, but would be happy to chat if you would like a few pointers.