Starting a Business All-In-One For Dummies

Chapter 1

Optimizing Your Marketing Program

In This Chapter

• Succeeding by understanding your customers — and yourself
• Formulating a winning marketing strategy
• Leveraging your marketing program with focus and control
• Figuring out what to realistically expect from your program
• Maximizing the appeal of your product, service, or business

Marketing is all the activities that contribute to building ongoing, profitable relationships with customers to grow your business. The traditional goal of marketing is to bring about healthy sales through advertising, brand development, and other activities. A more long-term goal is to become increasingly useful or valuable to a growing number of customers so as to ensure your future success. Watch both short-term sales and long-term development of value to make your organization a growing success.

Your marketing program is the right mix of products or services, pricing, promotions, branding, sales, and distribution that will produce immediate sales and also help you grow over time. You'll know when you've found the right mix for you and your organization because it will produce profitable sales and enough demand to allow you to grow at a comfortable rate.

This chapter serves as a jumping-off point into the world of marketing. By reading it, you can begin to design a marketing program that works for you. The rest of the chapters in Book V can help you refine the program that meets your needs.

Know Yourself, Know Your Customer

To make your marketing ...