The word ‘marketing’ is often used as a generic term for promoting and selling products or services. This is accurate: it is easier to say ‘I’m marketing my services’ or ‘I do marketing for my company’ rather than, say, ‘I’m writing copy, taking photos, buying media, managing ad campaigns, posting on social media’ – which are all components of that process.
So what does it actually mean and where do you start if you want to market your business?

We thought it might be useful to put together a list of things you need to know and prepare before tackling this process.

1. Start by asking and answering the most basic questions: what, how, who, why.

Yes, I know, you’re probably rolling your eyes right now but trust me on this, it will help you in the long term. And even if you already know this, do yourself a favor and go through this exercise.

• What am I selling?
• How is what I’m selling different from other products/services?
• Who would want to buy this?
• Why would they want to buy it/what problem does it solve for them?

The first question is your basic elevator pitch, and it is self-explanatory.

The answer to the second question will become your competitive analysis and it will help differentiate from other companies that are doing a similar thing.

The third question will help you define your target audience.

The answer to the fourth question will help you formulate your core message. For instance, if you’re selling bedding, you’re not trying to solve for hunger but a more comfortable sleep. This will define everything from your tag line to your web copy and beyond.

2. Develop a visual identity

You probably have a name and, maybe, a logo. That is a great start.
Having a visual identity means that everything related to your product will look similar – from your website to your business cards and Instagram posts.

You will have to start thinking about your logo, brand colors, brand typography (aka the fonts you will use) and the kind of images you want to use in your marketing materials.

All this will not only insure that you have a consistent, professional look across all mediums but will also help when you hire a designer to design your website or your marketing materials.

Ask us how to develop a creative brief.

3. Know what you are trying to accomplish

I know what you’re thinking: the main goal is usually ‘making lots of money’ and that is a totally legitimate goal. So let’s assume that this is a given.
Beyond that, when starting a marketing campaign, what do you want people to think when they see your message? What should they feel? What should they know? What should they do?

Typically, there are two types of campaigns in marketing: branding campaigns and transactional campaigns.

If your campaign is focused more on branding, it will be more visual, aspirational, your overall goal will be to make people remember your brand, and hopefully choose it over others in the future.

If, however, you’re focused more on transactions (aka: getting people to buy your stuff), the elements of your campaign will be different, geared towards convincing people to click on something, sign up, buy, etc.

Once you know what you’re trying to accomplish, you can decide where and how to reach potential buyers.

4. Prepare your materials

This is the tedious part. In our experience is the bottleneck of most marketing campaigns because it always takes longer than expected. But if you’ve already completed steps 1 through 3, it will be easier to get everything together.

Preparing your materials means that you already have or are in the process of developing:

• Your creative brief – a combination of #1 & #2
• The brand guidelines
• Your target audience, well defined
• At least some of your website copy
• Brief descriptions of all your services
• Pictures of your products or stock photos that represent your services.

5. Have a budget in mind

Even if your budget is zero, you should still define it and executing steps 1 through 4 outlined here will help you define your positioning and strategy, not to mention that it is pretty much free. A zero budget doesn’t mean you can’t market your product – it just means that your options will be limited.

Once you know your budget, you can prioritize what you will spend money on.
For instance, if you’re selling clothes or cosmetics, you should probably allocate budget to good product photography, whereas if you’re selling services, cheap stock photos from sites like Stocksy or Unsplash are great and lots of great quality photos can be downloaded for free.

If you’re not sure what you should prioritize for, talk to someone who has experience in the space and ask questions. You know how they say that there are no stupid questions? Well, that’s not entirely true, but most people will be happy to answer even the dumbest questions, and if they’re not, then they’re not worth talking to.

Have any more questions? Talk to us.