In this time of information overload, contradictory messages, and fast-changing marketing ‘Best Practices”, some of the most intriguing advice comes from real experiences from real companies. Marketing remains essential for small businesses. It allows them to compete with others. But it also allows them to sell products and services. And it enables them to become profitable and grow. But the ways to market your small business seem endless.

Marketing is a process that involves a product or service's attributes, pricing, distribution and promotion. All of these activities must work together to assure successful marketing. Companies with the most effective marketing efforts thoroughly understand their market or customers, and create products and services to meet the market needs while using the best channels for communicating to a target audience.

So what are the best practices of Marketing that you should follow to make sure you are doing the right thing in order to reach out to the potential customers which will convert them into buying customers?

Meeting Customer Needs

It is said that if you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door. And businesses that create products and services that specifically meet identified consumer needs are likely to be successful. But meeting consumer needs involves more than assumptions made by businesses about what customers want. Companies that take the time to specifically identify market segments and take steps to gather input through market research, one-on-one interactions and customer feedback, are likely to be successful in ensuring that everything they do is designed to resonate with their audience, says Lin Grensing-Pophal, author of "Marketing With the End in Mind."

Set Attainable Goals

Don’t start your marketing efforts without this tip. Start by setting attainable goals. You must keep your goals realistic. And make them something you can stick to. But how do you set these attainable goals? Begin by determining your current position in the market. Then decide what you want to achieve.

The key to setting achievable marketing goals is to spend time evaluating your current position. Many startups set lofty, unattainable goals and end up discouraged, which can be detrimental in the early days. On the other hand, some startups set easy, insignificant goals and end up missing out on growth potential.

Know your customer and connect

Marketing Agency in Mumbai needs to know their customer extremely well and not just segment. Instead, as part of your marketing strategy, personalize your marketing outreach to deliver a seamless experience across all channels. This will show your customer that you not only know them, but you care. On top of that, your brand needs to feel connected to your consumers. The key is to be authentic in your outreach.

Don’t lose sight of your brand

Voice, principles and promise has to come through in all of your different channels and outreach. Be sure not to fall into the trap of getting lost in the weeds with market segments and customer data for personalization.

Define Your Target Market

Consider this key ingredient to successful marketing. Ensure your campaigns reach your target markets. Again begin prior to starting a marketing strategy. You need to have defined your target market. And consider the age, gender, interests, location, consumer habits and other factors of your target customer.

Establish a Clear Brand Identity

Prepare yourself to communicate what your business does. And also figure out how to demonstrate what your brand stands for. Project a clear identity. Because customers and prospective customers must identify with your brand. Establish a clear brand identity through the right name, logo, colors and imagery. Do all of this before you start a marketing campaign.

Picking the Right Price

Lexus is unlikely to hold bargain-basement sales and Kmart is unlikely to begin selling Rolex watches. Decisions made about pricing are key to marketing effectiveness and require establishing and adhering to certain brand principles. Businesses must decide whether to sell in high volume at low prices, or at low volume at higher prices, and every price point in between. Pricing decisions must also be based on an analysis of the target market and other competitive alternatives available.

Provide a seamless landing page experience

Provide your users with a seamless and extended personalized experience by carrying personalization through to your landing pages. When a user clicks from your social media network or online ad, your website needs to supply that user with a targeted landing page. Targeting can include interest, demographic information, location, etc.

Effective Promotion

The best product at the best price that is readily available will still fail to achieve success if the target audience doesn't know it exists. That is when promotion comes into play. Businesses must identify their desired market segments and select communication tools to reach these markets at the right time and place. For example, social media is not likely to be the best tool to use with an elderly population and newspapers are not likely to be the best means to reach the college market. Careful choices make the selected communication method the right one for a desired audience.

Optimize your funnel

Segmentation funnels are producing for all marketers! A Marketing Agency in Mumbai funnel includes the buying stages a prospect will go through, starting with no brand awareness to ending with becoming a customer. Using this funnel, businesses with a digital presence can get leads and increase sales.

When building your digital marketing funnel, optimize each step to have the highest conversions. Learn your customers’ needs and give it to them. Neil Patel reported that companies who properly nurture their leads see a 450 percent increase in qualified prospects. Those who take the time to nurture and grow those customer relationships, see 50 percent more sales at a 33 percent lower cost.

Use More Than One Channel

Despite the importance of Facebook advertising, when it comes to marketing avoid ‘putting your eggs in one basket.’ Instead use multiple channels, both online and offline, to extend the reach of your brand to as many people as possible and to determine which channels are most effective for your business.

Be Mindful of SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of creating a website to help businesses rank higher on the search engines, which, in turn, brings more potential customers to their site, eventually increasing conversion rates.

When designing a website or other online portal such as social media profiles, you should therefore be mindful of SEO and the benefits incorporating relevant keywords into online marketing portals is likely to bring to your business.

Send Out Surveys

Customer feedback is a powerful tool for small business owners. Look for feedback, because the best companies are constantly improving.

Be Different and Stand Out

It might sound obvious but in order to ensure your small business gets noticed, you need to make being different and standing out a key marketing practice. Tips to ensure you stand out include taking a controversial stand on industry trends and issues and publishing striking content that nobody can resist.

These as some of the ways through which you can follow in your marketing strategies and make the changes accordingly before, during and after each marketing strategy is live. These and many other like practices like these can help one understand of what needs to be done in order to make sure you can attain success without exceeding your marketing budget.