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Facebook is a social networking site, amongst all types of ages and people. It is so popular that today, everyone is familiar with it and using it to keep in touch with friends, relatives and family. As it grows in its unique users list to 89% last year, Facebook also become notable platform for companies from advertising their companies on this social network site. Facebook also gives you options to make a separate page for your business introduction for your marketing needs and to promote it to your network of contacts. Various companies are now advertising here to promote their business / products they are selling. And it is helping them in producing rapid results. Facebook titled it as Fan Page for yourself and for your business that let;

• The customers become your fan, and you support them with your new ideas and services you are providing.
• You know about the customer’s needs and what they want from you.
• Your customers talk about your good services or products to share with their contacts on their list. And hence, this process went on and on.

Below listed are considered to be the best action steps and resource to help you getting started:

First of all, go through with other fan pages already made by other users. And get familiar with it. Make sure you are already a member of this society. If you do not know anyone doing this, then just search the content for Fan Page. Study its basic structures and volume of information; you can bring to this page, and also how to communicate and deliver your message to your customers. Here are the few recommended Fan Pages on Facebook that are the most favorites and good from learning point of view. Apple, The New Yorker, Blue Olive, Beaver Falls Coffee & Tea Company and Absolute Vodka. Also check out the Facebook’s gallery of best practiced Fan Pages.

Create the Facebook Fan Page to meet your Business Needs

Facebook makes you connected with your customers deeply with your company’s promotions and products. You can update them with the latest inventories coming to the way. You can share ideas with them and can develop a very homely and mature bounding. Your customer when see you are trying to keep in touch with them, they also guide you and demand for what is on their buying list for the next time. So you can grasp them if you can provide them with your efforts. The companies who are working on these strategies, they don’t let their customers go away.

When you create a Fan Page, there are different types of service providers / businesses enlisted, so you choose the one you are dealing with. Like if you are operating a company locally, select Local Business and then business type, store, bank, brand etc.

Simply, create the page by clicking on the Create Page button, and start putting in your Company information. To start with it, company overview, mission statement, website, contact information and your company’s logo. Once done, publish your page on Facebook wall, and start visualizing your page. Once it is done, you will start adding more relative information about your products or business details and terms. Make sure you enter all the necessary information about your services and business, before you start telling your contacts about your page and asking them to become a fan. Now here it is how to make your fan Page popular and how to make fans.

Hey! Become a fan of my Fan Page of Facebook

It might only help you to show them your page or to become a just a fan. But it isn’t gonna get any productive unless, you give them and show them good offers. So plan your season, with full of delights and new products. Keep your fans coming and showing them new products once in week or twice a month at least. Like this they will keep looking at your product range or services offered by your company, and it will start a thread among their further contact. Then you can see your success of your page.

There are also Social Advertisements available for companies to promote their business. So timely you can also avail them but it is always much stronger if your customers become your marketer. Through this channel you will get potential customers.

Do some marketing other than Facebook

Facebook also provides guidelines on promoting your page outside of Facebook.  It comes with a page Badge Graphic Artwork that you can download and embed on your website that says “Find us on Facebook”. Link it to your fan Page address. Try these easy tips and you shall get great results, enhance your products, with vital business growth. That can only be done if you get a rapid feedback and customer support. Facebook is a very successful tool of the time, so be on it!

These days, every business desires to enjoy fast and furious growth and keep thinking about maximum exposure to their businesses. For this purpose, you would definitely need to be on your toes and anticipate your competition without falling behind.

If we make a comparison, we find that promotional printed items are one of the best and proven strategies than any other marketing and promotional strategies. It helps you a lot in building brand loyalty. You can customize the promotional products by imprinting them with your organization’s logo, promotional message, relevant contact details including website and your organization name.

The thing you must keep in mind while distributing promotional gifts is to distribute the products that people have to use more often. You can easily accomplish this without stretching your set budget. Your promotional products can be far ahead of all competition if you have an artistic temperament and know how to do the same thing in different way. So, creative thinking really plays an important role in such sort of promotional strategies.

You can use a lot of things as promotional products, but most of the time the things that are used as promotional items are pens, key chains, bottle openers, diaries, calendars, watches and rings etc.  Pens are considered the cheapest and widely used promotional items. You can imprint them with your slogan, company name, logo and promotional message.

Similarly, promotional calendars are often distributed at a very large scale when New Year comes. Sometimes they are distributed in several thousands at a time. Mostly, businesses insert redeemable coupons in them and use them to boost their seasonal sales.

Many businesses supply promotional items within their organizations also, as it helps to promote customer loyalty. Mouse pads, printed USBs, notepads, pens, calendars and other stationary items are often included in office promotional supplies.

1. They are cost effective. Whether you send one email or one thousand, it doesn’t cost much more.
2. They allow you to reach participants quickly.
3. The results of these emails are immediately available most of the time.

Take time to plan your email survey

Mull a lot over what you are expecting and what you want to achieve with your email survey and how you would implement it. Ask yourself that what kind of information you want to get from the participants of your email survey and whether open-ended or close-ended questions would serve your purpose best.

Prepare a sound purpose-friendly questionnaire

The thing you must keep in mind while developing questionnaire is that Web readers don’t have enough time to stick to one particular thing. You must target the question style and survey length, keeping your audience in mind. A questionnaire with inverted pyramid style can help you to get important information first. There must also be some basic demographic questions in the survey as it will help you to better understand the respondents of your survey.

Prepare an email marketing list

You will have to choose email database of your existing customer or you can also purchase an email marketing list based on the group that you want to target. This list must be of those recipients who chose to be on the list. This list can also be purchased from other companies who also target your required market or email list brokers can also provide it to you.

Be with the rules

If you are planning to implement your email survey yourself, you must consider the rules regarding mass emails placed on you by your server’s abilities or Web hosting company. Similarly, you must follow the provided instructions if you are using email marketing or email survey system.

Evaluate the results

You can present the results of your email survey to the decision makers in your company so that they may use these results in planning or make necessary amendment in their decisions.  If you are using it for your own business, try to make a better implementation of these results keeping each and every aspect in mind.

Word of mouth is still the most convincing thing in the word to be used for multipurpose targets. It is also quite according to the human nature that a person likes to be briefed and informed by other human beings. This very method of marketing is the oldest and the most authentic way which satisfies the listener readily. Here a person himself addresses the clients and convinces them of his doings or products.

Forms of Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of mouth marketing may have different forms depending upon a number of factors belonging to time, space and requirement. First of all door to door visit or person to person communication has been the most popular form of word of mouth marketing.

When a person meets another person and briefs him about something and also ensures the questions or queries about that very thing, both of them get fully convinced or satisfied. Furthermore, words of mouth marketing also involves the communication between the two persons on mobile phone or land phone. This is also a direct the same effect as produced by the door to door visit.

Sometimes it so happens that a person addresses a huge gathering of people informing them in detail about something. He describes the advantages and details of that very product and proves a successful marketer then and there. Such type of word of mouth marketing often takes place in villages and less developed towns where latest electronic modes of communication have not yet reached. This is also a very traditional way of marketing being followed for centuries now.

Another form of word of mouth marketing is that a person should appear on the radio or television and inform people about his product by giving details of its different aspects. This very form of marketing is also very influential because people listen and watch electronic media attentively. Audio-video advertisement is the modern form of word of mouth marketing which produces very healthy influence on the mind of people especially the children who get convinced instantly about different eatables, games, toys etc and enforce their parents to provide them.

Thus we see that word of mouth marketing has different forms ranging from the simplest personal visits to the audio-video ads.

Importance and Advantages

Word of mouth marketing is absolutely a direct way of marketing which brings about quick and better response of the listener. It is, therefore, both time saving and influential at one and the same time.

Print media, no doubt has its own great importance which can never be denied, but this importance is confined only to the readers who happen to read it. On the other hand, Mouth of word marketing is wide ranging and requires no reading but just listening which is obviously more scope full as well. Moreover, word of mouth marketing does not necessarily require higher education as is required for writing a book. Even an ordinary illiterate or less educated person can do word of mouth marketing easily if he has a convincing tone and will power required to keep sticking to that task.

All the new ideas, theories, philosophies and laws are introduced and formulated by human beings and then they are brought to light through books, computer software, etc. This proves that human beings are the best source of new ideas and innovations, so they are naturally the best informers of those very innovations. Thus word of mouth marketing which is actually the words of human beings is the most influential of all the other modes of all the other modes of marketing.

Last but not the least, word of mouth marketing also increases the rate of employment in the country as it requires more and more persons to undertake or handle marketing manually. Thus it is quite clear that word of mouth marketing is still very much effective even in this age of latest and fastest electronic media.

Marketing:

1. The act or process of buying and selling in a market.
2. The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.

Advertisement:

1. A paid announcement, as of goods for sale, in newspapers or magazines, on radio or television, etc.
2. A public notice, esp. in print.
3. The action of making generally known; a calling to the attention of the public
   Marketing is a prior launch campaign.It is a base upon which the success of the launch depends.It provides the company with potential buyers, giving a remarkable boost to the product and the company.

Timing is the most important and basic difference between the two.Marketing should be done before the product is even launched.Whereas, advertisement is done after the product is launched.It works as a supportive element for marketing.Marketing is a wide process whereas advertisement is only one of its components.Several aims are to be met through right marketing strategies.A company gains or loses its first buyers by its marketing strategies.An effective marketing campaign targets all the potential buyers while aiming at highlighting the requirements of the buyer.The buyer is sometimes made to wait for a product as a marketing strategy.

Advertisement is a continuing effort of gaining customer, assessing his needs and asserting the fulfillment of his needs.In return the gain is sheer value.Generally, it aims at one product, hence marketing plans and strategies can differ for each product or they can also be similar.Whereas in advertisement, it can be of one product or at the same time can consist on a variety of products.But the advertisement style can not be repeated unlike marketing.In such case it will create monotony and can divert the attention of buyers.
Search based marketing activities are called ‘Inbound Marketing’.They aim at assessing the areas of potential buyers, their needs, their requirements, and how these can be met and how many of these can be met.Inbound marketing not only helps in assessing the potential market but it also helps in assessing the profit ratio a product can bring in.The company can also assess right pricing of the product, the potential competitors, the areas to focus for improvement and then improving their product.

Advertisement falls in the criteria of ‘Outbound Marketing’.As it is already said that advertisement works as a supportive element for marketing, it comes in action after marketing has played its role in the field.Successful marketing helps making advertising campaigns successful.Advertising campaigns enhances the requirement of a product.A continuous advertising campaign lifts up the market value of a product, also covering the loop holes left behind by poor marketing strategies.

Advertisement is typically done through

• Flyers
• Newsletter Advertisement
• Personal word, or in these days very effectively through electronic media.

Product advertisement through radio or television is generally confused with marketing. Basically the strategy of how a product has to be advertised is called marketing.Both basically aim at promoting a product and gaining the market boosting the company and its business.

Successful marketing campaigns scarcely require heavy branding or in other words, excessive advertisement.If a company’s marketing policies are strong enough to meat market challenges, then the product should be in demand before its launch.Advertisement should only play the role of a supportive element, rather than a cover for weak marketing.

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The slogan can be defined as a noun which has the purpose to be convincing by creating some memorable phrase/expression or a motto or some musical sound often rhymed to highlight a particular concept or aim. For instance following was written on a maternity home door, “Push. Push .Push “ outrageously ironic , a laughing stock but a perfect example of a business slogan as it can grasp anyone’s’ attention and depicting a complete picture and a complete aim by just one short sentence with repetition of one word.

There lie many ways to create a business slogan:

• Firstly, one must be creative enough, one must be intelligent enough to use “anything that Go “along with the concept/aim he/she is trying to project and launch.
• Secondly, it must be exciting or it is like a dead meat which no one wants to eat.
• Thirdly, business slogan should be expanding a certain aim by its nature. The greater the expansion is, the brighter the chances are for the aim to be achieved, in other words, attracting audience. It is like an alligator’s love song calling for his partner, which in fact, sends vibration in water and can be heard over miles. A business slogan is of the same nature a Love Song which needs lovers and appreciation.

A famous pizza shop had the business slogan “7 days without pizza makes one weak”. A beautiful, intelligent and innocently devilish sentence. It’s a universal truth that seven days make a week but the pair of word “ weak” replacing a single letter “ a”   with “ e” alter the whole story the whole concept and we are ought to think , admiring the sentence , “ right, lets go and eat a pizza”. Thus, expansion of theme or idea is necessary in a business slogan.

Other ways include inspiration, attraction, self-involving, proper and good use of language, focusing on painful memories /images, literary blunders, self-contradiction, self-revealing in strange tone.. and the list goes on and on. It never ends since the creativity of a mind has no limits. Some grave and very serious aims are expressed in light-hearted stones thrown innocently at people.

A tobacco control section of California department of health services had the following slogan “Mind if I smoke? Care if I die? “, or in a Non-smoking area we find “If we see smoke, we will assume that you are on fire and take appropriate action “. The idea is grave; the message is grave, only the expression is funny.

We can summarize the various types of slogans. Some are posting a question, like, “are you smarter than a fifth grader?” throwing a challenge in form of a question. Some include dares, others projects and sources, and structures. But they all intend to reflect a particular aim which can be a message or advertising for money or some cause.

The  business slogans at times are restricted to generation of profit by the working of their creative and marketing departments considering only to achieve targets, In such grave situation the message vanishes and serious advertisement replaces it and such very serious ads are in form of banners, pamphlets, internet marketing also termed as “ web-ads”, print and mass media etc.

Last but not the least, a quotation can be a business proposal as we all know “ time is money” and wasting money is never wise.

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No one can deny the importance market knowledge in any financial system. Market knowledge enables us to decide what to sale, where to sale, and how to sale. Success or failure of any product in the market mostly depends on its marketing campaign and quality and they both can’t be maintained without market knowledge.

There are two basic kinds of market knowledge e.g. bookish market knowledge and practical market knowledge.

There are billion of sites on internet that provide us maximum help and information almost on every related topic to market and marketing, thousands of books have been written on the subject as well but what is the factor that in spite of all these so-called available researches, promotions, planning and strategies and other techniques thousands of well-known companies are bearing loss in almost every part of the world due to less generated proceeds.

Are they not conducting proper research as they are advised in books or different sites related to this subject , are they not promoting their goods in a right way or are they creating faulty strategies and planning contrary to the planning and strategies as they learn from books and internet. They may have flaws in their research, strategies and planning but why don’t they learn from those methods and apply them as they are told in books and on different sites full of the treasures of knowledge.

The reason is simple that conducting and creating market research, strategies and planning is one thing while applying these strategies, planning and research is another thing. One can never be a market pundit just reading few books on the subject or visiting some sites. One requires a lot of practical wisdom to prove one’s metal in the field.

As we can’t learn swimming just by reading books on swimming we have to dive in the water to learn it and the same is true about implementation of market knowledge and marketing. Market knowledge we acquire form practical market wisdom is better than bookish market wisdom.

It doesn’t mean that we must quit reading or visiting sites to gain market knowledge from them but we must try to modify that knowledge according to the needs and requirements of the surrounding market that we want to work in.

‘A true marketer is one who can sell a comb to an entirely bald person’ it’s a widespread notion about marketing and marketers but the question rises a sane person with a bit of business acumen would ever dare to sale combs at a place where most of people are bald? No, he/she would certainly not do that or if he/she does so, he/she must be reckoned a naïve without sufficient market knowledge not a pundit.

Knowledge is power whether it is of market or any other field but the benefits of this knowledge can be reaped only if it is applicable and precise. So, it can be concluded that not mere market knowledge but precise and practical market knowledge is a key to profits for any organization.

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In the present epoch, Marketing is not merely about the 5 P’s anymore, infact, it is an innovative and ever-changing rock band of various instruments harmonized to accomplish the strategies and objectives of a business. Sales, however, differs from marketing. To put it in plain language, the process from market research to packaging is the function of Marketing; from packaging to the hands or reach of the customers is Sales. You may call Marketing as the “brain” and Sales as the “body” of business. However, this brain and body of business is only but a little lesser complex than the human body itself.
We don’t say that we differ with the established definition of Marketing, that is, “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, services, organizations, and events to create and maintain relationships that will satisfy individual and organizational objectives”; we only believe that there is more to this definition once you put it in the practical scenario.

In today’s competitive global market, it involves micro and macro market analysis, focused on strategic intentions where sales is driven more by tactical challenges and customer relations, which various from industry to industry.

Marketing has to be viewed as a science than an art. We have devised this guide to Marketing and Sales as something more than just the 5 P’s to provide our readers with a practical direct. Here is a quick and easy guide!

MARKETING

To a “true” marketer, the marketing role in a company is not just a business function, but a business philosophy. An effective marketer truly believes “dominating” their target market is “owning” their market.

a- Market Research

1. Project management
2. Gathering data before physically entering the market
3. Analyzing market needs
4. Evaluating market trends
5. Software selection, training, maintenance of customer contact information

b- Competitor Analysis

1. Gathering as much competitor information as possible
2. Evaluate it on practical grounds
3. Appraising your business feasibility
4. Pricing Analysis of the competitor
5. Customer pricing Vs your pricing

3- Marketing Communications

1. Establishing product promotions links
2. Deciding advertising
3. Participation in trade shows to get first hand customer feedback
4. Assist in selection and prioritization of all media options: print, broadcast, multimedia
5. Establishment, guidance and coordination of all areas of public Relations
6. All printed / electronic communication: brochures, catalogs, price lists
7. Establishment, guidance and coordination of all areas of public Relations

SALES

To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge, which marketing, your brain has already provided you with; now the body has to function.

a- Establish distribution channels

1. Decided the mode of distribution
2. Fix commission if using other’s outlets

b- Product knowledge

1. Know all the technical and other details of your product
2. Have all the product literature
3. Ask yourself as many questions as you can assume as a customer about the product.

c- Competitor Knowledge

1. Know all about your competitors
2. Know the UNPs (Unique selling prepositions) of your products
3. Be convinced yourself first

d- Communication

1. Let the customer take the lead. The customers decide what’s important. Your job is to listen and respond.
2. Get the prospect “into the act.” Let him feel it, weigh it, admire it.
3. You are the company. Remember you are the company and the product for the customer. Sell yourself, instead of the product.
4. Learn to quickly get your prospect interested in, and wanting your product, and then systematically present your sales pitch through to the close, when he signs on the dotted line, and reaches for his checkbook.
5. Review your sales presentation, your sales materials, and your prospecting efforts.
6. Highlihgt the USPs

e- CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

1. In business, 80/20 applies. 80 % of your business comes from the 20 you’re your clients. Identify the 20%
2. Remember that customer is your wage; treat your wages accordingly
3. As HR says, “Treat the customers like kings.”

As most of the businessmen err, don’t just jump and through your idea into the market; do the homework first. No matter how great or original your product or idea may be, you need to know the ground truth about your ideas before you spend countless hours and money taking a new product or service to market.  You may feels we are putting dissuasion on your new business idea creation, but in fact, it is just the opposite: we are encouraging you to find out what your customers want, and what they would like to pay for. Good luck!

1. Make a list of the companies in your local area that may be interested in the product or service that you are offering. Remember, not every local company is going to have a need for your business. With that being said, there are bound to be quite a few that will be able to benefit from your expertise. You can build your list with the help of the yellow pages, and of course, the internet. In addition to this, make notes of companies that intrigue you while traveling the local streets.
2. Once you have a list, it is time for you to get into more depth. During this step you will want to record information on each company. This includes contact details, as well as what the company specializes in. With this information, you will feel much more comfortable as you move on and it comes time to sell.
3. When your list is ready to go, it is time for you to call on each company that you have found. This is the most difficult part of the process, and it is when you will see just how much success you have. Remember, there are many ways that you can call on local companies. The most effective way for many is through cold calling. The benefit of this is that you can explain that you are also a local business. In many cases, a company will give you business because they like to keep things local. You should definitely play up this hook as much as you can. In addition to cold calling, do not look past direct mail and email. Anyway that you can get your name in front of local clients will help you to increase business.
4. Keep a running log of which companies are buying from you, and which ones told you no. Remember, just because you are told no the first time does not mean that this will be the case the next time that you call back. Many sales professionals agree that it takes several inquiries in order to make a sale. Don’t give up prematurely!

As a small business, one of the best ways to get off to a good start is by calling on local companies. Not only will this help you to establish a client base, but you have a better chance of success when dealing with companies in your area.

All in all, finding and selling to local customers may be the best move that you ever make as a small business. Remember to keep local businesses in mind at all times!

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Before venturing out into business with any new product, it is always best to conduct a feasibility study so as to determine the chances of profitability of your proposed product in your chosen market. Most people can only dream of starting a business but do not know where to begin. Whether you are still a student, a plain housewife, or currently employed in a certain company, putting up a business that you can call your own is not an impossibility.

The financial aspect or the capital in putting up a business is normally the major concern of most potential entrepreneurs, but the equally more important factor is choosing which product or service to sell. A feasibility study is definitely a must especially for small to medium sized businesses still starting out in the market. Doing so prevents any entrepreneur from proceeding with a lackluster product or placing a competent product in the wrong location. Moreover, this helps the entrepreneur in determining which price bracket to adopt with the product.

There are businesses that have failed due to careless product pricing and distribution, and by studying the target market a business is able to determine the purchasing power of those they wish to cater to. Supposing that you have already chosen your product, and you are now beginning to conduct your feasibility study. The first thing that you have to do is to determine your target market. Start out by the commonly used demographics in researches like age, income, societal class, gender, and geography or location.

If you have a dessert as a product for example, this normally caters to most age brackets although those who are above middle-age may not be able to sample your product as often as those who are not limited by health problems. If your dessert is of the common variety like ice cream or cakes, then your market would perhaps be from the low to medium income earners, or class B and C of the societal status demographics. However if your dessert product is expensive to make and has a more luxurious appeal like an Italian gelato or a Pavlova, then your market is more limited to the class A income earners, or those who can afford more.

However, due to the higher paying capacity of this market, your product has a chance of profit when marketed well. Once you have determined your market you can now research further into the typical preferences of your targeted market. In this study, most entrepreneurs would utilize questionnaires as a way to determine the spending power of the targeted customers, how often they would buy the product if available in the market, and if this product for them is a necessity or a luxury.

Moreover, in a feasibility study, samples of the product may be given out as well. This could already be a promotional tool for an existing business, but giving out product samples can help small to medium business still in its inception greatly, especially in determining if the product needs improvement or is already ready for distribution. In the example above, if you are considering on opening a dessert goods store, you can send out samples to family, friends, and even strangers, and then solicit their opinions on the product afterwards. You can also inform them on the proposed product price, so as to know if they would buy the actual product at the said price when already distributed in the market or location. It is true that an excellent product or service will eventually be able to sell itself. However, performing a feasibility study remains to be one of the most important steps in good business planning.