Many entrepreneurs will make a mistake of disregard when coming up with business plans. They will fail to allocate money for marketing and market research and what follows is a failed business, only to blame it on an unresponsive market.
Marketing in simple terms is the way you seek to get potential customers to know about your product and how you seek to sell to a customer who already has another supplier.
I always suggest to business owners and entrepreneurs to always have a laid down marketing strategy showing the way they seek to market their products. I don’t mean do it after the business has kicked in or is facing difficult times, I mean at its initial stages. Capital should be inclusive of the marketing cost thereby should be seen as an investment and not as an expense that can be reduced or even eliminated when profits start to dwindle. In fact marketing should be as important as the stock of the product that you wish to sell.
Marketing will include everything from understanding your target market and how competitive you are in that market, to how you intend to reach that market differently yourself from your competitors.
Marketing will encompass everything from your business name to the strategies in advertisement and pricing decisions, location, customer care and promotional mix. All this are agents in marketing.
Marketing will go hand in hand with the product or service you wish to deliver and need not be expensive. Depending on your budget, a ten percent of your capital should be used for marketing, even more if the market you are trying to enter is competitive or unreceptive. Marketing will always improve sales and profits as more customers will be aware of what you are providing. Expensive marketing strategies will include branding and advertisement that will be a tool of the more established companies. However even beginners who are trying to beat this companies should also use this strategies and beat them at their own game.
For the small companies, marketing strategies will mainly include one on one customer relationships, which will need quality customer service, and I cannot stress enough on customer service. Market research to know where your clients are this would mean visiting your potential customers directly and inform them of your product. You can also use poster and signage and rely on referrals and word of mouth. So ensure that you give your customers quality products at quality prices as this is what will get you referrals.

Online marketing is also a great marketing tool that might be less costly with access to social media.
Whatever your marketing strategy is, it should not be ignored and should be at the top of your priorities. Marketing is also a continuous process and should always be reviewed to ensure that it gives results.

Benefits are endless.