How to set your business up for success with marketing, lets start with how to create a marketing strategy.
In this series of blogs, I have been answering the question I get asked most regularly; “where do I start with marketing and how do I make it a success”. Firstly you need to understand how to create a marketing strategy, but firstly you need to look at:
- You need to understand your customers
- You need to forward plan
- Use all the tools at your disposal
Marketing Strategy
In this blog I will explain to you how to start your marketing activities. We will start with looking at what you already have, where you want to go and create a strategy to get there. In my early days as a marketer I stood exactly where you stand today, I couldn’t see which way was up with my advertising, what was worth investing in and how I was supposed to track my achievements. So I say to you, what I wish I could have said to myself all those years ago, start by writing a strategy.
What is a marketing strategy? It is a piece of work created by a marketer set out to understand the following 7 pillars of marketing:
Purpose – What is the purpose of the business and its products? This questions what does the brand believe in? What problems does the business solve? Not to be confused with a mission statement, this should be deeper.
Values – What does the business believe ? Are people at the heart of what you do? Perhaps environmentalism or perhaps it is servicing people in need. This doesn’t need to be ethical values though, it could be to sit atop of the market or deliver a perfect experience every time.
Target Audience – Who are your ideal customers? Possibly at the moment you are servicing an older generation than desired. So identifying age demographics, social demographics. Creating a buyer persona along with identifying their journey to your product needs to be considered.
Product – Understanding what you believe your product to be, but also what your customers believe it is. Perhaps you have a special occasion restaurant, so it is important to pin down what exactly you and your customers believe the product to be.
Unique Selling Point – This is exceptionally important to understand, what makes you stand out from the competition? Do you have a plant shop who specialises in drought resistant plants? If so I bet no one else specialises in that in your city. Pushing this in your messaging would be perfect for all those potential customers who are known for starving their plants.
Message – Once you know your USP, Values & Purpose. You need to figure out how you explain this to your customers in a friendly and easy to understand way. Similar to your elevator pitch, it is phrases you use to explain the business to anyone.
Personality – This is the most enjoyable part of the marketing brand. Creating a personality. For instance you may have a fine dining restaurant which is edgy and a bit punk. So deciding how that brand interacts with its customers would be very different compared to say a traditional fine dining restaurant.
So now you know who your brand is, what its purpose is, what its values are, who the target audience is, what the product is, what makes it unique, who to deliver its message and what its personality is. A few other elements which I feel is important to include at this stage would be:
- Competitive Analysis – It is important to know who your competitors are and how they differ from you. This can be used as a tool to stand out from competitors.
- SWOT Analysis – This is where you will drill into your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats. Then you can use these to drive forward improvements.
- Branding – A stand alone document should be created to include your logos, font styles & colours.
- Pricing & Position – Where you sit in the market compared to your competitors and if you are above or below them on pricing.
- Goals – Example goals would be to reach new customers, retain existing customers, increase social media followers, build brand awareness. These should all be tracked by KPIs.
- Marketing Channels – Which channels you choose to use such as social media, traditional newspapers, email marketing.
The question next is, what do you do with this information.
Now you know how to create a marketing strategy, it is time for you to write a marketing plan, this is a practical plan of how you use the information you have determined about your business. This will look at particular products you are selling, create a plan on how, when, for how long, where you will promote these items.
Now you are ready to go, you know what you are selling and how you will be going about this. Your strategy & plan needs to be reviewed regularly as things change over time. All the fundamentals are now in place for you to succeed at setting up your for success with marketing.
Next week I will be looking at successful copywriting for anyone who has an interest in improving their written communications.
