Marketing & Advertising

Marketing research is the organized gathering, recording, analysis, and evaluation of quantitative and qualitative data concerning issues related to promoting services and products. The primary objective is to identify and measure how changes in various elements of the marketing mix affect consumer behavior. Marketing research is an important tool for small businesses to adopt as they grow and develop.

Marketing research is useful because it provides information that allows marketers to fine-tune their strategies, create new offerings, and test various marketing ideas. With the right research, marketers can increase sales and reduce costs while enhancing the company’s image and profitability. There are six basic research topics that any good marketing research should address.

Ineffective Marketing Communications

The most obvious effect of marketing research is to determine why marketing efforts are being made. Marketers must establish what works in order to build brand awareness, improve customer retention, gain competitive advantage, and maintain customer loyalty. This requires defining and measuring goals, setting meaningful goals, communicating the results of those goals to consumers, gathering data on users of a product or service, understanding and tracking consumer reactions, evaluating target audiences and identifying opportunities for advertising campaigns, and identifying opportunities for connecting with potential customers. Through effective market research, marketers will learn how to better communicate with current and potential customers.

Consumer Attitudes Toward New Products or Services

A large part of effective marketing is learning how to effectively communicate with target customers. A marketing study that focuses on attitudes toward a product or service may show what kinds of advertisements appeal more to certain groups of people. For example, a marketing study that examines consumer attitudes toward baby formula may find that ads focusing on mothers’ feelings about motherhood are more successful than ads that only show baby formula or that focus solely on the appearance of a product. Understanding what motivates customers can be a significant factor in future marketing campaigns.

Create Pricing Tier Research Report

Pricing tiers are important in all marketing strategies. Knowing how to price your product accurately can be a major differentiator between competing businesses and ensuring your company is set up to meet consumer demand. A pricing tier research study should first identify how your competitors price their products, then use those findings to improve your pricing tiers. It’s also important to gather information about other companies’ pricing tiers so that you can create a price structure that is unique to your business.

For example, if your competition has two prices, but your company offers three prices, you may want to choose a different pricing tier for your product. You’ll also need to create a marketing plan that outlines how you will implement changes that result in increased profitability.

The Power of Consumer Opinion Research

The marketing research process involves gathering consumer opinions, analyzing those opinions, testing new designs and ideas, and creating a marketing campaign that addresses these concerns. A marketing research company can help you with each of these steps. In some cases, you may simply need an outside party to help you gather information and then run an analysis to help you make an informed decision. In other cases, you’ll need to conduct your own analysis. Marketing research consultants are highly trained experts who can assist you in every step of the process. They can help you develop a new product idea, find creative ways to test market it, and determine the most effective advertising method.

Maximizing the Research through Consultants

Marketing consultants can provide a number of insightful marketing research methods. These include different types of surveys and focus groups, as well as interactive marketing tools like webinars and conferences. Marketing research can give you a number of key business decisions based on your insights. For example, if you’ve found that your target customer is unsatisfied with your current design, you might decide to redesign it for customer satisfaction. However, if you’ve observed that many dissatisfied customers have no clear idea of what you’re offering them, you might conclude that you should launch a television ad or a radio spot to further engage potential customers.

Tailor Your Campaigns with Marketing Research

Marketing research helps you gain specific needs from consumers. This research helps you tailor your marketing campaigns to meet the unique needs of your targeted consumers. Different types of research can help you understand what motivates certain consumers, such as those who are unsatisfied with their current design or feel they are not receiving enough benefits from a product. Marketing research helps you customize a campaign to better address the unique needs of your targeted audience. This gives you a competitive advantage and, ultimately, increases your profitability.

Bottom Line

There are a variety of benefits associated with conducting your own marketing research. You get to understand which marketing strategies will be most successful, you gain insight into the personalities of your target audience, and you become more adept at formulating the right marketing messages for your business. All of this translates into more sales and a higher bottom line. The only drawback to implementing your own marketing strategies is the time involved in collecting the information needed. If you’re pressed for time, however, hiring marketing consultants can make taking care of all of these tasks much easier.

Discounts and allowances are a regular part of sales companies. You can often find discounts on different products in your nearby stores. Allowances are more common in factory-rejected or used items. The most significant difference between allowance and discount is that allowances are usually offered for faulty or not fit-for-use purposes. Sometimes discounts and allowances are based on the need to sell immediately. On the other hand, others highlight the company’s prices for sales promotion. Let’s tell you the differences between the two in detail.

What are Discounts?

Discounts are deductions from the price of a product as a part of the sales promotion with a core objective of making more sales. They are offered in different ways to attract more customers and boost sales. Discounts are one of the most successful promotional methods. Mostly you see these discounts in the form of percentages like 10% off, 50% discount, or flat 70% off. However, they also occur as buy one get one free, free shipping for all orders today, etc.

There are various types of discounts offered by wholesale and retail stores. Wholesalers usually offer discounts on larger orders. Contrarily, retail stores give various discounts to their customers, like percentage sales, buy one get one free, price bundling, seasonal discounts/ seasonal sales, free shipping discounts, advance payment discounts, and credits. You may avail discounts on different credit and debit cards too.

Benefits of Discounts

While you may initially think that offering discounts results in financial loss to the business, they do not. Discounts are not an expense to the company despite selling at low prices. Discounts prove to be quite beneficial, such as

• Offering discounts may bring back old customers.
• They attract new customers who have not purchased from your brand before.
• Discounts also help clear stock.
• They enable you to meet sales deadlines.

What are Allowances?

Sales allowances are defined as deductions on the product’s actual price when it does not perform per expectations. Sales allowances are also offered on products with defects. They allow the company to sell the products and avoid a huge loss. Furthermore, the buyers can benefit from low prices if the defects are negligible. It is excellent to get rid of low-setting, space-taking products.

Benefits of Allowances

One of the most prominent benefits of sales allowances is that they help manage inventory by selling old or damaged goods. Other sales allowance benefits include

• It allows you to find and attract new customers who do not buy because of high prices.
• Sales allowance is beneficial if you have an overstock of seasonal products.
• Allowances are a suitable method to dispose of damaged or low-sale items.
• They boost customer satisfaction by offering products at low prices.

Difference Between Allowance and Discount

Definition

Allowances

Allowances are incentives used to motivate payment.

Discounts

Discounts are also a type of incentive. However, they are used to push sales.

Product Type

Allowances

Allowances are usually given on overstock, defective, or underperforming products.

Discounts

Whereas discounts may be given on on-season and off-season products. They are not defective or used.

Benefits

Allowances

Allowances enable clearing overstock items, easy management of inventory, and improved customer satisfaction.

Discounts

Yet, discounts help engage existing and new customers, boost sales, and help meet sales deadlines.

Examples

Allowances

Let’s elaborate on the difference between allowance and discount through an example. For example, a product costs $40 per item. However, the company realizes before the shipping that the boxes are not in good shape. It may convince the buyer to pay for the product only, i.e., $20 per piece.

Discount

On the other hand, discounts benefit customers through percentage discounts, buy one get one free, free shipping, etc.

The Bottom Line

Allowances and discounts are beneficial for the company and the customers both. While the customers benefit from the low prices, companies get new customers and get rid of overstock. The most fundamental difference between allowance and discount is that discounts motivate sales whereas allowances motivate payments. They enable customers to buy products they usually do not purchase because of high prices. It also builds trust in the company.

FAQs

What does Allowance mean in Pricing

Allowances in pricing mean reducing the price for sale purposes. They are more common in commercial transactions. It could also be additional money paid to the retailers to recommend their products to buyers.

What is Discount and Allowance Arcing

Discounts and allowances mean reducing the price of the product for promotional activities. They may be offered by or to the manufacturer, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, or retail customers.

Are Discounts Better or Allowance

Discounts are more beneficial to customers unable to buy a brand’s product because of its high price. The products are in the best condition without any defects. Alternatively, allowances are advantageous to retailers and wholesalers from the manufacturers.

You don’t need to be the new “J.K. Rowling” to achieve your book sales goals quickly. If you have written an amazing book, the only thing you need to make it successful is to develop a proper marketing strategy.

Here are some actionable tips to help you sell more copies of your book even if you have no prior book marketing experience – keep reading!

Start with Amazon

Amazon is one of the leading online platforms you can rely on to sell more copies of your book. Here are some tips that will help you present your book on Amazon the right way so you can grow your readership in no time:

Write a Killer Description

The description of your book can either convince a person to buy or neglect your book. To ensure that more people end up buying your book online, you need to write a book description that presents the contents of your book persuasively.

A good book description:

• Describes why someone should read your book.
• Highlights the main theme of the book.
• Shows your authority as a writer.

Make sure you read descriptions of some of the “most selling books” of your favorite genre to learn how you can write a great description for your book.

Use a Persuasive Book Cover

An attractive book cover will make your book more appealing to your readers. Instead of trying to design the cover yourself, you can check the list of best book cover designers for hire online to get a book cover that convinces people to buy your book.

Choose the Right Categories

When providing the details about your book, you can select the categories for your book on Amazon. Picking the right categories will allow your book to get discovered by more people. The more relevant your book is to your readers according to its category, the easier it’ll be to sell your book.

Make sure you explore the categories presented by Amazon when listing your book. If you’re unclear about which categories you choose, you can consider contacting Amazon support.

Target the Right Keywords

The easiest way you can make your book discoverable is by choosing the right keywords in the title and description of your book. Utilizing the right keywords will convince the readers that your book is the one they’ve been looking for!

For example, if someone is searching for a “simple Thai food recipes book” on Amazon, make sure you include the keyword in your book listing.

Get More Reviews

The books with more reviews rank higher on Amazon. You will need more reviews on your book to make it discoverable and sell more copies faster. Here are some tips to help you encourage your readers to review your book on Amazon:

1. Include a section in your book to encourage readers to review.
2. Run a “Giveaway” on social media and ask participants to review your book.
3. Provide a free ebook to any person who buys and reviews your book on Amazon.

Run Ads Online

The best way you can encourage more people to buy your book is by running ads online. Contrary to what many newbie writers think, you don’t need to spend a ton of money on online advertising. Running ads on social media or SERPs can help you boost your book sales in no time.

You don’t necessarily need to hire a digital ad expert to run ads online. If you want to run ads on a budget, you can consider exploring online resources that can help you learn how to run ads in a short time.

Connect with Influencers

As a newbie writer, you will only be able to show more books if you can somehow establish your authority in your target audience. A great way to establish authority in a short time is by benefitting from influencer marketing.

Getting your book promoted by one of the top influencers in your target industry will help you establish yourself as a “thought leader” and encourage more people to buy your book.

Influencer marketing can be done on a budget if you cannot invest a lot of money. Here are some tips to help you boost your influencer marketing ROI:

• Develop a gifting program to connect with influencers.
• Tap into your existing network to find influencers you might know.
• Explore all social channels to find niche audiences and niche influencers.

Grow your Mailing List

Email marketing is a great strategy you can implement to sell more copies of your book online. Getting started with email marketing is a bit tough as building your mailing list can take some time. However, once you have a sizable mailing list, you can blast emails using email marketing automation tools to save time and boost your sales.

Appear on Podcasts

As mentioned above, you will require “authority” to establish yourself online to boost sales of your book. You can easily increase your authority online by appearing in famous podcasts in your target industry. You can start by exploring famous podcasts in your niche that allow writers like you to get featured.

Build your Social Presence

Having more followers on social media will allow you to promote your book easily. Identify the top social platforms in your target audience and create accounts. Develop a “social content calendar” so you can schedule your content easily.

If you want to get more traction through social channels faster, you can consider hiring a social media expert to save time and achieve your sales goals in no time.

Write Guest Posts

Another proven way of boosting your presence online and encouraging more people to buy your book is publishing “guest posts” on famous blogs. Writing as a guest author allows you to tap into newer audiences and also helps you establish yourself as a “thought leader” in your industry.

Getting started with publishing guest posts is super easy. You can read online guides like this one on guest posting to learn how to publish guest posts effectively.

Grow your Network

Having more writers in your network will also help you boost the sales of your book. Fellow writers, if they like your writing, can encourage their readers to give your book a try. Make sure you spend time on physical and online networking events to grow your network in a short time.

Consistency is the Key

It won’t be possible for you to get instant results from all your book marketing strategies. If you don’t want to be a “one-hit wonder” writer, you will need to be consistent with your marketing efforts to help you establish your brand as a writer and eventually increase your book sales.

Getting to know your business’ audience is the groundwork of your marketing efforts. It’s the beginning of multiple marketing strategies as it helps build the momentum of forging a lasting relationship with your end users.

Capturing your audience’s attention is all about connecting with them to get them even more interested in what your business has to offer. That’s why, in branding and marketing, every effort counts. Given the levels of competition in the business industries these days, a lot is at stake, so grabbing your audience’s attention should be at the forefront.

Fortunately, marketing strategies have also leveled significantly since the coming of more modern technology. Below are some ideas your business can explore.

Hold Corporate Events

Corporate events are held for a good reason. They’re effective in drawing crowds and attention from the audience you want to please. Corporate events may sound tedious, but it isn’t limited to seminars and forums. Corporate events can be anything from exhibits, fairs, festivals, booths, or whatever it is that fits well within your business’ niche. You can also have new and exciting perks every time, like live screen printing, food stalls, virtual reality simulations, or opportunities to try your products.

Holding corporate events is a significant endeavor for marketing. And since these events aren’t something any business can do every so often, you can go all-out when you organize one. A successful corporate event takes a high level of planning. But, when done thoroughly, it’ll prove worth it when you can draw leads and potential new clients.

Make Use of the Emotional Impact

Emotion is a powerful force. It has the power to tug into the heartstrings of your audience, sinking well not just in their hearts but also in their minds. It’s easier to remember certain things when emotions are associated with them.

This applies to marketing as well. For instance, many advertisements that are well-scripted to create feelings of love and happiness are getting more attention from consumers, which is very beneficial for any business.

If you haven’t tried it yet, this is another one your marketing and branding team should look into. Emotions can affect your audience’s decisions, motivating them to act. For businesses, this ‘action’ means finally purchasing your products and services.

Because your audience is now highly interested in your ads, thanks to its emotional factor, they’ll also be more likely to share your content or spread the word about your brand. By doing so, you will not just capture their attention, but you will also drive new traffic to your business and widen your market.

Build your Reputation

While this third strategy isn’t entirely new to any business, it’s still worth reinforcing because of its effectiveness. There’s nothing like a strong business reputation that captures an audience’s attention that assures them they’ll make a good choice if they support your brand.

Given the stiff competition in almost all industries today, branding boils down to trustworthiness. You’d want to be known as that brand that has risen to become a household name because of loyal customers. This wouldn’t have been possible if your reputation had been sketchy or questionable from the get-go.

Building your reputation, however, can mean many different things, depending on the kind of business you are in. There’s no cookie-cutter approach to this, so go back to the core of what you offer.

For example, restaurants’ reputation increases when they gain good reviews on sites like Yelp. On the other hand, hotels and resorts have to penetrate travel websites like Booking, Expedia, and Agoda, to name a few. By collecting honest and positive feedback from customers, you’ll be able to attract new audiences.

Make Use of Colors

Be consistent about using colors when it comes to your brand’s logos, images, videos, and graphics. It’s easier to associate specific colors with your brand when used consistently throughout your marketing paraphernalia and even on facets like your packaging.

Take Nike as an example. While they may have used black, gray, and white for some of their boxes, there’s no denying how an orange box with a ‘check’ insignia is immediately related to their brand. There’s yellow and red for Mcdonald’s. And White, for Apple.

It may have taken them years to get to where they are now, but without a doubt, one of the branding strategies that worked for them was the consistent use of colors. This isn’t hard, even for small businesses to start with.

Suppose you’re in the business of selling beauty products marketed to young high school girls. Pastel colors will be well-received. There are also bright, crayon-like colors for brands that sell educational toys for toddlers. Or, you can opt for darker colors if you’re in the business of tech-related products.

Those are only a few examples, but it paints the picture of how and why using colors is a tried-and-tested branding strategy.

The Bottom Line

Today’s modern world has individuals living fast-paced lives. But, with the ease technology brings, people’s attention span seems to be getting shorter. This means that marketing has triple the pressure to ensure each branding strategy captures the audience’s attention. The window to deliver value to your audience is short, but the opportunities are numerous. If you’re keen on improving your business’ branding strategies, the ones on the list above are worth trying.

In today’s business world, marketing is the process that can really change the course of your business. Even the most successful brands are creating content for their target audience. Business owners and leaders are constantly looking for the right mix of strategies that can take their businesses to heights. And account-based marketing strategy is one among them.

It is a strategy that helps companies to shorten their sales cycle and follows a marketing approach that can reach decision-makers on the basis of your products or services. But how does this strategy work? And how can you make the most of it to grow sales? Let’s find out.

Align Sales with the Marketing Team

The relationship between your marketing and sales team is different when you opt for account-based marketing rather than traditional marketing. In account-based marketing, the sales and marketing teams go hand in hand and work together in the entire sales process. They opt for different techniques to engage the audience and convert them to the targeted customers. So, it can’t be wrong to say that your marketing and sales teams should align with each other to reach the desired goals.

The Technique of Content Syndication

Content syndication is an account-based management technique that is gaining much recognition. It drives traffic to your website and increases the reach of the content to grow sales. Content syndication means repurposing the content and publishing it on other channels. The basic idea behind this technique is to increase the distribution and take the visibility of the website a notch higher. It is especially true for B2B companies. These companies should follow this technique as it is an easy way to promote the products and services of the company. Thus, using b2b content syndication platforms is rightly one of the important techniques to build trust with potential customers. It can also lead to social media engagement. So, why refrain your company from using content syndication to grow sales?

Identify your Target Market

Account-based strategies start with identifying the key accounts and focusing on them. Target the decision-makers who align with your organizational goals. Use several methods to identify the key accounts. Pay attention and listen to social media channels to collect information on products and services. Reference the customer data like revenue numbers and industry rankings.

Customer Journey Maps

What is a customer journey map? It is a visual representation of how a customer interacts with your brand. To add more, it shows how a customer reacts in the different stages of interacting with your brand or organization. Hence, it lets you collect the knowledge of what your customer needs at every stage. Customer journey maps help you find the gaps between where your customers currently are and what fulfillment they want to achieve. In this way, you can produce relevant content or make improvements in your services to meet their needs. 

Power of Direct Mail

With the rise in social media, email marketing, and technology, people tend to forget about the traditional direct postal mail. But don’t do that. Realize the power of direct mail. It can have a big impact when other companies are putting the focus on online marketing. Many big business owners or executives don’t have the time to check their email inboxes daily. Also, they don’t scroll the social media. But here is the catch: they can’t refrain from taking a look at their desk and the mail lying there. You have to ensure that the mail is highly personalized and addressed to the right individual. It will give you stellar results without any doubt. It is an excellent technique to add charm to your marketing efforts and spice up your campaign’s performance.

Content that Inspires Action

Creating impeccable content is yet another vital ABM strategy that can determine the success of B2B companies. It doesn’t mean that your content should revolve around only the specific needs of the customers. Rather, you have to create engaging content to drive your customers to action. Keep in mind to always include a clear call to action in every content piece.

Customer Personas

Creating customer personas first requires you to collect behavioral data from the customers. This data will let you know who are your best customers and then you can form customer personas accordingly. It will help you understand your customers in a better way and what challenges they are facing. You can then form the solutions as per their opinions.

To Make a Long Story Short

With the correct planning, you can definitely increase your marketing by keeping the focus on a small number of accounts. It will help you establish a good long-term relationship with your audience, who have the power to become your actual customers. Start having the right mix of the above-mentioned strategies and let your sales number do wonders.