What Does Marketing Mean?
by Sonia Colon

You can have the best little business ever with wonderful potential, but if you can't market it, you don't have a business at all.

Learn how to market yourself, because you are your business. Don't confuse the terms "marketing," "advertising," and "promotion." These terms carry a different tune.

Marketing means informing your potential clients about your products or service, and finding ways to establish and keep a customer base. Your target market is the specific group of people that consume your product or utilize your service.

Advertising refers to the various media used to convey your message. Printed advertisement, radio air time, television commercials and the Internet are all part of advertising that convey your business message to the public.

Promotion refers to the various methods by which your convey your message to customers. When you communicate with the public, you're promoting your business. Many people will join business associations, or set up displays in malls and craft show for promotional purposes.

Many people feel lost and uncomfortable with marketing and promotion. However, the longer you research your market, your product and your competition, the more comfortable you will become in marketing and promoting your products and or service. It takes time to learn what works for your business. You will constantly need to effectively find new methods because the old methods will stop working.

Be the very best you can be by working on your personal skills, and successful marketing and promotion will ultimately follow.

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