The Secret

Business is simple, people make it complicated. Business can be as simple as you want to make it.

Business is fun, or it should be. I always try and inspire my clients and my employees to be proactive rather than reactive. It is all too simple to get bogged down in the day to day problems a business can throw at you. A proactive stance gives a business direction a reactive stance makes a business stagnant. Stagnant business will always fail. Markets and consumers change and your business should change to meet new demand. Consumers like change, they like new products and services, no matter what industry you are in. Employees do not like monotony, giving you company direction will keep you employes motivated and involved.

Marketing is simple.

Marketing is made up of 4 key cornerstones:

Empathy

Initiative

Planning

Communication

Empathy. There is a great misconception about marketing. This misconception suggests that marketing is complex, scientific and gimmicky. Marketing need be none of these. The secret to marketing is empathy.

Business is about people, its one aim is to serve people, yet everybody looses sight of this. Success is putting people at the centre of your business. Every single business operation should be centred around people, that means you, your employees and your customers. Marketing is this process.

Marketing does not need a degree, it does not need endless research or an endless budget. All it needs is you putting yourself in the shoes, heart and mind of all the people involved, or you want to be involved, with your business. Design and guide your business from these angles. This takes nothing more than thought and consideration.

Initiative. A sharp and open mind will enable you to come up with solid solutions. In marketing talk (which is only ever sometimes necessary) ‘think outside the box’. Problems and opportunities can be approached from millions of angles. Initiative will allow you to develop an angle that is new and appealing to your customers. But remember to keep it simple and centred around the individual. By far the best ideas are always simple and innovative.

Planning. Planning is simply working out how you are going to implement your inovative solution and equally as importantly how you are going to test its effectiveness. The most complicated part of business is finding out how you are doing. It is only complicated due to the fact that you have to collect vast amounts of data, this has to be processed and then interpreted but nowadays there are plenty of technological solutions that can help you.

Plans should always be flexible. Plan what you are going to do, when, how and what goals or milestones you are going to use to test its effectiveness. For smaller operational implementations these plans may not need to be written but consideration should be given to the aforementioned stages.

Communication. Communication is the final cornerstone. Business is about people as we have already discussed and communication is the way in which you let people know what they are doing or what you as a business are doing. People are not psychic if you want them to know about something you have to tell them. Business relies on communication on every level. Business is solely concerned with people and it has to be able to communicate effectively with people to be successful.

I always encourage my clients to plan every way their business is going to communicate with the market. There are many new avenues for your business to communicate with its market, for example online social networks and new media. You should always think about every avenue of communication. You should try and eliminate any avenues of bad communication and open up as many new controlled communication avenues. As a businesses it is essential that you create or join business networks. You want everybody to know about your business so you must go and tell everybody, or get others to communicate on your behalf - enter other associated local business.

Understanding Consumers - All you need to know!

Customer perception of value = perceived benefit - perceived sacrifice

This formula is a well known in marketing. It is simple and very effective. In order to sell in a way that values your service and your customers you need to bear this formula in mind. Notice that everything is perceived. Every person is individual, every individual has their own perception on the world and on your business. You need to communicate that perceived benefit to your customer. If you do something tell your customers about it; communicate!

Perceived sacrifice almost always relates to cost. Use empathy to see what your customers will perceive that sacrifice to be. You are in business to make money, don’t be ashamed of it, but do work to bring as much benefit to your customers as possible. Believe in your products and services and use every opportunity to communicate their benefits to your customers or potential customers.

As I have stated business is simple, but there is a lot to deal with, this is where it all seems so complicated. Marketing and business strategy should be broken down into manageable chunks. Keep everything simple, open, honest and make sure that you communicate with everybody.

Coming soon - Simple Web Marketing