How To Start Marketing Correctly And Avoid Failure

How To Start Marketing Correctly And Avoid Failure

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(c) 2004 Charles Kangethe
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A Problem For Marketers
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Very often new marketers lack a solid success plan.

Many start with high hopes and great expectations, but in
"failing to plan, they plan to fail".

Here is how to start correctly...

Step # 1 - Planning
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Your first task is a modified SWOT analysis.

* Strengths - Note your personal strengths in terms of
skills, knowledge, experience, and personality. How can you
use your strengths to give your business a competitive
avantage ? Be realistic and objective.

* Weaknesses - What are your weaknesses ? What personal and
business skills do you need to improve on ? How will you
remedy these ?

* Opportunities - What business opportunities will you
exploit ? For instance are you interested in selling
digital or "real" products ? Are you going to work largely
alone or are joint ventures your forte ?

* Threats - What issues do you forsee ? Identify the
competition, consider your cash flow, think about targeted
traffic and search engine ranking etc. How will you cope
with each issue ?

Your next task is to create a business plan consisting of :

* Financial Plan - Here you write up your borrowing
requirements, your own capital stake in the business,
and general business budgets.

* Marketing Plan - Detail your marketing and advertising
strategies. Set budgets for these key activities.

* Sales - Estimate sales levels and timescales when you
anticipate the sales.

For more details on constructing a business plan consult

* An accountant

* Your bank

* Your local small business advisory service or

* Use Internet resources such as :

The small business administration for US businesses
http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html

Business Plan for UK businesses
http://www.businessplanning-4-
you.com/businessinfo/business_plan_uk_.html

International business can start at
http://www.bplans.com

Above all, your business plan must be realistic in the sales
estimates and it must not under estimate your time and
money costs.

Step # 2 - Research and Find A Niche
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If planning is the "road map", research shows the
"destination".

Research and planning are simultaneous, parallel
activities. One is incomplete without the other.

* Product Centric Research :

Based on your SWOT analysis, define the business, products
or services you want to focus on.

For instance if you have a strong interest and experience
in a sport, or the breeding of a type of pet, you may choose
to cater for others with similar interests.

Being easier, most new marketers use a Product Centric
approach to define their business interests.

* Market Centric Research :

This is the difficult, but more likely to succeed, approach.

It focuses on identifying clear market needs and then
finding very specific products to satisfy those needs.

This approach is based on market research techniques such
as interviewing people about their needs and then finding
out how best you can satisfy those needs.

With this approach you know your business will succeed
before you commit money !

Your aims in finding your niche are to :

* Identify a "hungry" market

* Find out the exact nature of the "hunger"

* Determine how best to satisfy the "hunger"

Step #3 - Create a Feature Rich, Content Site
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Most people will not buy from you at their first visit,
even if they have previously expressed an interest.

Visitors must learn to trust you, before they will buy
from you.

It takes time and communication to build trust.

A content rich website is an invaluable tool for building
trust.

Building and marketing such a site achieves two goals :

* Depending on your advertising strategy, it attracts
targeted traffic, and builds good double-opt in mailing
lists.

* It encourages "pull" marketing where customers come
looking for you, rather than the more costly "push"
marketing where you go looking for customers.

Step # 4 - To Be An Affiliate Or Not To Be
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The content rich website is the top of your marketing
funnel. A mechanism for pulling in highly targeted visitors
who have expressed an interest in your product or service.

This builds trust, but little hard cash.

New marketers are often concerned about what to sell,
real money comes from "Back End " products.

* The first and easier option is to research and join good
affiliate programs. These not only pay good money for hard
work, but they provide high quality, good value back end
products.

An excellent example of such a program can be found
at http://shmyl.com/bgz

A good affiliate program, such as http://shmyl.com/bgz, not
only provides you with products, they also provide web
templates and sites for you to use immediately.

You can be marketing in the time it takes to sign up !

* The second more difficult option, but one which offers you
more flexibility and control, is to create your own
products.

Until the end of March 2004 we are offering a FREE e-book
at our website to show you how to create your own info
products in less than two hours.

(If you read this article after March 2004, contact us and
we will send a copy of the e-book to you.)

If you choose the do it yourself option, you will need to
build a professional product web page, per product, along
with all the merchant facilities such as credit card
processing required to make the site operational.

Visit http://www.iprobuilder.com/14127 for the easiest
currently available point and click, "No HTML Required",
professional web site building and hosting program.

Step #5 - Get The Sale
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Whichever option you choose, you need excellent copywriting
to market your products and services.

Even if you use Market Centric research, do not fall
into the trap of thinking that your market will buy
whatever you show them on your product sales page.

The copy must be compelling and drive the prospects to
take the action you want i.e. buy from you.

Copywriting is an art almost anyone can learn. However, if
you feel your skills are not yet good enough then pay for a
copywriter to do the work.

Good copy can sell almost anything. Bad copy cannot sell
the best product in your chosen business line.

Step #6 - Mind Set
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From discussions with other marketers, many people get to
step 5 ready to sell products, typically 6 to 9 months
after setting up business.

Frustration begins when sales fail to materialise and
your cash flow is more out than in !

Be prepared, pre-plan and you will avoid this frustration
because :

* Your business Sales Plan will indicate a realistic
timeframe and level of sales.

* Your SWOT analysis will have prepared you for business
issues as well as opportunities.

The planning you carried out up front is your insurance
against frustration, and disappointment. It is also an
excellent yardstick by which you can measure your progress.

This focuses your mind and effort on attaining small
successes which build up over time into major career
successes.

This is why it is critical to go through the planning and
research stages in fine detail, realistically and
objectively.

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Conclusion

Use this outline blueprint to create your own detailed
business road map and put success in your own safe hands.
Guaranteed.

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Charles Kangethe of http://www.simplyeasier.com is a leading
new wave marketer and a published author from England. The
"Simply Easier" brand name is your guarantee of high value,
quality Marketing Products, Services and Resources.
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