An idiots guide to marketing?

[BenTargett]

Good afternoon all,

Having read through a number of posts on the board I have started to drag together a list of the types of things small business owners should be doing and how they can go about doing it, creating myself an idiots guide (Because that's what I need!)

I thought I might start a thread to pull together some of the sources of information that are of use to non-marketing professionals like me.

I'll start with a few I have found useful so far:

Hubspot - Free to sign up with video guides to the basics of "marketing"
Yoast - A plug in for Wordpress, with video guides to SEO
Google - Plenty of advice in the adwords and for business sections

So, care to add any other sources..?

 

[AllUpHere]

You can't beat good old fashioned common sense.

Marketing isn't rocket science, 90 % of it is common sense.

Get a good understanding of the principles of a strategic approach to marketing, before you spend a penny on promotional marketing and you will be head and shoulders above the majority of your competition.

 

[Haindiary]

So much about marketing.
Online strategies:
a website, SEO, e-mail newsletters;
mobile marketing: applications, mobile versions of the site;
CRM systems: customer data;
IP telephony;
IT systems: Internet portals;
Here's another interesting checklist marketer. Overall. From the results of which you look at the right options for your business.
Initial desk research of all aspects of business

a) Cycle and composition of the transaction
Cost of treatment;
The time from the first appeal to the conclusion of the contract;
Customer cost;
Re-sales, after-sales related products or services;
Statistics on sales for the time period.
b) Interview with buyers
Why purchased the product? What was the value? What compared? What played a decisive role in the purchase?
How did you find our offer?
What did you think of it? Would recommend to someone?
Would you return again if the need arises?
What could be improved?

c) Interview with sellers
What questions are asked by customers?
Are there any sales scripts?
The main difficulty in communicating with the client?
The client usually understands well and knows what he asked for?
What are the most difficult and easy customers? Why are they like that?
The cut for the largest and smallest transactions for the last year: where did the client come from, who participated in the sale, time to close the transaction, marginality.

d) Target audience
- Segmentation:
Identify the main segmentation criteria from different classifications (geographic, socio-demographic, behavioral, psychographic, B2B segmentation);
Describe each segment, determine the size and growth potential;

Identify the key needs of each segment;
Identify expectations and products for each segment;
Identify the barriers in the mind, the negative and the problems for each segment;
Develop typical characters for each of the segments;
Develop a customer-journey path for each type of character.

 

[Mark T Jones]

It's easy to get too bogged down in deep theories; or worse still be led into 'magic bullet' discussions about marketing media

Before you do any of this, stand back and ask yourself - in some details these questions.

- Who is your perfect customer?
- Where do they hang out (literally and metaphorically)?
- What specific benefits will you bring to them?

'Putting the word out' is the reward you give yourself for the hard work of identifying your customer & their needs.

 

[Ziggrs]

Mark just wrote great summary of marketing basis in a few sentences. By recognising all these points you need to find out the best way how to approach these targeted people and sell them your unique proposal. Using common sense and logic is best way to do it

 

[mannierichardson214]

Read some books:
"Marketing For Dummies"
"The Innovator's Dilemma"
"Kotler On Marketing"