Marketing strategies to grow your business.

Whether it's a new business or an existing one,a new or mature product,getting your marketing concept right is central to growing your sales and brand value.These are the two reasons for marketing,fundamentally,and are interrelated,in that as you build brand value your sales volume or value is likely to grow as well,and vice versa.Most people however are not precise with how to go about marketing,especially because the traditional approaches may not be the right one for certain types of business.Besides cost leadership and differentiation strategies are so common place,that they may not give you an edge as you compete for your customers attention.If everybody uses them,then what makes you different?the answer is nothing,and your marketing effort could prove dull and in-effective.so what's the solution?A different approach to marketing. In the modern age,there are three broad ways to do marketing,namely online marketing,print marketing and person to person marketing.Each is different,and requires a different approach,but in practice you need to combine all,regardless of the scale.This is because a combination of the methods gives you the advantages of what is being touted as hybrid marketing,a combination of passive and active marketing,to capture and maintain the attention of your audience.think of a businessman selling products on wholesale to shops:for print marketing,a business card is a must have,simple as it is,it identifies you and marks you as serious in your marketing effort,especially for a business owner doing marketing for themselves instead of through a team.Your conversation with a potential client is the active part of the marketing,while the business card serves to remind them about you after you are gone,like when they need the product you were offering they can call you!the business card can also give your website,and websites are cheap today,a way for the audience to interact with you online,or even your face book fan page. This simple example is the hybrid strategy for you,with three ways you are interacting with potential clients,raising the chances three fold of their becoming a customer. The simple example above is offcourse for basic marketing,probably at a next to nothing cost,and has limited success because of limited reach,as it hinges on how many people you personally talk to,and a few possible referrals.For more effective marketing,you need to expand your audience by agency marketing.Take the editorial Fortune magazine,it offers it's clients email marketing,social media marketing print marketing through a monthly edition or other printed media like brochures or pullouts,while employing targeted distribution of the advertisement message,through tried and tested channels.Their advertisement products are well priced,and effective,and you can find their contacts at the bottom of this article,especially if you are seeking an audience in the East African market in general,or Kenya in particular.Using an agency like this publisher gives you the multiplier effect in marketing,where you are not the only one doing it,but get access to a dedicated team of experts to help you reach a wider audience. You need to know which audience you are marketing to,to enable you to do smart marketing,and consulting an expert could save you both time and money.You need to convince the audience to buy at the shortest time and for the lowest cost,which makes your marketing conversion rate efficient,raising your revenues.So be precise with the information you give,and make sure you can deliver what you are selling should someone buy it!Product or capacity to offer service should first be guaranteed before you start marketing,otherwise the marketing effort is a time wasting exercise.You could ensure this by first doing a production and marketing research on your product and capacity to deliver before you commence the marketing exercise,so that you have enough stocks and have confidence that your product will sell.If you try to market something you don't believe in,don't complain when the results are disappointing,because you won't do it with heart...you won't be committed! So go ahead and grow your business,through both passive and active marketing,or simply the hybrid strategy!

Author:Wangui.