Some say marketing is an art. Others say it’s a science. So which is it? Well, it’s both! From an art stand point, marketers find creative ways to communicate a brand. On the other hand, marketing is a science because it involves never-ending research, trial and error, and analysis. This blog won’t teach you how to become a marketing expert, that will only take time and experience. Instead, this blog will teach you the basics of what you need to know from a marketing standpoint to help your business succeed.

Here is a to-do list of how to jump start marketing for you business:

• Market Research: Involves researching your competitors, your competitor’s products, consumer behavior / opinions, industry trends, suppliers, and anything else that involves the market you are trying to enter.
• Competitor Analysis: Knowing who your enemies are and their competitive advantages will help you identify what you can do differently to be competitive.
• Industry Analysis: Analyzing the power of the buyers and suppliers, the thread of new entrants and substitute products, and the competitiveness of the industry (also known as Porter’s Five Forces).
• Four P’s: Determining your product / service’s price, promotion, placement, and product.
• Competitive Advantage: After all the research you have done, it’s time to determine how you will be different compared to the rest of your competitors.
• Brand Development: Once you have determined where you company will fit into the industry along with your competitive advantage. Next is to develop your brand.

These five topics are extremely in-depth, and flow into many other topics within marketing. For the sake of simplicity, we will branch each of these topics into its own blog post. This will give you the overall scope of what you need to think about. Research will be your best friend. In this category, knowledge is power because the more you know about your industry, your target market, your competitors, and everywhere in between, you will know exactly where you will want your product / service to fit. It will allow you to identify what the industry needs that it doesn’t already have. Knowing all this information will give you the power to make the right decisions and help to be successful at positioning your company, product, or service.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!