Marketing Basics

Know your audience, sharpen your message, choose the right channels

Why It Matters

Many organizations jump straight to posting, printing flyers, or buying ads without deciding who they are trying to reach or why that audience should care. The result is busy activity with little response. Marketing fundamentals give everyone, not just the marketing department, a shared language for describing value. Participants communicate more persuasively. Organizations focus scarce resources on the audiences and messages most likely to produce enrollments, sales, partnerships, or support.

Course Description

Using an actual product, service, or program from their work, participants build a simple marketing foundation step by step. They segment possible audiences and choose a primary one, then draft a customer profile based on needs and motivations rather than demographics alone. Next, they write and test a value proposition with peers, refining it until it is clear and distinct. A positioning exercise compares their offer with alternatives the audience already considers. Finally, they match channels to where their audience pays attention, weighing reach, cost, and effort. Discussion draws on examples from public, nonprofit, and commercial settings. Each participant leaves with a one-page marketing brief and a plan to test it.

Key Focus Areas

Participants explore and practice:

Segmenting audiences and selecting a primary target
Building a customer profile around needs and motivations
Writing a clear, distinct value proposition
Positioning against the alternatives your audience considers
Choosing channels based on reach, cost, and fit
Applying the marketing mix to services and programs

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

Identify a primary audience for a product, service, or program
Write a value proposition that states a clear benefit
Describe how their offer differs from alternatives
Select marketing channels that match audience habits

Who Should Attend

New marketing and communications staff
Program managers promoting services
Small business owners
Sales and outreach professionals

Delivery and Customization

Examples, scenarios, and activities are adapted to your audience and goals. Delivery is available in person, virtually, or in a hybrid format, as a standalone session or as part of a series. Format and length are agreed during scoping.

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