how do you make it a success?

Welcome to The Knowledge -- a series of helpful videos offering free advice from business

people who've been there...and done it.

Marketing your business is one of the hardest mysteries to untangle -- here to shed some

light is small business operator Bonnie Tuttle; Master Painters Association CEO, Mark Amos;

and entrepreneur Troy Trewin.

Your business is ready to go...but how important is it to know your customers?

Bonnie: It's imperative to know your customers. Without your customers you don't have a business.

Mark: Try and spend a little bit of time finding out a little bit out about who your potential

customer is going to be before you actually do the quote.

Troy: If you don't know your customers and what they like, and even them personally,

their experience won't be the best that it can be.

So how do you find out what your customers want?

Bonnie: You need to ask. Always ask. Ask. Ask. Ask.

Troy: You can ask them in several forms. Informally, in conversation or you can send out, for example,

online surveys.

Why would a customer choose your business over a competitor?

Bonnie: We're a local business and we promote that as one of our differentiators. People

like that and they've told us that they prefer to hire someone who's local and not part of

a franchise.

Mark: Providing quality work and quality service.

Troy: ...and having a really strong customer service ethic and policy, responding quickly,

builds up that momentum with that, with your customers.

And how well do you understand the journey a customer takes?

Bonnie: As we do talk to our customers along the way

Troy: Going in to a new business or a new market, what we will do is study the competitors,

of course, and look at the products and what's out there. So we actually step through the

process of being one of their customers and understanding that first.

There are so many media options available...so how do you choose what best suits your marketing needs?

Bonnie: We're quite informal so we can do a lot of face-to-face networking, hanging

out at barbeques, going and meeting people at school events.

Mark: Actually identify what your market is and then advertise to that market.

Troy: Swot up on marketing, read some great marketing books, talk to other entrepreneurs,

talk to your mentor, maybe get a marketing mentor because marketing is such an important

part of your business. Get a marketing mentor and ask them what sort of mediums you can

be using to get your customers to come in.