How to win and keep customers How to understand your customers and their needs How to make your organisation more marketing orientated How to use some of the promotional tools to target your customers How to build a competitive edge for your organisation How to draw up a marketing plan for your business by following the steps in this guide.

All businesses have one thing in common: they need customers. Without customers quite simply there is no business. Rather obvious you might be thinking but it’s amazing how many people forget this time and time again. So how do you get customers? How do you get them to buy from you - and not just once but again and again? How do you build a competitive edge for your business? How do you develop new products and services and stay ahead of the competition? All these and many more are the challenges for a business. This book will look at these challenges and help you to meet them. It will help you to understand the basic meaning of marketing and take you through a series of steps so that you can make your marketing work for you. There is no jargon and there are no trendy theories, simply tips on how to do it! I hope you enjoy reading it.

 

Successful marketing is about knowing your customers and communicating with them in the most effective way in order to win more business from them. It is about understanding who your customers are and anticipating what they want, not just today or tomorrow, but next year, the year after, and so on. Successful marketing is about having a business that is flexible enough to respond quickly to changing demands. And a workforce that is willing to co-operate with your customers, not treat them as if they were public enemy number one! Successful marketing is not something that you can pick up today and get results from tomorrow. It is not something that you do ad hoc, or when the mood takes you. It does not mean simply placing an advertisement in a newspaper or magazine and then waiting for the telephone to ring and orders to flood in, because it just doesn’t happen that way. But neither is successful marketing any great mystery or rocket science. Much of it is basic common sense with an added touch of creativity. That creativity is the ability to open your mind and to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Successful marketing means putting the customer at the heart of your business so that everything you do is driven by that philosophy. The definition from the Chartered Institute of Marketing summarises all the above points very well. ‘Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.’ Chartered Institute of Marketing This may sound like a tall order but if you take a planned approach to your marketing it isn’t. I am going to show you how to do this. I will take you through the stages, step by step, and show you how to achieve a marketing orientated organisation that will win you more business and keep your customers coming back for more. So let’s start by seeing just how marketing friendly your organisation is. Take a look at the questions listed below and see how your organisation rates.

 

Introduction How to use this guide Chapter One What is Successful Marketing? What you will learn from this guide So what is marketing? How marketing orientated is your business? Action Points In summary Chapter Two Know Who Your Customers Are Understanding your customers Dividing your customers into groups Business Customers Consumer Markets Questions to ask about each group Differences between business and consumer buying Your database Action Points In summary Chapter Three Know What Your Customers Are Buying Benefits and features The Product Life Cycle Extending the Product Life Cycle Developing new products/services Action Points In summary Chapter Four Developing a Competitive Edge Why brand? Building a brand Choosing a brand name Image First Impressions Checklist Building a competitive edge through price Product/service differentiation Building and maintaining an excellent reputation Action Points In summary Chapter Five Pricing Setting Prices Pricing Strategies A Word About The Psychology of Pricing When Might You Need to look at Price Changes? Action Points In summary Chapter Six The Market Place and Marketing Planning Strengths and Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats The Marketing Planning Process Setting Marketing Objectives Marketing Strategies Action Points In summary Chapter Seven The Marketing Action Plan Some of the Promotional Tools Questions to ask before using Promotional Tools Chapter Eight Tips on Using the Promotional Tools Advertising Some Golden Rules Promoting a Service Direct Marketing Secrets of a Good Mailshot Newsletters Exhibitions Sponsorship Building a positive press profile In summary Chapter Nine Putting it Together Action Points The Marketing Plan Summary

 

Easy Step by Step Guide to Marketing by Pauline Rowson
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