Whether you are selling a product or service, there are four powerful marketing principles that are essential to your success. Although these marketing principles are fairly simple, once applied they can be incredibly powerful tools for building your small business.

Most beginning marketers make the mistake of overcomplicating the process of marketing. Consequentially, their results are poor at best. In order to attain a positive return on your marketing investment (whether that investment is time or money), the four basic principles described below are the basic building blocks of marketing success:

1. Understand Your Target Market. It’s impossible to market your product or service if you don’t know who you are selling to and what motivates them to buy. Are your potential clients and customers male or female? What is their typical education level? Are they first time buyers or frequent buyers? What kind of cars do they drive? Are they married or single?  The more information that you are able to gather about your audience, the more targeted and applicable your marketing campaign will be.

2. Nurture Your Relationships. Once you begin identifying potential clients and customers, it’s mandatory to begin developing a relationship with them. Research suggests that your target market needs to be exposed to your company and offer between seven and twelve times before they take action. This is best accomplished by educating them continually about your product and services. You can accomplish this by sending your prospects’ educational articles, informational podcasts, free reports, downloadable ebooks and inviting them to webinars or live seminars. If you are able to effectively educate your prospects as to why they need your product or service, they are much more likely to make a purchase.

3. Deliver An Irresistible Offer. In direct marketing, research suggests that your results are 40% dependent on your list, 40% dependent on your offer and 20% dependent upon the creativity involved. It’s no different for email marketing, ezine marketing, google adwords, etc. It’s important to continually test various offers to your prospects.  Eventually, you will be able to pinpoint an offer that outperforms all the rest and that your prospects find utterly irresistible. If your offer provides a satisfactory solution to your target market, at the right time and the right price, your sales could increase by up to 400%.

4. Communicate a Powerful Message. Once you understand your audience and have identified problems that they are facing within your industry, you will be able to craft a message that succinctly solves their problem. Your marketing message should also differentiate your product or service from your competition. It’s also important that you focus on the benefits of your product or service as opposed to the features. If your marketing message is compelling enough, it will undoubtedly move your prospects to take action.

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The next time you are putting together a marketing campaign, apply these four marketing principles. Understanding your target market, nurturing your relationships, delivering an irresistible offer and communicating to them effectively are the essential foundations for any marketing campaign to attain favorable results.