You Haven’t Heard of My Business – But I Have a Website!

by Julie Barnes

What is marketing? According to the website Wikipedia, marketing is used to create a customer, to keep a customer and to satisfy a customer. Since you will be focusing your marketing activities on your customers, it can be concluded that marketing is one of the premier components of business management. Some new entrepreneurs think just having a website is all the marketing that they have to do. They seem surprised when someone has never heard of their business or never been to their website. Even if all you have is a website, you still have to promote it, or it's just an online brochure.

Before designing your marketing plan, you will need to narrow down your target market. Who is your target market? Let's do some brainstorming by doing a mind map of your target market.

Identifying your target market will allow you to efficiently plan your marketing strategies which will give you a greater return on investment. So you have narrowed down your target market, now it’s time to brainstorm marketing strategies for your business by doing a marketing mind map. You should also research the cost of each marketing activity and the time that will need to be invested. Most small business owners keep an eye on the budget, but fail to plan for the time involved in a marketing activity.

Marketing Mind Map

By looking at the mind map you can get an idea of ways that you could market your business. You could use this example and map out further with your ideas. When deciding on your marketing – do what you feel is best for your business. Don’t always follow the “in” crowd. What they do for their business may not be right for yours.

Julie Barnes is a Freelance Writer focusing on her passions of entrepreneurship, women’s issues, and holistic health and wellness. Julie published “So You Want to Start a Business…Now What?” in December 2009. Julie lives and works in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, KS with her husband Ron and lovable dog Hank. You can visit her site at http://www.onewhowrites.com.
Copyright © 2010 Julie Barnes and One Who Writes

Julie Barnes is a regular contributor to the Secrets of Success blog.