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SCORE Tri-County will host a two-part webinar focused on marketing for small- and mediumsized businesses. The webinars are geared for any business owner that may be struggling with marketing, or anyone considering starting a new business.

The first session will be held on Monday, Feb. 8 starting at noon. The second session is scheduled for Monday, March 8 starting at 11 a.m. Both sessions will be held via the Zoom conferencing app and are free of charge.

In both sessions Tom Elmer, SCORE mentor, marketing professor and marketing consultant will lead attendees in a discussion about finding new customers, making more money and beating the competition — without a big budget.

Elmer said one of the problems he sees with many small businesses is that they commit what he calls “random acts of marketing.”

“That’s when small businesses don’t do situational analysis of their current issues, don’t have an annual marketing plan, and go out and execute ineffective one-off marketing tactics with no expectations or goals of what success looks like, then express disappointment that marketing doesn’t work,” he said in an emailed response to questions.

Elmer added that growing and sustaining a business has “never been harder” in this time of disruption.

In 2015, 76% of marketers surveyed by Adobe claimed that marketing had changed more in the last two years than it had in all the years since the birth of television advertising. An analysis of 101 start-up failures found that eight of the top 10 reasons were marketing related, including: no market need, being outcompeted, pricing issues, user unfriendly product, poor business model, etc.

“The pandemic has only made things worse,” Elmer added.

The Feb. 8 session will begin with an examination of where modern marketing is heading and what that means for each attendee’s business. This introductory session will also cover marketing planning, how to create an effective marketing strategy, customers, targeting, positioning, branding and other foundational material.

Session two will focus entirely on effective tactics: promotion, nine marketing systems every small business requires, social media, content creation, Q&A session and more.

Both sessions will be taped and provided to those who sign up. In addition, attendees will receive an electronic copy of the book: “Smart Marketing — Illustrative Guide to Marketing Effectiveness.”

To register for the Monday, Feb. 8 session visit https://score.zoom.us/ webinar/register/4316105439723/ WN_YehU858nRbKEYSRpJ72m-Q

To register for the Monday, March 8 session visit https://score.zoom.us/webinar/register/2016105440344/ WN_2GB6OulOT3ieWeMa6TtS6A