Planning Your Business: Marketing

When planning the necessary steps to get your new business up and running, it is critical to put in the hours needed to brainstorm the possible routes in the direction you would like your business to go in, and by this I mean a marketing plan. Marketing takes a lot of preparation, time, and money, but it is ultimately one of the best ways to prepare yourself for the future of your business. A strong marketing plan will ensure you are spending your funds wisely and appropriately, and hitting the client base you are looking for. First, you need to define who you would like to market your merchandise to, this is called a target market, which in short, is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts towards. Many businesses start with the attitude of serving “anyone interested in my products/services”, or “stay at home moms”, but these categories are too broad to market towards effectively. Instead be specific, like “homeowners between the ages of 45-55, with incomes of $200,000+ a year.” In the specifics is where you will find your marketing budget is being fulfilled to its highest potential, and your message is being displayed across an audience that is most likely to buy from you. With a clearly defined target demographic, it is much easier to determine where and how to market your company. But be unique when it comes to this and take a look at your competition, it is not always recommended to go after the same market because you may find an audience that they are overlooking. As far as our emerging business distributing