THE BASICS: Marketing for Non-Professionals

The basics of marketing are essential for any small business owner, but if you’re like me, you don’t have the time or money to hire a professional. We will explore the basics of marketing so that you can get started on your own marketing campaign. We’ll cover what kind of information should be included.

What is Marketing?

While marketing can seem like a mysterious process, it’s really not something that you need to be afraid of.  Marketing is essentially just getting your company and products out there so people are aware of them.  The best product in the world isn’t going to sell itself, so you’re going to have to market it yourself somehow if you want to make money from it.

The goal of marketing is to create awareness of the product or service that you’re selling. The more people know about what you sell the more likely they are to buy what you have to offer.

Where should I start?

1.  Familiarize yourself with the “Trifecta of Digital Marketing”

It is essential to understand the basics of digital marketing. It’s a complex field, but if you know what elements need to be included, it will help simplify things. Here are three basic elements that must be included in every marketing campaign:

Content Marketing:

This includes blog posts, e-books, webinars, case studies, and other free or low-cost media that share information on your brand or products.  It is a great way to build trust and grow potential customers into a new customer base.  Content marketing can bring in leads for long-term conversions.

SEO:

(Search Engine Optimization)  It is a long-term strategy to rank on the first page of Google.  SEO includes keyword research, backlinking and inbound links that will help you get ranked higher. SEO also helps increase your click-through rate once you are ranked on the first page because the higher you are ranked,  the more traffic you will get. According to Google in 2012 approximately 48 percent of all searches were long-tail searches (3+ words), so if your website is not optimized for these kinds of searches it can be hard to rank well on the first page.

Social Media:

 It is becoming the number one form of marketing and communication.  People are no longer only using social media to stay in contact with friends, they are also using it as a source for news, entertainment, and more.   Social media is what helps you reach a younger market.  It can also help to build connections and provide potential customers with a personal connection to your brand, which will lead them to trust you more.

2.Understand the Funnel.

The funnel is a visual that will help you to understand the process of conversion. It works like this: You start with a lot of people and, because they don’t know you or your brand, they are not ready to trust you yet. So they get moved down the funnel.  As they move down the funnel,  they pass through different stages where they are getting closer to converting.  The end of your funnel is when the potential customer has converted into a paying customer or has given you some form of commitment that will lead them to become a paying customer in the future.

Create one for yourself and try to fill in as much detail as possible.  Once you have a good understanding of your funnel,  you can start to develop strategies to convert more people at each stage.

3. Know Your Audience

You have to know your audience before you create a marketing strategy.  If you don’t, then how can you figure out what will get their interest and motivate them to convert?  You should learn about your target market, demographics, psychographics, behavior patterns, and more in order to know how best to approach them.

4. Explore the Most Effective Tactics

Once you know your audience, it will be easier to figure out the tactics that will work best for them.  There are many different tools available to you, but they should all have a similar purpose:   To reach your audience and increase brand awareness. You also want to take advantage of social networks and online forums that are popular in your niche.

 5. Determine Which Channels Are Popular With Your Audience

There are many different channels and methods that you can use to reach your audience.  The two most popular ones right now are Facebook and Twitter, but there are others that might work better for your business. It is important to implement a good mix of channels into your marketing strategy.  You should not focus on only one channel or tactic;  instead, integrate them together to make a more comprehensive plan that will help you reach your target market and achieve the results you want.

6. Testing is Essential

After you have put together your plan, you should test it in the real world before committing. You want to make sure that people are using your tactics and visiting your website, so test it out on a small sample and expand from there.

It’s important to keep track of how well each channel is performing.  You can use Google Analytics or other tools to get the information you need.

7.The simplest way to do marketing is to start a blog or website.

 This also gives you the most immediate feedback so that you can see whether your marketing strategy is working.

How do I get more traffic to my site?

Sometimes it’s best not to complicate things when it comes to your marketing efforts. You just need to focus on your end goal and then use the tactics that are available to you.

8. Be Consistent and Don’t Give Up

Sometimes your efforts will fail, but don’t give up!   Try tweaking your strategy and see if you can improve the results.  And always test to ensure that you are getting the best return on your investment.

In the end,  marketing is all about education, trial, and error.

How do I set goals?

Setting goals is important because it helps you to stay on track and focus on the most important things.  Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.  They can help with your marketing efforts because they will give you something to work towards!

What kinds of Goals are the end result in which you want to end up.  For example, a goal may be to generate more traffic for your website or increase your sales. You have to know what exactly you want before you can plan a strategy that will help you achieve it.

Marketing can be confusing and overwhelming for the everyday person. So we’ve created this simple guide to help you navigate through marketing terminology as well as give some helpful tips on how to implement your strategy in an effective way. The most important thing is to be yourself and show your natural personality.  If you are not being genuine, people will see right through it. We hope that these will make it easier for all of us to market with confidence!

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