Seven Basic Facts of Marketing

You must make marketing the centre of your own home based business. It's a fact of business life that without marketing your business is dead in the water. You must have have a marketing budget, no matter if it is small at present, and you must have a strategy. Here are seven basic facts about marketing to get you started.

1. Nobody is listening to you. You are the only one who is really interested in your business and your products. Your potential customers are mostly focused on anything but your marketing message. Your task is to reach out and motivate people who couldn't care less whether you make a sale or not. Is that a bit harsh? Yes, but it is also true. At least it is true most of the time. If you are a plumber and your potential customer has a water leak at 2 in the morning, they may be more interested in you getting the sale than you are! But sadly for the marketer these situations are rare.

2. Your's is just one message of many. Every day we are all bombarded with thousands of marketing messages. How many of them do we really see, hear or read? How many marketing messages do you remember at the end of each day? And if you can remember the message, can you remember what product it was promoting? Not only do you have to make yourself heard against all the background noise, you have to be clear enough to be understood and you have to be smart enough that the customer remembers exactly what you want them to.

3. Marketing isn't just important; it's vital. No customers equals no business. No matter how good your products or how efficient your service, if you don't put them in front of the customer and get a sale, your business is going nowhere. That means you have to put the right amount of your time budget and your money budget into your marketing programme. Usually, if you have less of one you'll have to put in more of the other.

4. Give a lot, get a lot. People these days are always on the lookout for bargains. Bargains used to be reserved for special occasions, but now people are wanting sweeteners all the time. Give away as much as you can: products, advice, incentives, goodies. It's particularly easy if you are marketing online and can include software packages which cost you very little but can have great non-monetary, or even monetary, value to your customers. But always bear in mind that you are giving to help you make a sale. Don't treat it as an end in itself.

5. The market is always changing. Ever wonder why ads on television change after a few months? It's not just that people get tired of them, it's also that the world moves on, products are updated, new options for marketing arise and old ones fade. A few years ago no-one had heard of Twitter and a few years further back again no-one had heard of FaceBook (hard to believe now, eh!) but now social marketing online is powerful marketing tool.

6. They don't have to buy from you. I'm sure you've noticed that business is competitive, very competitive. It's not just your direct competitors, it's everything else that your customers could spend their time and money on. So you have to be better than good, you have to be innovative, and slick in your marketing. What you are doing now may be good enough now, but it soon won't be enough. Look for new angles, new messages, even new products if you have to.

7. You can't miss a single opportunity. Everything you do in your business is marketing. Every time your customer interacts with you, you must interact with them to build a relationship. They way you treat them, the things they see and hear, all will either encourage them to do business with you or send them heading for your nearest competitor. Whether it's your emails, website, receipts, everything, make sure you look right and act right. But don't take this as an instruction to try to sell to them at every turn.