Marketing basics

Startup businesses and even businesses that have been present on the market for a few years have to face an important challenge every day: how can I successfully advertise my company? There are vast amounts of tips on the internet, and countless professionals are eager to give advice on how to find the right way for your business. And yet, it does not always work. So what is the key to success?

To find the answer to this question, you need to understand the essence of advertising and you need to outline your objectives. The main goal is to get your message to prospective consumers through the appropriate channel. This basically summarizes the three pillars of a good marketing strategy.

The first pillar: the consumer

You need to clarify the target audience of your product or service. The social, cultural or age group to whom you would like to sell the product or service needs to be defined very precisely. As the success of the business depends on the consumers, more precisely on their willingness to buy the offered products or services, if the target group is poorly chosen, all the money and energy spent goes to waste. It is obvious—though not always understood—that there is no use trying to sell marzipan to the diabetics.

The second pillar: the channel

It is important to choose the means of targeting prospective clients very carefully. Their habits greatly affect the method to use when contacting them with advertisements. The preferred options are appearance in press materials, web-based advertisements and out-of-home advertising. Using flyers can lead to good results with non-homogeneous groups or in cases when they are distributed to a clearly identifiable circle of people, but otherwise it has a rather low advertising efficiency.

The third and most decisive pillar: the message

It is essential to define not only the target group of consumers, but also the values the services or products can offer them, and most importantly, how they are different and better than the services/products of the competitors. Then you need to find the appropriate message that conveys this information to the consumers. In most cases, the best solution is to use an advertisement that has a strong verbal and visual side, so it is easily remembered.

Considering the above three elements is the first step to take for businesses of all sizes before asking for professional assistance. It might not be easy, but the difficult part of the job only comes thereafter. It is essential to assess each option in a complex way and never to abandon a campaign that has been launched, because it is already "set in motion". Changes in the demand for specific services/products need to be closely monitored and controlled. If the market reaction is favorable, the strategy can be amplified, otherwise it needs to be adjusted as soon as possible. A flexible strategy should be used, which can be adjusted by taking the necessary steps at any time. The reason for this is that markets are not always predictable, and launching an appropriate campaign is never easy, even with the above mentioned competences..