Jeanette McMurtry

The two biggest e‐commerce outlets are of course Amazon and eBay, and both are great for marketing your products to the masses. But they’re different. Amazon offers you a retail structure and will often fulfill your sales as well as offer your products on its site for a fee. eBay is mostly a marketplace provider and offers you the tools to help you better promote your products to its site visitors.

Learning from other marketers’ mistakes is always better than making your own. This information presents ten all‐too‐common marketing mistakes businesses of all sizes make and how to avoid them so you can keep your sales and marketing efforts on track. Making assumptions Assuming that you know your customers, their preferences, their loyalty to you, and the competitive environment in which you operate is one of the most costly mistakes you can make.

Who does what, when, and where? Such organizational questions plague many sales or marketing managers, and those questions can make a big difference to sales force productivity.Should your salespeople work out of local, regional, or national offices? Should you base them in offices where staff members provide daily support and their boss can supervise their activities closely?

You can read a dozen books on marketing strategies for current times, or you can read Marketing For Dummies, 6th Edition for everything you need to know about engaging today’s complex consumers, succeeding at e-commerce, winning the SEO game, driving sales through email, social media, and direct mail campaigns, using diverse channels effectively, and much more.

Consultative selling is just what is says it is: consulting versus selling. Consumers, clients — everyone — prefer to be informed and involved rather than sold anything. Consultative selling involves providing information and insights that help your customers achieve their goals for budget, performance, and so much more.

Merchandising strategy, the selection and assortment of products offered, creates the foundation of competitive advantage or disadvantage for retailers. The more creative the product offerings and marketing strategies, the greater advantage you have over other retailers.Following are some general strategies and ideas that may get you thinking in new ways about your business.

Upgrading an existing product might fit nicely into your marketing strategy. Some products are so perfect that they fit naturally with their customers, and you should just leave them alone — for example, the original formula for Coca‐Cola or another food that has a taste and effect that transcends generations.

Although it’s always wise to check with your attorney before making any final decision concerning special offers and how you market them, you should be familiar with the following list of the more common and serious illegal pricing practices, as indicated by the federal laws of the United States. Make sure you never get fooled into engaging in any of the following: Price fixing: Simply put, price fixing is where businesses that compete with each other discuss and agree on prices to take fair options away from consumers.

Humans seek and form hives in all areas of our lives. Our social hives are usually made up of people who dress like we do, like the same entertainment, humor, and activities, and have the same religious and political viewpoints and affiliations. Professionally, our hives are made up of people who do the same line of work, have similar achievements, and so on.