All well and good! Many of these small business owners soon realize that no one can stay in business for any appreciable length of time if they are unable to market their goods and services effectively. That is the singular reason many smart business persons always want to know how to market their products and services effectively and efficiently. There is hardly any entrepreneur who would want to start a business without profit-making in mind. You can only make a profit if you can effectively and efficiently sell your goods and services.
Your ability to place your goods and services before people to enable them know what you have to offer determines how much you can sell. That is marketing. People will never know what you have to offer unless you can market your products or services satisfactorily. If you are a small player in the business world, here are some strategies you can use to effectively market your products and services.
1. Know your product/service and your business. Perhaps your most effective selling point is to know the product/service you are selling. That is what largely defines the business you are in. If you do not know the business you are in, you can not convince anyone to do business with you.
2. Know yourself. If you do not know yourself very well, it could be very difficult for you to know what you are capable of doing to meet deadlines, product volume and quality as well as making/keeping appointments and schedules. Knowing yourself is a very important strategy in your marketing efforts.
3. Know what sells. Like the saying goes, "everyone is in it for the money." It is what sells that will make money for you. The more of it you are able to sell, the more money you make. That is why you must always make deliberate efforts to put in the market place what people want and are ready to pay for.
4. Understand the market. If you do not understand your niche market and how it operates, you find it difficult to effectively take part in it. It is not a waste of time to make efforts to study and understand the market you want to sell your product/service in before going into it. Once you know the market and what sells in it, then it will be easier for you to market your product/services if you designed them with the market in mind.
5. Know your customers. Always try to make deliberate efforts to care for your customers' needs. That is why you must know your customers and their needs. Satisfying your customers is exactly what keeps you in business. If you are unable to do so, sooner than you expected, you will find yourself out of business.
6. Know your competitors. It is a very smart business advice never to ignore your competitors. The reason is very simple. You and your competitors are literally "fishing in the same waters." Your pains and your gains are largely similar to those of your competitors. If you know them well enough, it becomes easier for you to avoid their marketing pitfalls and setbacks. If you can research your competitors to know their strengths and weaknesses, the results can help to strengthen your own marketing efforts.
7. Bank on hope. When you have hope in abundance, things can always turn out the best for you on the long run. No one has any magic wand to make sales in any market. It is only the people who hope for the best always then do things deliberately to fulfill such hopes and expectations who eventually emerge winners at the end of the day. Be hopeful. That is where the future lies in a highly competitive market place.
As a small business owner, if you can understand these simple strategies and how they work, it is possible to market your products/services very well in spite of competition. You can not avoid competition anyway. All you need is the ability to get things done and to meet your set goals and aims in spite of the competition. That is exactly where these 7 strategies come in very handy.
Sule Yesufu, a Certified Speaking Professional, has been a Strategic Partner in S D Y Management Consult, a firm of Investment, Small Business and Entrepreneurial Consultants since 1999. He is a Published Author and a Newspaper Columnist. An expert in Small Business and Personal Development, he focuses on communicating his ideas and thoughts mostly through his Training Seminars and popular free blog. He offers useful tips on Self-Improvement, Personal Finance and Entrepreneurship.
