Marketing Strategies: Do I Really Need to Know This?

The short answer is yes! If you’re serious about your business… if you’re passionate about your product or service… if you want to create a substantial, sustainable income for you and your family… then you need to know what to do and how to get there. Adopting various marketing strategies to promote your business is the “how to get there” part of the equation.

What is Marketing?

Let’s start by answering these questions:

 Do you have a website or squeeze page and everything that entails?
 Have you performed your market research? Do you have a product or service that people want or need?
 How much are you going to charge for your product or service?
 Who will benefit from your product or service?
 Do you have a sales strategy in place?
 How are you going to deliver your product? Do you have a delivery system in place?
 Do you have a customer support mechanism in place to handle customer queries?

All of these elements are part of a marketing plan, and all of these elements combined, are preparing your product for the marketplace. Let there be no mistake, an effective, successful marketing plan takes time and effort, and you need a plan. Once you have developed your plan, you need to tell the world, and I mean that literally, that you’re open for business!

That brings us to a major component of your marketing plan not yet mentioned, what is most commonly referred to as marketing strategies… Advertising! Marketing and advertising are often confused or thought to be the same thing. The reality is advertising is one slice, albeit a large and probably the most expensive slice, of the marketing pie. So when people talk about marketing strategies, what they’re talking about are ways to advertise or promote their business, product or service.

Advertising or Marketing Strategies

Now, let’s briefly discuss the many ways to advertise your business. Your advertising efforts could include, but not limited to:

Blogging
Email Marketing
Article Marketing
Guest Blogging
Social Media Marketing
Social Bookmarking
Search Engine Optimization
Video Marketing
Viral Marketing
Press Releases
Forums

Some will tell you video is the best marketing tool to hit the Internet, while others swear up and down social media marketing is the best marketing strategy ever conceived. As I see it, both work perfectly well if you know how to do it. No one would be using these methods or spend any money on them if they didn’t work.

All of these techniques are effective online marketing strategies and all of these methods have one purpose… to bring customers to your website. Getting creative with your marketing strategies will help you to stand out from the crowd and attract the attention of consumers already interested in what you have to offer. Being different or unique will go a long way to giving your business a competitive edge.

Conclusion

You need to utilize as many of these methods as you can master to spread the word far and wide. Targeted traffic is the lifeblood of your business. It’s not enough to just throw your link out there and hope for the best, especially if you’re using paid advertising. As a responsible business owner, you need to know that you’re getting the most bang for your buck… that your hard earned dollars, along with the time and effort you put into your marketing, are well spent.

Whether you own an online business or a brick and mortar business, you need to utilize the Internet to market your business. Learn the strategies discussed, develop a marketing plan, and then implement that plan.