Chapter 11

Marketing: Products, Pricing, Distribution, Promotion, and Sales

In This Chapter

arrow Defining marketing and developing products or services

arrow Determining a price and pricing strategy

arrow Setting up a distribution system

arrow Promoting your products or services and creating buzz with publicity

arrow Realizing the importance of sales and customer relationships

Close the door, turn off your phone and stereo, and put on your thinking cap. It’s time to discuss the topic of marketing and the process that defines it. After all, marketing is the one facet of your business that will separate your product or service from the hundreds (or thousands) of competing products or services in the marketplace. Yet, marketing is typically either number one or number two on the small-business owner’s list of the most difficult skills to master. (Managing employees is the other hard-to-master skill; see Chapter 16 for help on that one.)

Most small-business owners don’t understand the process of marketing. Being ...

Get Small Business For Dummies®, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.