Part of running a successful business is
making it grow. Home-based businesses are
no exception. In fact, it can be even more
important if you are just starting out or
lack a potential client base. The key to
growing a business is marketing.
Marketing is how you connect with
individuals who may become customers or
clients and includes methods such as
affiliate programs, newsletters, trade
shows, web sites, brochures, advertising,
and more. The potential marketing methods
available are almost limitless in scope
and deciding on an approach may seem
daunting, but a little preliminary effort
can help you narrow down the field of
options and help you make the best choices
for your business.
Determine Targeted Audience
No matter what marketing method you
choose, you first need to decide to whom
you plan to market. Mass marketing to a
general audience simply is not
cost-effective for most businesses so you
must decide early on which segments of
society are most likely to purchase your
products or services. Begin by asking
yourself some simply questions:
* What needs does my product/service
fulfill?
* Will businesses or consumers be more
likely to need what I offer?
* Who are the clients I already have?
* Who does my competition market to?
With the answers to these questions,
you can begin to decide on your targeted
audience. However, you can refine it
further by contacting sample populations
of that audience and getting feedback from
them on whether or not they would be
interested in your product/service. You
can use surveys, chat rooms, email
questionnaires, or telephone polls to
generate that feedback.
Set a Budget
Many inexperienced business owners make
a major mistake when they begin their
marketing efforts: they do not set a
budget. Without a budget, these business
owners can easily find all of their
profits being funneled into marketing
efforts.
Before you make a decision about what
types of marketing methods to choose, you
need to first establish how much you can
spend in order to receive the desired
results. Most businesses use the 10% rule.
According to this rule, if you decided to
implement a marketing program that would
generate $5000 in monthly sales, then you
should spend only $500 a month on
marketing.
Applying the 10% rule prevents
businesses from spending more on the
marketing efforts than is generated by
those efforts. You must also remember to
be realistic. If you currently generate
$200 a week in sales, do not anticipate
marketing results of $10,000 a month and
use that number as the basis for your
marketing budget. Instead, start small at
first and build on successful marketing
attempts.
Evaluate Marketing Methods
There are a wide array of marketing
methods available, but not all of them are
appropriate for every business, audience,
or product/service. Before deciding on a
method, you need to carefully evaluate
what will work best for your situation.
For example, if you run an online
business, you may want to focus most of
your marketing efforts on the Internet
medium instead of mailing brochures to
people who may not even own computers.
Also take into account your audience.
If you are marketing to businesses, your
methods will be different than if you are
marketing to consumers. If you sell to
parents, your methods are different than
if you sell to college students. You may
even need to develop more than one method
in order to meet the needs of all of your
potential audiences.
Finally, remember your budget. A
television commercial may be more
effective than an ad in the yellow pages
but it may also use your entire marketing
budget. To make the most of your budget,
you want to start small and test your
efforts before plunging into a major
investment. After all, if the commercial
flops, you won't have anything left in
your budget for alternative marketing.
Once you complete these preliminary
efforts, you can begin to explore
marketing methods more effectively which
will allow you to pick the methods which
should provide the best results for your
particular business.
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of Home
Based Business Opportunities - One of
Internet's leading website dedicated to
starting, managing and marketing a home
based business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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