Marketing?

Hello, lets talk about Marketing, what it is, some of the different forms of Marketing available and why Marketing is important in your business/for your business, whether you’re a profit business or non-profit business eg (charities and community organisations).

Now before we get to the “meat in the sandwich of what Marketing is“, the important thing to remember is that Marketing is probably one of the most important, yet least used tools in business today and many Business Accountants and Business Advisor’s will argue it is one of the main reasons why most business start-ups or purchased established business fail within the first 6 months, is a lack of marketing which comes in second to business cash flow.

What is Marketing?

So what is marketing exactly? What does the word marketing mean in business?

Well in my own words as an on-line female business entrepreneur, marketing means: getting my business and all my business has to offer in front of people who are on-line on their computers, laptop, tablets and phones.

Marketing to me is advertising my business and all my business products to the right people who are interested in what I have to offer.

Marketing  is being able to build or pay someone to build the wording (copy), images and links into an ad that you will see on Facebook (down the right side of your profile and in your news feed), on other websites throughout the internet, into email boxes and on search pages when you type in a word or phrase looking for something.

Now obviously, I don’t need every single person to see and click on my advertisement.  I Just need the ones my product is suitable for to click on my ad. “Only the people who are looking for my goods and services”.

Why? – Because marketing (advertising) costs money and on-line every time someone clicks on your ad, it can and will cost your business money.

Now I am not going to go in-depth with the different types of marketing (advertising) that are available on-line, as this is something you can learn by trial and error yourself, or by buying membership into an education facility an online business community like I did and I strongly recommend you do if you have little to no experience in marketing.

Or you can pay a marketing company/specialist to do it for you which can cost you an arm and a leg in monetary terms, so you will still need to research which ones give you the best return for your dollar.

The thing you must understand without a doubt, is that in business whether you deal on-line or you have a traditional business, you will have to advertise/market your business goods and services to stay in business, grow your business and be successful in business.

So you have to without a doubt need some sort of marketing budget, the great thing about building a business on-line is you can start with a very small advertising budget and go from there.

Now if you look the word up “Marketing” in a dictionary, you will get a reasonably similar answer across the different versions of dictionaries and one of those is this one.

Marketing

Noun

1. The act of buying or selling in a market.

2. The total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.

From Dictionary.com

So it is a simple principle to fathom.

To sell your goods and services, you must do activities that engage and bring your customers into your store/business and for people who run their business solely on-line from home or where ever they may be, that will mean one of these activities will be to advertise their place of business, usually a website.

That is called driving traffic in the world of business.

Now as simple as this may seem, it’s not if you don’t understand marketing and with good marketing, there comes the dollar spend, on-line or off-line.  If you do not understand this or are not willing to invest some bucks into advertising campaigns your business will not flourish and more than likely fail.

What Type of Marketing will you do?

Well there are plenty out there. What works best for each business and how much it costs, will depend on you, your business and your business plan which you should have drawn up,  and yes even for an on-line business.

Here are just a few that many companies, small business and entrepreneurs use:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• G+ (google plus)
• YouTube
• Email Marketing
• Banner Ads on third-party websites
• Google AdWords

Just to name a few.

But the possibilities are endless.

If you are buying a business, starting up your own business, affiliate marketing or in  multilevel marketing with a company whom supplies you with their products – you need to be aware that a lot more goes into starting or buying a business than just you alone paying out the money for it.

You will need some understanding of running/operating a business and marketing, to be successful at all. So one strategy you will need to put into play is marketing, doing advertising, running commercials. You have to get eyes, the right eyes , on your product.

When you first start out in business you may start thinking marketing sounds complicated.

I think I will quit while I am ahead, especially if you have chosen to look for a money-making business opportunity on-line to make an extra couple grand a month because your job doesn’t pay enough for the simple pleasures in life like taking a holiday. Don’t worry I hear you.!!

I was the same when I first went on-line with my business in the hope of making some extra cash  and one day quit the job I had.

I ran into a wall because no-one and I mean no-one told me, that to successfully run a business on-line I would need to advertise and I would need to have money to buy this advertising.

I hadn’t even given marketing a thought when I decided to come on-line to do business, I was just how hard can it be right.

You just jump on all the Social Media platforms and post your business stuff all over your Social Media accounts, continuously every day.

Oh and how well that worked for me, NOT.

I found by doing this my circle of friends and acquaintance list was dropping off quicker than I could blink and no-one was buying my stuff.

I wasn’t making all the dollars $$$ that the internet had promised so I quickly became despondent and stopped going on-line and sunk back into my job big time, thinking I was destined to slave away, to pad someone elses lavish lifestyle.

Moment of Realisation in Marketing!!!

Then one night at work I had this brilliant idea, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Muhammad couldn’t bring the mountain to him, so Muhammad went to the mountain. 

So I went looking to study on-line, exactly how and what I needed to do to make an on-line business viable.

I already had done my research off-line into business Marketing and realised, that to get a job in a top-notch marketing firm you need a degree.

Which may I add was a 4 year University subject costing more than $30,000 aaaaaaargh yeah right that wasn’t going to happen on my income level?

Transitioning into Marketing

So I searched for courses on-line, specifically for training geared towards making money on-line and I found what I was looking for.

I found a company that was on-line, that has monthly membership fee’s at an affordable amount and started to learn, what is called Internet Marketing.

Two years later and I have retired from my job as a night-time taxi driver and am proficiently marketing my business on-line.

Now I won’t lie to you, at first I found it hard to get my head around the concept of Marketing so I could make money on-line.

There were some days there when I wanted to stand in the middle of the road and just scream, but this was only because I was not accustom to actually studying on-line and I tried to rush through it so I could start marketing my business, sell my products and make some money $$$$$

Wrong thing to do!! all I ended up doing was over complicating the process of marketing, which left me with overwhelm and a headache, but I persisted and pushed on. I told myself to “Suck It Up Princess”

 That is the only reason I am here today and talking to you about marketing.

I wanted to shed some light on the subject and hopefully wake hundreds up to the fact that marketing is just a form of advertising your goods and services to your potential customers, and you will need to have some dollars to put toward a marketing budget.

When it comes to marketing I would also suggest you look for a quality training business community like I have found, where you can comfortably learn all the types of marketing that are available to your business and the right way to market your goods or services. Not all training institutes are created equally, so do your research to find the best fit for you.  

 

Marketing is an essential element for your business to be successful and reach your buying customers, which will in turn make you money.

Not any kind of marketing will suit your business, so you will need the right one and you will need to spend money on these marketing campaigns, this will be an ongoing expense in your business which is a tax deduction at the years so end.

If you don’t do any form of marketing for your business it will sit idle and gather dust like a forgotten ornament on a shelf and make you nothing.

Look for a good on-line business course that provides you with the tools, training and support if you are going to go it alone and do everything yourself.

Marketing is just another term for (advertising or commercials) these are also what you do when you are marketing.

So when you come onto the internet to make money on-line remember that although there may be some free ways to market your business goods or services, you will still need to understand marketing and be prepared to invest money to do so effectively.

Good luck in the future with whatever direction you take and remember Marketing is crucial to your business success, both on-line and offline.

Please comment below with your thoughts or experiences and Please share this with others who you feel may gain some benefit from it….