HOW TO MARKET YOUR NEW BUSINESS ON LOW BUDGET FOR OUTSTANDING PROFIT

(Six Questions You Need To Answer For Your Business To Move From The Bottom To The Top Of The List)
Do you know it is possible for you to know your business inside-out; but not have the foggiest idea of how to market it or make money from it?
That was my dilemma few years back. There were businesses I knew inside-out, that I would teach people and they would say ‘wow’ but me their teacher wasn’t making any money from what I was teaching them. In fact I made an eighteen months research... yes you heard it right, 18 months research on two hundred (200) businesses you can start and do in Nigerian with little or no capital and make good money.
I got extremely frustrated after the research because I didn’t know how to make money from my research. I’m smiling as I’m typing this but it wasn’t funny then, it was so serious to the extent that I thought I was under a certain demonic attack.
I’ve come to realize that it's a problem which almost everyone starting a new business faces. You can be the best plumber, dry-cleaner, lawyer, carpenter, tax accountant, or doctor in the world, but if you don't know how to get the word out “how to market your products or services” there's no way you can get the customers you need, and if you cant get the customers you need, sorry… cash is not coming. I’m a living example of what I’m teaching you
Here are five essential steps to follow to get great marketing that doesn't cost a fortune.

1. What is your market?
The term Market here means your customers or potential customers. There are certain questions you need to pen down and answer meticulously before you forge ahead in your business endeavour. The answers to these questions combine together become the definition of your market, audience or customer.
Who are your main customers as a group?
How old are they?
Where do they live?
How much money do they make?
What kinds of jobs do they have?
What are their interests?
Are they interested in quantity or quality?
The better you can sketch a detailed profile of the kinds of people who will be your main customers, the better you'll fare in the next steps that follow.

2. What kinds of media do your main customers use?
Each type of media has its own target audience. Each radio station, newspaper, magazine, or TV station or program tries to interest a specific segment of the population. The trick is to match your main customers with the kinds of media they use.  Remember that media isn't just TV, radio and newspapers. Effective media can be anything that conveys your message. Media choices range from million dollar commercials in the Super Bowl to a few free pens with your name on them.

A fashion magazine is published for people interested in fashion
A business magazine is for business people
A community tabloid is limited to a certain geographical location
A music radio station tries to reach teenagers and 18 to 34-year-old men/women.
The local newspaper may be geared to homeowners over the age of 35.
An industry trade magazine might be read mostly by senior managers scattered all around the country.
A football newspaper is for football lovers.
A general newspaper may be for everybody, but is it everybody that reads it.
If you aren't sure what group a media outlet is targeting, ask their sales department, they will be so glad to furnish you with that information.
Maybe you have a service business that will be of interest to people living in a certain neighborhood or maybe your target is the sit at home mums or full housewives. Flyers delivered door-to-door could be the best way to let prospects know about you.

3. Can you maintain consistency with your media approach?
One of the advices you really have to heed in other for you to achieve what we are talking about is:
“Limiting the media you use to what you can afford to use consistently”
If it’s possible for you to have this short sentence written in a cardboard or engraved in  a stone and put where you will be seeing it often, then do it.
The key to effective marketing is “consistency”. You have to hit the audience with your message again, and again, and again. Marketers use the Rule of Seven. Prospects must see or hear your message seven times before they consider buying. This is a rule that has worked before, that is working now, and that will continue to work forever.
Don't blow your entire marketing budget on a one-shot media blitz. Choose a less expensive type of media that you can afford to use week after week. That's how you get marketing success.

4. How does your product or service improve your customer's life?
Sell the main benefit of your product or service. Make your marketing client-centered. You need to know how your product or service improves your customer's life. Talk to your customers from their own perspective.
Does your product or service save them time?
Does it save them money?
Does it make them richer?
Does it give them more for less?
Does it make them more attractive?
Your marketing should drive home this most important benefit as clearly and directly as possible.
Customers buy benefits! When you advertise the features of your product or service, connect those features to the benefits they will bring the customer.

5. Are you taking advantage of FREE publicity?
Up till now, some good people still do not know that they can get good and free publicity for their businesses and services.
Radio stations, TV stations, Newspapers, Newsletters, and Magazines are constantly on the lookout for good stories. Prospective customers will be impressed if a media outlet features a story on what you do, they believe your business or service has credibility for it to be featured in a media. Or why do you think some people are paying for the review of their products.
 Is there something about you or your business that would interest other people?
Is there something about your business that is newsworthy?
Do you have useful information to share with others?
Consider sending a press release to your local newspaper. Better yet, make a phone call to the news desk. Radio DJs can often be persuaded to talk about your business, especially if you take them a free sample. Consider your cable TV company's community bulletin board and an article for the trade publication that covers your industry. (Drop me a note and ask for my free report on media publicity.)
6. Are you taking advantage of the internet?
If you cannot give an infallible “YES” to this question, or if your answer is one of the following:
Em…
Not really…
Not actually…
I have it in mind…
I will think about it…
Does it really matter…
I will do it one of these days…
I really haven’t thought about it…
Internet? I heard it’s all scam and…
It’s just not part of my/our budget yet…
Seriously speaking. If one of the above statements or something similar is your response, then stop for a moment and slap yourself. How could you have wasted so much resource that God put in your disposal? Internet is an inexhaustible resource at your disposal.
Do not ever forget to promote your business on-line. The net is open to everyone. It's the only "big" media that allows the small business person to get their message out at very low or no cost. Bulletin boards and newsgroups may appreciate helpful information that you provide, and most won't mind if you sign your name along with four to six lines about your business.

You have just read the six important questions you need to answer for you to effectively market your products and services. Keep them in mind as you decide how to market your new business or improve on the old one. They are the single most important reasons why some organizations fail while other small or medium size ones bring in loads of new customers and profits.