Calcutta: If you do not have a proper marketing plan, no matter how good your product is, it will fail to draw attention, business coach and motivational speaker Ujjwal Patni told a houseful audience of entrepreneurs in the city on Saturday.

"Good products need more marketing.... Don't be under the delusion that the product is so good you don't need to market it," said Patni.

Businessmen from the city and outside attended the four-hour session on 20 Smart Marketing Strategies with Dr Ujjwal Patni partnered by The Telegraph at The Lalit Great Eastern.

Patni said every entrepreneur should have business objectives for the year, know their competitors and measure one's advantage against these competitors, do research and freeze the budget.

"Freeze your budget for offline and online activities. Customers have money in their wallets but the question is how much of it will come to you," said Patni. The budget has to be fixed as per the target audience group, he added.

"If you are targeting a big client then a small ad in one corner of the newspaper won't do, it has to be a full page or at least a half page ad," he said.

Patni insisted on online visibility irrespective of whether the product is being sold online. Customers now search online before availing of any service, he said.

"There should be a strong presence on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram. You have to search for a key differentiator - one thing that others cannot replace - and the marketing should be on the basis of that," Patni said.

Patni suggested strategies and answered questions from businessmen who wanted to know how to enhance their sales.