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.

Successful businesses are based on implementing successful marketing strategies. Read about the steps that you need to follow.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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'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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

We're not all natural-born salespeople, so we share some simple steps that can help you negotiate better sales.

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

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.

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.