What Is Marketing

The is the text book definition of marketing: the activity for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that benefit the organization, its stakeholders and society at large.

One thing I have learned, in all my years of coaching business owners with marketing their products and services, is that marketing has to be done on a consistent basis. I know this for sure, not just because text books say so, because I have tested it.

Allow me to explain exactly how I tested it.

When I first started my business I only sold promotional products. I contacted Kaeser & Blair, Inc., paid my $85.00 for a start-up sales kit. The kit arrived about two weeks later. I thought, now I'm in business for myself, let me sell some promotional products. I had a plan for my test. My plan was to call business owners from the local Yellow Pages directory. Surely these businesses needed promotional products to promote there products and services. I was going to make a stream of steady income just by calling businesses from the Yellow Pages.

All the businesses I called were either, not interested, could not afford to make a purchase, or just did not want what I was selling. I had made the common mistake just about every star-up business owner with no marketing skills makes. That mistake was, thinking that implementing one marketing strategy would result in me gaining new customers. My test was complete. Lucky for me I have a degree in marketing. So what did I do to gain new clients? I utilized my marketing training and skills to attract new clients. This is what I did:

* I hired myself to market my new start-up business.
* I began networking with other business owners.
* I became small business certified to do business with California, Illinois, and Atlanta.
* I joined several chambers, and attended meetings, even got to know the members.
* I pitched my product to anyone willing to listen.
* I placed an ad in the Yellow Pages.
* Etc.

Within a few months of consistent marketing activities, my phone began to ring with a request for my first order. Woot! So you see marketing does work, but you have to implement a plan to find out how well it does work. Businesses that don't market their products and services, don't stay in business for very long. Businesses that do market their products and services stay in business for years.

Contact EastLake Marketing Group. I effectively coach you with marketing your product or service one step at a time. Let’s discuss how I can coach you to success.