1. Home
2. / Owner Advice and Resources
3. / Holiday Home Marketing Advice
4. / Marketing Basics

Understanding the Basics of Marketing

A Guide for Cottage Owners

So, let's start with the basics, you may have heard of marketing but don't fully understand what it is exactly.  Read on to find out more.

• What is Marketing?
   
• Online and Offline Marketing Defined
   
• Why Cottage Owners should be interested in Digital Marketing
   
• Summary

What is Marketing Anyway?
 

Marketing involves activities which focus on promotion and ultimately the sales of products or services, including advertising and market research activities.

Another key concept in marketing is reaching and focusing on the right audiences (target market) for your product or service (in your case your cottage(s).

Online or Offline Marketing or Both?

Before the surge of the internet, marketing activities were focused offline, with advertising and promotion mainly taking place in print media, on TV and via leaflets and cards for example.  With the rise of the internet, more and more people are advertising online and on channels like social media too.  

CountryCottagesOnline.Net's focus is largely on online marketing, also known as digital marketing, although many of the marketing principles are the same whether we are talking about marketing online or offline.

Why Should Cottage Owners Care about Online Marketing?

If you're more familiar with traditional print advertising and have up to now focused on traditional types of marketing you may be wondering why you should care about digital marketing.  Well, the answer lies in the statistics.  
 

Statistics on UK Internet Usage:

Data from the Office of National Statistics from 2017 found that almost 90% of UK adults had recently used the internet. 

Internet usage is highest in the age groups 16-54, but is also high in the 55-64 age group.

Nearly 8 out of 10 of these individuals use the internet daily!

So it's important to understand that people are increasingly using the internet and that online shopping on the web is growing in popularity, particularly in the UK.  

The Rise of Smart Phones

Not only are UK residents increasingly engaging with the internet, but people are increasingly engaging with using the internet via their smartphones.

In 2017, around 75% of adult internet users in the UK, accessed the internet 'on the move' using a smartphone.

In Summary

Because of the popularity of the world wide web, many more people are increasingly focusing on digital marketing.  That is not to say that offline marketing does not still play an important role, both kinds of marketing; online and offline can be effective and need to be considered as part of the marketing mix.
 

Next Steps:

Read about Digital Marketing