There’s no shortage of idioms in the business world. Buzzwords and adages that faintly and vaguely hint at the necessary mechanisms of success but in order to succeed, you need more than just cliches.
If you want to make it in the industry, you need an actual strategy and marketing is a critical foundation of that. Savvy entrepreneurs understand this. They constantly seek new ways to promote themselves to potential leads.
You cannot, however, simply jump in blind. I’ve seen people do that constantly and it never works. You need a plan and in order to devise that plan, there are certain things you have to initially understand about both your business and your industry.
A marketing strategy that works for a clothing shop would not, for instance, be of much use to a pizza chain or an electronics store. Here, then, are three things you need to know before you start brainstorming your marketing strategy.
Your Market and Your Competitors
What do you know about your industry? What do you know about your business? What do you know about your audience, and their wants and needs?
This is where you need to start.
- Find out as much about your target audience as you can. This includes their behaviors, their decision-making process, how they spend their free time, how they search for services and information, and so on. If you have the budget to do so, invest in a study to find out what your buyer personas are. This will really help you structure your marketing plan.
- Develop a working knowledge of your competition. What makes them unique? How can you differentiate yourself? Start by researching the 3-4 companies that offer goods and services most similar to yours, and branch out from there.
- Take a look at their marketing materials. What avenues have they been exploring? Email? Social? Paid? Organic? Do a deep dive to see which tactics they are implementing and which ones you think would make the most sense for your business. Remember, just because a certain vertical of marketing that exists, doesn’t mean it’s always going to be good for your business. Don’t fall into the trap of marketing FOMO, it might not make sense for your business to have a Facebook and that’s okay. It’s better to not have one than to have on that goes unused and becomes inactive.
Your Goals
What are your business goals, and how can you translate that into marketing? How will you measure your success (what are your KPIs aka key performance indicators)? These goals must be realistic, tangible, and measurable, lest you fail entirely to meet them.
Focus on the broad strokes of your marketing strategy at first. Don’t cloud your purpose with self-doubt or complex logistics — these are considerations for later. Instead, outline an overall objective, broken down into small, interconnected goals and milestones.
Let’s say, for instance, you want an increased online presence in the upcoming fiscal year. You might start with social media engagement, posting photos of your products, and interacting with your audience. You may also carry out basic keyword research, maintaining a blog with topics you know your audience will enjoy.
You might even leverage current events, such as by offering hand sanitizer or donating to local shelters. Your milestones throughout this process could be just about anything, from traffic numbers to social likes/shares to qualified leads. Just understand that you may need to revisit and tweak them over time, just as with your marketing strategy.
Your Budget
What is a reasonable amount for your company to put into promotion and marketing for the coming year? What tools, placements, and promotions do you need to purchase, and what’s a reasonable price to pay for them? It’s better to plan everything out now, and understand exactly how much money you can spend, rather than going forward with no idea of your available resources.
Generally, you should put between five and 10 percent of your overall revenue towards marketing, but this may vary depending on your goals and requirements.
Developing a marketing plan is neither as difficult nor as daunting as you might think. It’s really just a matter of doing the necessary research. Of understanding both your business and what you want to achieve.
Armed with that knowledge, you should be just fine.
About the Author
Terry Cane is the COO at SEOHost.net, a reliable and supportive SEO hosting partner. You can follow/tweet her @SEOhostnet.