Desmyttere - 22 Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs

22
Marketing Tips
for
Entrepreneurs

Peter Desmyttere

22 Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs
Peter Desmyttere

Published by: Blue Marketing Books
First Edition: July 2012
Copyright 2012 Peter Desmyttere

www.bluemarketingbooks.com

ISBN: 978-90-811407-3-7

No part of this publication may be reproduced and/or made public by means of publication, photocopy, microfilm, audio-recording, by electronic or any other means, nor stored in retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Although every care has been taken in compiling this book, neither the publisher nor the author will accept any liability damage caused by any possible errors and/or omissions in this book.

22
Marketing Tips
for
Entrepreneurs

Peter Desmyttere

Foreword

Do you have common sense and fresh ideas? Do you see past the end of your nose? Then youre ready for marketing. Ready to create more prospects, to draw more customers in and to sell more to them. Marketing paves the way for sales by lowering the threshold between your company, services or products, and your prospects.

You can compare marketing to the rally driver and his co-pilot: they cant perform without each other. The driver is the salesman: he keeps his eyes on the tachometer and his foot on the gas pedal. His co-pilot is the marketer. He looks ahead, gives sharp instructions and looks up short cuts. Without a co-pilot, the driver is directionless; without the driver, the co-pilot doesnt go anywhere. Marketing is essential to any company big or small - that wants to move ahead.

Before you read any further, it would be best to get a few misunderstandings out of the way. Marketing is not a synonym for advertising, is not theoretical hot air, and it is not just for big companies. Marketing is a full tool kit with which you, as an entrepreneur, are able to use to put more sales on the books.

Marketing is not an advertisement

Advertising is marketing, but not vice versa. Marketing is much more involved than just placing advertisements. It is a combination of strategic choices and techniques that influences the attitude of your prospects and customers. Yes, it does do this through advertisements. But also through emailing, electronic newsletters, fairs and conventions, websites, brochures, events, networking, and so forth. Good marketing makes your products or services stand out, so that instead of your competition, consumers prefer to listen to you and buy from you.

Marketing is not blah blah blah

There is too much secrecy surrounding marketing. Sometimes it appears as if top marketers are scared to translate their academic considerations into practical uses. Into tips which you, without expertise in marketing, can use to get started. It is as if they have discovered a magic formula that desperately needs to be shielded from the uninitiated. This is exactly what you will find in the hundreds of books about marketing which appear every few years. They are pompous, they teach complex theoretical models, and they are full of complicated jargon. Undoubtedly interesting for professional marketers, but for independent businesses, they are utterly unusable. This book doesnt play by the same rules; it doesnt digress into strategic considerations (Why?), but heads straight for tactical approaches (How?). Because with these, you can be up and marketing instead of lost and confused.

Marketing is not just for big businesses

Is marketing only important for big businesses? Absolutely not. Marketing is vital for each and every company. Good marketing can make a company, bad marketing can break it. Without marketing, your business is a ship without a rudder. Which is absolutely fine until the wind starts blowing. Until the sails start to flap and your crew race back and forth across the deck in panic. Marketing make it possible for you to avoid this. It tightens the sails so your company can glide across the waves and so your ship wont take on water, not even in the most difficult of times.

Why are so many businesses reluctant to take advantage of marketing? Often, it is simply a lack of time or knowledge. Or because they combine multiple tasks. So the urgent tasks (such as sales and invoicing) push aside the important tasks (such as marketing and education).

For a lot of businesses, marketing is seen as a necessary evil. Their reluctance results in things ending up so far out of hand, they eventually need to take a consultant on board to get everything ship-shape again. A financial loss and a missed chance. Because in small and medium businesses, marketing is especially reliant on time and ideas, not on enormous investments.

Learning and Stealing

This is why I am happy you have this book in your hand. Youve taken the initiative to master the basic rules of marketing. Each of the 22 tips is guaranteed to bring results: more prospects, more customers, or more customers who buy more. Because one thing is definite: the market has never moved as quickly as it does today. Just like your competition. Resting on your laurels is no longer a possibility: if your company doesnt start to sail a definite course, and if you, as captain, dont keep an eye on the horizon, youll be boarded before you know it. You can also look at it differently from the positive side. If you take your marketing seriously and your competitors dont, youll be able to take the wind from out of their sails.

This book promises 22 tips. You get 23. Because this is an extra one: learn marketing like a student learns lessons at school. Take in ideas with your eyes, imitate them and finally out-class them. Keep an eye and an ear out for marketing techniques, for approaches to which you, as a consumer, react positively. What works and what doesnt? Study what your competitors are doing. Or better yet: companies like yours in other industries. It doesnt have to be something earth shattering, just small scale actions, that make a difference. Find them, steal them and test them in your industry. Do they work there too? Full steam ahead!

Cant live without it

You need a lot more than just tricks and techniques. Sure, these are really profitable if they combine well with each other, if your individual actions complement each other the way pieces of a puzzle fit together. If they strengthen each other, are in the right place at the right time, and just happen to catch the consumers attention. But its not likely to happen by chance. This is why you are better off with a marketing plan. It coordinates your efforts and prevents you from being too impulsive. It ensures that you and your crew are sailing in the same direction. Without having to call all hands on deck to bail water. In my conclusion, I will come back to this and guide you to the website which will help you create your own unique marketing plan.

Marketing plays a crucial role in the following situations:

• You are starting a new company or a new project;
• Your company needs to grow in terms of turnover, which you especially want to get from new clients;
• You are a market leader in your geographical region or professional industry, and you want to consolidate this position;
• You have an ever-changing customer base and need to invest constantly, just to stay in peoples minds;
• You are too dependent on a small customer group and want to spread the risk by recruiting extra customers;
• You want to reposition your company;
• You are looking for a lucrative takeover of your company, and want to strengthen its image for any potential buyers.

Excess Damages

In the 21st century, as the leader of a small business, as an independent businessperson, or as an entrepreneur, you dont have it easy. You are confronted with a ton of communication and media possibilities. With a consumer who no longer waits patiently for you to inform him. Instead, you have consumers who go to the internet and search for information themselves, expecting you to be there, ready and waiting for them. This asks for a meticulous mix of media, where you have to allocate your budget wisely. And how do you do this exactly? Thats something I dont know at least not yet. For that, I need to get to know your vision, your products, your market and your consumers. Marketing is never an exact science with all encompassing magic formulas and this is exactly what makes it fun.