Marketing your business

You're now raring to go with your business! Here we share tips on how to give yourself the best chance of winning customers.

Planning
Planning is key. Planning research into your customers, competitors' products and price and working out a marketing and advertising strategy is essential before you even sell your first widget. Once all that's done, you can plan your launch. Remember, though, great marketing will never hide a bad product.

Market research
Market research is much more than just looking at what else is around in a given market. It can reveal where you have been too optimistic, it can tell you where you need to change direction and it can give you the edge in a competitive world.
Key points about market research:
Product, promotion, price and position
Know your market. What's your product, who else makes it, what do they provide, how big is it, how are you going to be different?
Know your customers. Who'll buy your product or service, what are their ages/profiles/interests/buying habits, and so on. How will you tell them about it?
Price. Will you be able to provide your product or service at a price that you can afford and the customer is willing to pay.
Location. Where are you going to sell your product or service. In a shop, if so where, from a factory, on the internet. What do competitors do?
You might feel you can do all this yourself, but if not then you hire people. A good starting point is The Market Research Society or Business Link. Doing a SWOT analysis is a good idea too, which is taking an honest look at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This will help you to steer your marketing and also point out where you need expert advice and help.
Also your image needs to be carefully thought out. Anything from stationery style to your logo will have an effect on the perception people have of your product. That's why so many big companies, such as Abbey National, change their look and possibly their name.

Marketing
You've done the research, now you want to market your company and its wares. How will you target your customers, and how much money are you going to spend doing so.
Depending on your business these are some of the main ways to market yourself.
Word of mouth. Happy customers are happy to recommend you, and it's free.
Mail shots. Quite expensive on paper and postage, and consider three per cent successful sales a bonus. However, it does work, so long as you've carefully thought who to send the blurb to. Your own website. This is now very cheap and easy to do and gives you a presence on the internet, and it's one more weapon in your marketing armoury.
Press releases: A well-written press release can get free coverage in newspapers, TV and radio and can tell millions of potential customers about your product or service.
Free give-aways. Either as samples, or competition prizes. Again this gets you mentioned and noticed.
Be a media expert in your field. Local radio stations and papers are hungry to fill their airtime and pages. If you have an expertise, offer yourself as a pundit to the local media.
Points 3, 4 and 5 can be done for you by a PR agency. There are many small, inexpensive ones around that won't cost you that much. It's worth considering using their expertise if you can afford it.

Advertising
Marketing can involve getting publicity for free, but the only guaranteed way of someone shouting about you is to pay for it. Advertising is a multi-billion pound business in the UK and big companies wouldn't spend millions on it if it didn't work. But you have to get it right. Here are some pointers:
What's your budget? There's no use spending so much on advertising that you go bust. You must be able to afford it, and as your business grows you can spend more if you want to.
Which medium? Radio is cheaper than TV, local papers can be very cheap indeed. Which will hit your target audience in the most effective way. It's very important to know the readership/listenership/viewer of the media you wish to advertise in. There would be little point advertising your stairlift product on a radio station playing garage music to 15 year olds. Also don't forget business directories, such as Yellow Pages.
Who'll make your advert? Will you write it yourself and pay the paper directly, or will you hire an agency? If so, shop around, find out what other ads the agency makes and ensure it fits your business style.
Little and often and not one big bang! A one-off ad, however good, will soon be forgotten as others come along. You need to market and advertise regularly to win new customers. So you need to spread your marketing budget accordingly.

The following websites have more information on research and marketing:

Chartered Institute of Marketing: www.cim.co.uk
Market Research Society: www.marketresearch.co.uk
Chartered Institute of Public Relations: www.ipr.org.uk
Advertising Association: www.adassoc.co.uk