Article by: Stamford Hill Accountant: MLONDI SHANDU
Wow!! Its been a long haul since you started your business, you’ve researched the viability of your business, you’ve raised sufficient funding, you’ve chosen the correct entity, you’ve complied with the correct registrations and now you’re ready to let the world know that you’ve arrived.
How do you do this? What is the best approach? Where do you even begin?
It's at this point that many entrepreneurs confuse their sales and marketing strategies. While it is important that you do both, it is also important that you understand what each element does for your business.
Fortunately, this is not a “chicken and egg” debate as there is no requirement that one needs to come before the other, it is more important that the one compliments the other.
With that said, let’s begin by looking at what each of them are:
Marketing – in broad terms, marketing is essentially about letting your potential customers know more about who your company is and what it is that your company and products can do for them.
Sales – again in broad terms, sales is letting your potential customers know which of your products are available, why they are suitable for the task at hand and what they cost.
Now that we know what each of these elements are, how do we get this information to our potential customers?
This is where your media strategy comes in, however don’t for one minute think that in our internet age this is going to be easy. If anything, media has become even more complicated than it ever was, as we are now able to really segment our market.
Regardless of whether you are using print media (magazines, newspapers, flyers), online media (Facebook, Twitter, Google Ads) or televised and radio media we have found the following approach to work the best for most businesses.
Marketing – pitch your message to as wide an audience as you can afford. This has the benefit of increasing your brand awareness, thereby raising the possibility of your brand being mentioned in general conversation when a potential customer mentions a product they are looking for.
Sales – pitch your message directly at your target market and do this pitch as often as you can afford. The more a customer hears about your product, the more likely they are to try it. The fewer steps they have to go through to find what they are looking for, increases the likelihood of them using your product.
So, as you can see, understanding the difference between Sales and Marketing and how to use the Media available will increase your chances of success.
In next month’s article we look at Tax Planning for your business. Many entrepreneurs overlook this as they feel there is not much they can do….
At SME.TAX we do more than just market research for our clients, we are in fact your one stop SME shop, assisting with everything from Accounting, Business Management, BEE, Consulting, Company Registration, Payroll and Mentoring.
For more information, please visit our website www.sme.tax or give us a call 072 207 4789
