Home business marketing is a
critical process
that you might not understand if new to the home business concept.
If you have decided on your own home business idea, your next step is a
marketing plan.
If you haven't found your
best home
business idea, reading through these marketing pages may help you understand the
process, and provide additional " brainstorming power" to help you find
your business idea.
Home Business Marketing is a
Process of
Determining if your Product or Service could Sell
and Make Profits.
A key element to any marketing strategy
is knowing who your customers are and the needs or wants they are trying to
satisfy. You want to align the product or service to your target group
of customers, whose needs your product or service satisfies.
For simplicity, we will call
what you are trying to sell a product from this point forward.
It may be a service that your are going to market, but we will call it a
product.
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What is Marketing
About?
This is a good question! Experts may have
different opinions, but this is how I break it down in my mind.
Let's go into some basic points that we can
break down in to details:
-
Your product must solve a
problem for consumers and must have enough demand to support a
business.
-
You must determine if there is a high
demand for
your product and the competition is little to none.
-
What are the possible features
of your product that would make customers want and need it?
-
How can we convert features into
benefits that a customer wants and needs? For what emotional reasons would your customer buy?
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Who is your target customer?
-
Is there packaging needed to
make your product more attractive?
-
Do you have a Unique Selling
Position when in competition with other businesses?
-
What price will you sell for?
This is where the arguments of
marketing companies or marketing consultants come into play. Everyone has an opinion, and they
are entitled to their opinion.
My view is that there needs to be an
simpler solution to home business marketing. I believe the basics are what you
need for marketing your home business products or services right now, as
most start up home businesses have small marketing and advertising budgets.
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Determining if Your Product is
in High Demand and Low Supply.
I don't have an easy solution for
you in determining if your product has a viable market in a local
community. There
are some options that you that you can test to help with your
determination.Check with family, relatives,
friends, acquaintances, coworkers and neighbors if they have ever had a
need for the product that you want to market.
Keep track of your results! I
suggest a piece of paper with four columns on it. Column 1 would be
for the name of the person you surveyed. Column 2 would be for "Yes" -
interested. Column 3 would be for "No" - not interested.
Column four would be for any comments, suggestions, or ideas that may be
discussed during your survey.
If you asked (surveyed) Uncle Larry if
he would be interested in a product that cleans his golf clubs (make sure
that he has golf clubs and uses them). and he says yes, record your results
on your paper. Make sure you ask the same questions to all that are
surveyed for more accurate results.
Ask your survey questions the same way for all the people
you survey and record your results. Surveying 1000 people will give you a
more accurate results than surveying 20 people.
Figure out what your ratios are:
Depending on the ratios of your survey
of people showing a willingness to buy, you may or may not have a
viable idea.
Check with local business that may
provide products like, similar, or related to yours.
If they don't offer it, or haven't had a calling for it - you just might
be out of luck.
However, there is a definite profit
potential if you can find a niche market where there is a need for a
product that no
business is providing in your local area. You would need to
investigate how profitable a niche home business would be in a
community where you would only cater to local customers.
A niche business can be a very profitable
business on the Internet where your potential customers, who would
purchase your product could be
anywhere.
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Home Business Marketing, Finding
the Features
of Your Product.
Determining the features of your
product is important. This can be accomplished through some simplified market
research. Click through to
Home Business Marketing - Products.
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Customer Benefit Statements, What Does Your
Product or Service Provide to Your Customer?
Determining factual and believable
customer benefits that your target customers will want and need, will
dramatically improve your marketing attempts. How do
you determine the best benefits for your target customers? Click
here to
Home Business Marketing - Customer Benefit
Statements.
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Create Your Unique Selling Position for Your Home
Business Marketing and Advertising.
By creating a Unique Selling Proposition you can enhance
your marketing and advertising efforts by convincing customers to buy
your product. To learn more about this process, click here to go
to
Unique Selling Proposition.
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Choose a
Home Business Name that is Memorable and Customer Friendly.
Information and suggestions on
How to
Choose a Home Business Name that is customer friendly
and memorable. Choosing a descriptive home business name will save you
money and time in the long haul. There are also links links
provided to tools that can help.
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Now that we have some of the basics of
Home
Business Marketing in your home business tool box,
click
here to go on to
Home Business
Advertising.
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