1. Introduction to Marketing Basic Concept Common Tools & Techniques
This is a quick introduction to the basic concepts of marketing and some of the common tools and techniques.

2. Marketing
Your product or service will not sell itself
How will you reach your core customer?
Branding creates your company image
Customer retention is cheaper than buying customers
Marketing is not selling
Marketing is essential to bringing in customers. It can include a variety of functions: internet campaigns, marketing, direct mail, word-of-mouth, business networking, paid advertising, trade show booths, and much more.
What’s most important is that you identify multiple strategies that you will use to bring customers into your business.
Marketing: The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:
(1) identification, selection and development of a product,
(2) determination of its price,
(3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and
(4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.
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You can’t market or sell effectively, until you answer two questions:
What is your product or service?
To whom are you selling it?

3. Sales
Sales is converting prospects into customers by overcoming objections, asking for the sale and closing the deal.
Make a point to your audience that selling focuses on the needs of the seller to convert product to cash, while marketing focuses on the needs of the buyer and the need to satisfy the customer through the products produced.
A lot of entrepreneurs are resistant to selling, especially if you have never done this before. But when you own a business, you have no choice but to put on a salesperson hat.

4. We just defined Marketing as: The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. This obviously ties the development of a business plan which we just discussed. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:
Value proposition (1) identification, selection and development of a product,
Revenue (and positioning) (2) determination of its price,
Channels (3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and
Channels/Competition (4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.

5. The Marketing/Sales Funnel
You define your Ideal Customer, but they don’t know you exist
People are AWARE of you, but aren’t interested, YET!
People show INTEREST
The Prospect’s needs match your offer- DESIRE
Customer ACTS- You close the sale!
You deliver a great customer experience- Customer becomes an ADVOCATE!
Let’s assume you have defined your product offering and have solved the production/delivery issues (recall the temperature sensitive gym shirt issue). So now you need to get customers to know you exist and why they should be interested.
People won’t buy your product or service unless and until they:
Know you exist: AWARENESS If you have more than one customer segment, you may have multiple approaches
Once they know your product/service exists you want them to become INTERESTED in what you’re offering
If there’s a match between what’s offered and their needs: they decide they need what you’re selling: DESIRE
Do they Trust you ? This is where BRANDING comes in.
They decide you offer fair value for the price: BUY
Classic bloopers: Ford Mustang (not just young people … people who thought young
HP calculator not just engineers wanted it, everyone did (lost sales due to capacity)
Gym shirt. Offered before all bugs worked out. Major credibility problem.
Advocate

6. Your Challenge
Identify and Create a desirable product
Define who your best potential customers are
Determine the best way to reach them
Craft a marketing message they will respond to
Communicate that message effectively
Convert people who show interest into customers
Deliver a satisfying customer experience
Retain customers to be repeat customers/advocates
All marketing and selling has to answer the customer’s question:
What’s In It For Me?
How does your product/service solve my problem?
Note: the entire world is not your customer. Be as narrow as you can initially.
It is cheaper to retain a customer than acquire a new one.

7. Where Do You Begin? Craft your marketing message
Concise statement of your value proposition
Build that into your identity
Your company name
Your tag line
Develop your brand
Why your brand matters
Emotional connection
Differentiates
Consistent
Credibility, Quality & Satisfaction
Cements user loyalty
Marketing is anything you create or share that tells your story. Ann Handley
With a good product, marketing can all be boiled down to education. Effectively educating people about any good product will create the desire needed to produce action. Jeffrey Harmon
Marketing is helping your customers understand how much they need something they never knew they needed. Doreen Moran
Marketing is the ongoing process of engagement whereby strangers are nurtured into advocates. Trey Pennington
Marketing is understanding your buyers really, really well. Then creating valuable products, services, and information especially for them to help solve their problems. David Meerman Scott

8. Basic Tools and Techniques
Basic Marketing Tools/Tactics
Networking events
Business card
Elevator speech
Internet/Social Media/
Business cards should tell people what you provide and all contact information and reflect your brand
Elevator speech/pitch – short talk which tells people what you are, why they should be interested, etc

9. Social Media: Select channels and tactics
Which channels do your ideal customers use? That’s where you want to be!
Tactics are a function of your business objectives
Many businesses create accounts on every popular social network without researching which platform will bring the most return. You can avoid wasting your time in the wrong place by using the information from your buyer personas to determine which platform is best for you.
If your prospects or customers tell you they spend 40% of their online time on Facebook and 20% on Twitter, you know which primary and secondary social networks you should focus on.
When your customers are using a specific network, that’s where you need to be—not everywhere else.
Your tactics for each social channel rely on your goals and objectives, as well as the best practices of each platform.
For example, if your goal is increasing leads and your primary social network is Facebook, some effective tactics are investing in Facebook advertising or promotion campaigns to draw more attention to your lead magnets

10. Social Media: Develop Content Strategy
Type of content
Form – how information is presented
Content
Time of posting
Frequency of posting
There are three main components to any successful social media content strategy: type of content, time of posting and frequency of posting.
The type of content you should post on each social network relies on form and context.
Form is how you present that information—text only, images, links, video, etc.
Context fits with your company voice and platform trends. Should your content be funny, serious, highly detailed and educational or something else?
There are many studies that give you a specific time when you should post on social media. However, I suggest using those studies as guidelines rather than hard rules. Remember, your audience is unique, so you need to test and figure out the best time for yourself.
Posting frequency is as important as the content you share. You don’t want to annoy your fans or followers, do you?
Finding the perfect frequency is crucial because it could mean more engagement for your content or more unlikes and unfollows. Use Facebook Insights to see when your fans are online and engaging with your content.
Use our workshop s as an example.

11. Social Media: Develop Budgets and Allocate Resources/Execute
Consider the tactics you’ve chosen to support your objectives
Prioritize tactics by their ROI timeframe
To budget for social media marketing, look at the tactics you’ve chosen to achieve your business goals and objectives.
Make a comprehensive list of the tools you need (e.g., social media monitoring, marketing and CRM), services you’ll outsource (e.g., graphic design or video production) and any advertising you’ll purchase. Next to each, include the annual projected cost so you can have a high-level view of what you’re investing in and how it affects your marketing budget.
Many businesses establish their budget first, and then select which tactics fit that budget. I take the opposite approach. I establish a strategy first, and then determine the budget that fits that strategy.
If your strategy execution fees exceed your budget estimate, prioritize your tactics according to their ROI timeframe. The tactics with the fastest ROI (e.g., advertising and social referral) take priority because they generate instant profit you can later invest into long-term tactics (fan acquisition, quality content creation or long-term engagement).