You may think you are too small to have a marketing strategy but that’s not true, everybody has a strategy, even if it is just stored in your head. A documented marketing strategy is so important as it is how you will keep on track and keep building those relationships with your ideal customer.
A marketing strategy is particularly useful when deciding to turn your hobby into a business or deciding to take the next leap in an existing business. In my ebook 30 days to build a better business I spend the first six days giving you tasks which will create a great basis for your marketing strategy and it will be quite easy to pull together.
Every time you mention your business to someone in conversation you are involved in marketing whether you like it or not, so ensure all interactions are a positive promotion of your business.
By creating a marketing strategy, you will have more focus. You will identify the different ways you can talk with your customers and which ones you need to concentrate on to make the most sales. Your strategy tells you what to say, who to say it to, how to say it and critically – when to say it.
A traditional marketing strategy has the following inclusions:
Your objective – how to increase sales and create loyal customers. This is how you package your products and services, how you charge for them, and how you promote them to your ideal customer.
Know your customer – As I have said time and time again, having a successful marketing strategy depends entirely on you understanding your ideal customer, what they need and how you can persuade them to buy from you.
Marketing Plan (the document with the strategy written down and how to achieve it) This is the bit that allows you to put all your research and notes into action. It will be budgets [I know, I know, we don’t have marketing budgets! by budgets I also mean time if you don’t have money i.e.: 1 hour a day, 15 hours a week etc.] It’s how you will talk to your ideal customer – social media, direct marketing, trade shows, advertising, sponsorship, collaborations etc.
Most critically, a good strategy will allow you to time your marketing to suit your ideal customers buying cycles i.e.: the sleep deprived mum up feeding her baby in the middle of the night on instagram or pinterest buying cute new clothes and nursery decorations. The hard working corporate girl who has a last minute invite to the Spring Racing Carnival and needs an amazing head piece to impress the new man she has her eye on. This type of marketing strategy is going to save you so much time and money!
The last thing you will include in your strategy is a glance at the future, how are you going to follow up sales, how are you going to develop new offerings, how are you going to build loyalty and create repeat customers. I promise we will cover these things before July is over.
As with anything to do with marketing, you can’t just set a plan and then expect it to work. You must review it and make changes as the marketplace changes….or Facebook and Google changes their algorithms AGAIN.
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