Happy New Year!!!
Welcome to 2018!!!
I’m not one to be excited about New Years, because I believe every new day is a blessing and you should not wait till a new year to start living your best life, but for some reason I am super excited about 2018!!! Anyway, back to blogging business.
I’ve been getting emails and messages from readers, which are all centred around marketing their products, so I decided to share a few basic marketing strategies, that would help grow your business by asking these five simple questions.
What is the current situation of your business?
This is called a situation analysis, it basically defines your company, your products and service offering, it also highlights your unique selling point, which gives you an edge over your competitors. As an entrepreneur, you need to go beyond knowing your product and have a firm understanding of who your competitors are, what they are offering and be able to prove that your product is of more value to the customer. Identify the strengths of your business by observing the way your products are better than others, or what makes your service superior. On the other hand, take note of your company’s weaknesses, what could hinder your business growth? Lack of skilled employees?
You need to analyse your product’s features and identify what makes your products distinct from your competitors. Also, identify what would motivate your potential buyer to pay for your product. What is your unique selling point? High quality standard? Ease of purchase? Affordable pricing? You can’t offer everything, discovering what your customers want would help you determine what to offer.
Who is your target market?
Creating a simple, one-page profile of your potential customer would help you identify your target market. You can distinguish customers by grouping them according to their demographics – gender, age, location, disposable income, their jobs, lifestyle and so on. You need to know if your customers are traditional or modern? Introverts or extroverts? Homebodies or adventure seekers? Leaders or followers? Why do they buy your products? How frequently do they use your service? Ensure you narrow down who your target audience is, as this would be your guide in determining what marketing tools or publicity campaigns would be best suited for your product.
What are your marketing goals?
What do you intend to achieve with your marketing strategy? For instance, are you hoping to double your sales revenue this year? Clearly define what your aim is, write down your goals, make them measurable within a timeframe, so you’ll know when you have accomplished them.
How do you market to your target market?
This is the heart and soul of your marketing strategy. An effective marketing plan targets customers at all phases of your sale cycle. Marketing tools such as advertising, direct marketing and online marketing, are good for targeting cold propects. Warm prospects – people who your marketing has reached previously, will respond better to email subscriptions, customer reward programs, and so on. Your best prospects are people who have seen your marketing campaign and are ready to make a sale. Usually, interpersonal contact – either face to face, by phone or email, combined with marketing lead to more sales.
Outline your marketing strategies, then include a variety of tools you’ll use to reach potential customers at any point in your sales cycle. For instance, you might combine Instagram adverts, fliers and Google adverts to reach cold prospects but use email marketing to reach warm prospects.
Identify the ideal marketing mix for your business by finding out what media your target audience use to find out information for your type of product or service. Focus on targeted marketing as opposed to broad marketing tools such as billboards, this might attract your target market, but marketing for small business should be more targeted.
What is your budget?
Having a marketing budget is essential so you don’t go overboard, it is ideal to dedicate a percentage of your sales to your marketing budget. If you are starting a new business and funds are not so abundant, there are different marketing tactics available to reach your audience, that would fit even the smallest budget. That does not imply, you should aim to spend nothing on marketing, your budget should increase as your business grows. Always remember, marketing is vital to the success of your business, the trick is to never stop marketing.
There you have it, the tricks of the trade. I tried to keep it as simple as I could without any of those marketing buzzwords, however, if you need help with your marketing strategy, you can email me at: tolani@tolanithomas.com.
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