Marketing Skills

Understanding and knowing what your customers want. Having a flexible business model which can respond quickly to the changes. Communicating with them in an effective manner to win more business. Not something you can pickup today and get results from tomorrow. Keep a track of your market and your competitors. Be aware of what happens in the wider marketplace. Gain knowledge about the trends and developments, which could affect your business.

To understand your customers, divide them into various groups with similar characteristics. This is one of the ways to target them effectively. It becomes easier for you to sell more to them and you can avoid throwing money chasing customers who are unlikely to buy from you. Some organizations function in both the markets, and others in only one market. Now, you can subdivide your customers further from these two groups.

You can sell your products/ services to whoever is willing to pay for them. But marketing to anybody is impossible unless you have a great deal of money to spend. Look at your own customer base and find out who is buying from you. Start collecting details about your customers on a database and analyze it on a regular basis. Continue marketing your products and services to your existing customers. Could you be selling more to them? Your existing customers are the easiest group of people to sell to. Yet, many businesses overlook them and keep looking for new customers.

A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis looks at internal and external factors that can affect your business. Internal factors include your strengths and weaknesses. External factors include the threats and opportunities. If an issue would exist even if your business didn't (such as changes in technology), it is an external issue. The division of a market into various homogeneous groups of consumers is known as market segmentation. Based on usage rate and patterns, price sensitivity, brand loyalty and benefits sought. Based on values, attitudes and lifestyle. Based on age, gender, ethnicity, education and family status. Based on region, climate, population density and population growth rate.

"Marketing mix" is a common term used to describe the various kinds of choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to the market. The 4 Ps is one way – probably the best-known way – of defining the marketing mix.