Sales & Marketing Resources

Coming up with new ideas for your business is essential for growth. And it’s exciting when you’ve got a new product or service to offer. But before you launch your new offering, it’s important to find out if there’ll be a demand for it. So you need to take some time to test the market and measure the response. You’ll then have a much better idea if you’re likely to succeed or not.

It’s easy to come up with a number of business ideas but to make sure your idea is viable and can be run at a profit, you’ll need to do quite a bit of market research. The good news is that doing your own market research is not as hard as it sounds. Here are five top ways to research your market.

Whichever industry your business is in, cultural differences can have a direct impact on your profitability. If you try to understand the cultures of your customers – their customs and differences – you’ll have a better chance of keeping them and gaining more.
By being aware of the key factors that will impact your business, you’ll set yourself up to maximize sales from a global melting pot of potential customers.

Choosing the best export target(s) for your business is critical because ‘getting it wrong’ can waste time, energy and money. This section provides ideas and information to help you understand the opportunities better and identify the best targets and marketplace.

The ideal promotion plan is one that results in clear steps you can put into action immediately. This means concentrating on just the practical, promotional aspects that will lead to results. The good news is that you can do it yourself.

Start-ups are at a disadvantage when it comes to their first sales forecast because, clearly, they don’t have any historical data to base it on. But there are still ways to create an accurate sales forecast, and it’s important to do so because it’ll help you work out if your business idea is financially viable.

Two examples of this effective technique show you how you can set up your own focus groups.
The concept of focus groups simply involves gathering a few your target market customers together, and then putting a series of questions to them.
It’s best to get an outside person to conduct this type of research, because you’re probably too close to the issues and may end up ignoring the results anyway.

As a small business owner, you’ll want to get positive returns on a limited marketing budget. It’s important to monitor the quantity and quality of advertising in order to be as effective as possible.

If you want to grow your business, you’ll need a strategic plan – which should include how you’ll find new customers and get your products or services into new markets.
Here’s what you need to know to identify new customers and markets.