Is this your idea of marketing? Advertising a sales or discounting?

I've argued before that marketing is the glass jaw of Canadian entrepreneurs. But there is no excuse for someone coming out of a business startup program not to put marketing front and centre. Via Trial By Fire

Rick Spence makes a great point, marketing needs to be a strength not a weakness. It matters not how good your product or service is if few people know of your company and your great products.

That is where marketing comes in to save the day - at least that is what is supposed to happen.

A Sense of Inferiority Can Break a Bank

No matter how well funded your business might be, if you lack confidence or feel inferior it will telegraph to your customers and water down the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising.

1. Start With the End In Mind - The Customer: You can learn a lot from your customers and they will teach you what you need to do to reach them and capture their interest. Just like Rick states:

Starting with a customer-centred story not only humanizes your business, it focuses attention on the key points you need to make. Via Trial By Fire

2. Be a Student of Marketing & Advertising: No one knows everything, there is always something new you can do to reach a customer and there is always someone else already doing business with the same people you want to buy your goods and services.

Investigate the new tools available to you. And determine who's already talking to your target market, and how you can partner with them. Lone wolves freeze to death. Via Trial By Fire

3. Not Sure What To Do With Your Marketing? See Point 1: Without the ability to create new customers your business will smolder to death and go out like a fire without oxygen. Learn how to get your marketing message in front of buyers.

Customers will eventually determine the shape and success of your business. So, why not include them in your planning from the outset? Via Trial By Fire