One question I hear time and time again from entrepreneurs and small business is “is marketing for me?”
Marketing is for everyone, whether you’re in business or not, and in fact, you market yourself every single day. So perhaps the real question is “should I be paying for someone to do my marketing?” I guess that decision is up to you, and is based on where you are currently in business and where you want to take your business in the future.
Let’s take a quick look at the definition of marketing:
Marketing is a strategic mix of activities that work towards building your brand or business. It’s about identifying and understanding your target audience (your customers) and developing products and/or services that meet customers’ needs. Marketing is more than advertising or tv campaigns, its important across many areas of your business, from the design of your website, how you use social media, your logo, and even down to how you train your staff to deliver customer service.
So where should I start?
Effective marketing all starts with a great plan. We’ve all heard the famous quote “failing to plan is planning to fail”… it’s true!
There are three key things I discuss with my clients in our initial consultations, and these things help us build a great plan.
-
What’s your business objective?
Think short, medium and long term. Decide for yourself what short, medium and long term is – it’s going to be different for every business. Write these down.
Now close your eyes and imagine your business in the future – what’s your vision? What are your goals and aspirations? Don’t be afraid to think big picture, you have every right to achieve success!
Also ask yourself what you do and don’t like about where your business is right now – what would you change in the click of a finger if it was that easy? What wouldn’t you change. This is important because it allows me gauge the pain-points or roadblocks in your business, and why they are an issue for you.
-
Where are you in your business right now?
The next question I like to ask my clients is where is your business right now? Are you just starting out? How well do people know about your brand? How are sales tracking? Do you get a lot of enquiries but not much is converting to actual sales? Do people buy from you but you never hear from them again?
The answers to these questions are critical for me as a marketing professional because they help me understand where to focus marketing efforts and what to investigate further. It all comes back to Awareness, Consideration, Conversion and Loyalty – the four pillars of the marketing process.
-
Always put the customer at the centre of everything you do.
People will often say “but… yeah, I do”, but do you really!? Stop and have a think about it. How is your website worded – does it sell the benefit you bring to a target customer or are you talking about how great your service or product is? How are you training your staff to best communicate with your target customer? How do you position yourself on social media in a way that is appealing and relevant to your customer?
