Sales and marketing

Marketing matters. It drives sales and helps promote your brand and products. Discover how to market your business and reach your target customers.

Exceeding customer expectations can help you attract and retain customers. Discover the benefits of customer service and how to achieve excellence.

A strong brand sets your business apart and helps you to attract and retain customers. Learn how to create a strong brand image for your business.

There are a multitude of ways to promote your business. This overview will help you identify the best methods of promotion for your business.

Effective selling is about stressing the benefits of your product. Discover key sales techniques from market research to overcoming objections.

Market research can provide you with insight into your market, competitors, products, and customers. This overview will help you research your market.

Exporting your goods can open up exciting new markets and increase your turnover. But it is not without risks. Read our guide to international trade.

A company website can reach customers globally, 24-hours a day. Discover the benefits of a company website, ecommerce and how to create a website.

Advertising can be an effective way to reach large numbers of target customers. Our guide to evaluating your options and measuring results.

Knowing your market is vital if you want to maximise sales and stand out from the competition. We explain how to find and use market information.

How to set a sales strategy that will help your business achieve its potential, from finding new customers to setting targets and performance reviews.

To be effective, your firm's brand identity must be consistent across your website, email and printed literature. Read our checklist.

Use this checklist to help to develop new products, from developing new ideas to setting budgets, deciding on product specification and prototyping.

Direct mail and email can be cost-effective ways of marketing your business, allowing you to reach large numbers of customers. Our overview.

PR helps you create good publicity, building your reputation with customers and others whose opinion matters to you. How to make the most of PR.

Exhibitions can be a great place to meet potential customers face to face. Here are the key steps to exhibition success.

From having a clear complaints-handling procedure to training staff and improving systems, use our checklist to better manage customers' complaints.

How can a small business get their products stocked by major, high-street retailers? One such business shares their inspirational success story.

Times were tough when Will Starrit and Andrew Taylor took over a motorcycle accessory shop. However, they were soon bucking the downward trend.

Many people start their own business because they dream of riches, while others simply want to earn a living from something they truly love. Beer!

Market research helps you spot opportunities, reduce risks and make better decisions. How to find the information you need.

Effective marketing starts with researching your market and competition - you can then plan who to sell to and how to reach them. Read our overview.

Good negotiation depends on setting clear objectives, including knowing where you will and won't compromise. Our guide to getting the right deal.

From preparing yourself and clarifying your objectives to realising the importance of listening, learn how to improve your negotiating skills.

Chris Barling, CEO of ecommerce software supplier SellerDeck, shares his tips for online selling and says that normal business rules still apply.

When planning for exporting, thoroughly research the market and potential problems and take advantage of the support and information available to you.

PR activities can help spread the word about your business for little money. This checklist explains how to promote your business through the press.

From describing your market and researching customers to preparing sales forecasts and budgets, learn how to create a marketing plan.

Selling can be intimidating, but our useful checklist will help your prepare a sales pitch that will persuade the customer, overcome objections and close the sale.

Your prices can have a dramatic effect on sales and profits - the right price is competitive while protecting your profit margins. Our overview.

Good sales technique can help you find the right person to speak to, overcome objections and close the sale. Read our simple guide to selling.

From demonstrating that you understand your customers to handling complaints promptly and effectively, learn how to set up a customer care programme.

Use published market research and your own research to get data you need to target new opportunities, and understand your customer's wants and needs.

Use this checklist to help you write an effective press release, including how to structure it, what you need to include and what format to use.

Writing to customers and prospects, via email, leaflets or direct mail, can be an effective way to promote your business. Here's how to get results.

Some ideas are so powerful they generate publicity year after year after year. These 14 tips might encourage journalists to cover your business.

Office dress codes have relaxed. Have we all become scruffier at work and does it really matter anyway? We ask three experts for their opinions.

One area where it can be difficult to keep costs low is marketing. But there are effective ways to raise your profile that just need time and effort.

Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne of Edinburgh-based Genius explains how she began selling her range of gluten-free bread to major supermarkets.

David Hathiramani of London-based A Suit That Fits.com describes how he overcame the IT-related challenges facing his new business.

Griff Holland set up takeaway business Friska in 2009. He recognised the value of offering something different from other food outlets nearby.

Defrauded, burgled, but not beaten. How John Sollars and his company Stinky Ink harnessed the power of ecommerce to come up smelling of roses.

Janan Leo orginally combined her full-time job with running CocoRose, her 'after hours' online business. So how did it become an international affair?

Chris Barling, chairman of ecommerce and EPOS software supplier SellerDeck, seeks insight from his customers about how to boost online sales.

Some firms struggle to achieve significant growth, staying much as they were at the start-up phase. So how can you make the move to the big league?

It started with a £1 eBay advert, but quickly grew into an online business with a £1m turnover. So how did Luna Spas founders do it?

Chris Barling, CEO of ecommerce & EPOS specialist SellerDeck, looks at what a potential start-up owner needs to consider when going online.

Derek Williams, Chief Executive of The WOW! Awards, explains how investing in staff training on customer relationships can make a real difference.

In the rush to get your product to market, it's easy to get carried away, but you must carry out thorough market research to check there's a market.

Before you start a business, you must carry out market research on your prices - it can be the difference between success and failure.

Writing a marketing plan may seem unnecessary for a start-up, but in fact it's a vital tool that can help you focus your marketing activities.

Business strategist Elsa Caleb explains what networking is, and provides her top tips on the benefits it will bring to your business.

If all you do when selling is list a product's features, you'll bore potential buyers and you're unlikely to get the sale. Try this approach instead.

Getting people to visit your website is only half the battle. Chris Barling provides tips on how to sell more to customers once they're on your site.

Customers who shop across multiple channels spend more - but accommodating their behaviour can be difficult. How to operate a multi-channel strategy.

Branding and business image are key considerations for start-ups. Ces Loftus-Price provides her golden rules for branding your new venture.

Use this tool to find details about business-related training, workshops, networking opportunities and seminars near you and further afield.

Small-business PR expert Paul Green recalls the three most common mistakes small-business owners made when trying to secure press coverage.

Building a website is an important way to promote your company and sell to a wider audience. Your domain name is how people locate your site.

Bristol-based Kabuto Foods aims to take instant noodles to a whole new level. But what what inspired Crispin Busk to launch the business?

Market research can help you to identify your target consumer, find out what they think about your ideas and help you target the right market.

Ross Campbell of the Exercise Club in Clifton, Bristol, explains how he improved his business to attract customers and keep them coming back for more.

Claudia Gillow, founder of Frome-based clothing retailer Deadly is the Female, explains how her business attracts punters.

After being made redundant, Allie Astell decided starting a business was preferable to finding another position in an uncertain jobs market.

Rekha Mehr, founder of Pistachio Rose, explains how she got her delicious products onto the shelves of one of the world's most famous shops.

Jake Xu of creative design and brand communications agency Ready explains the benefits of planning your approach to marketing.

Janie Thomson applied for a match-funding grant through her local council and this helped with initial marketing costs. Here are her publicity tips.

The humble questionnaire is a very powerful tool. Not only does it allow you to find out what your customers think but it can also boost loyalty.

Many people dream of the perfect business, combining great profits with minimal effort. An online business can do just that. So where do you start?

Within months of graduating Amahra Spence had set up her own employment consultancy which seeks to help creative people to find employment.

British businesses could be missing out on international trade opportunities due to lack of confidence or understanding of what support is available.

Use these handy FAQs to plan your market research, from research methods and costs to finding an agency who understands your needs.

It's easy to get upset when people visit your website, place products in their shopping cart but don't complete checkout. Chris Barling explains.

The look and feel of your business cards, compliment slips and letterheads is important, they say a lot about your business. We explain.

How do you look, behave or project yourself in a professional capacity? Does your personal brand give the message you want to project to customers?

Jane Lee of IT PR specialist Dexterity explains how start-ups can harness the power of effective public relations for the good of your business.

It's vital to make the market aware of your business if you're to make sales from the off. Here is some practical advice on how to do it.

Sales forecasting is key to cash flow control, but it can be difficult for new businesses, because they don't have any past sales figures to go on.

It takes skill, but training, practice and experience can help anyone get better at selling. Andrew Milbourn, sales director of Kiss the Fish, explains.

Market research expert Rob Sheldon explains the differences between qualitative and quantitative research and the role they play in market research.

Every business needs to stay fresh to be competitive. This may mean regularly refreshing your products or coming up with an entirely new offer.

Benchmarking provides a means to compare your firm against other businesses, and identify areas where you can improve your performance.

If you want to secure positive coverage about your business, you have to present the media with a good story. We explain the golden rules.

Market research can give you insight into your market, your competitors, your products, your marketing and your customers. Here's how it can help.

Social media has transformed the way businesses talk to customers online. We explain here how social media can help your business.

Qualitative research is about finding out not just what people think but why they think it, as well as their motivations and feelings.

Quantitative research is about asking people their opinions in a structured way so that you can produce facts and statistics to guide your marketing.

Are you confused or sceptical about what market research can offer? We reveal how to use market research successfully for your small business.

Rather than being a pointless exercise in data analysis, benchmarking can help you to identify areas where you can make changes and make your firm more profitable.