Where is your marketing plan
A marketing plan helps you identify your clients and develop strategies that make your business stand out to them. Integrate your marketing effort and satisfy your clients’ wants and needs. Ensure your business model contains all the key elements to make your business work well all day every day.
Focus on sales first
Without sales nothing else can happen except losses. The rest will follow as the need arises and it’s more fun if you can pay your bills.
Content marketing
Customers are seeking good information and practical knowledge, therefore useful content should be at the core of your marketing as people shut off to the traditional world of marketing.
Service your clients
Good client service is all about helping your clients solve their frustrations, problems, wants and needs and if you do this they’ll help you solve yours.
Speed to market
You need the dollars to go forward and your clients will help you to improve your product. Get your product out there and benefit from the “First Mover Advantage”.
Focus on your uniqueness
What is your competitive advantage? What can you do better than others? If you are just another “me too” business don’t expect to survive.
Old and new clients
Never take your old customers for granted, treat them as well as you would treat a new one, satisfy their wants and needs and they will satisfy yours.
Price yourself into success
Don’t be greedy but be consistent with your pricing policies. Better to have half a loaf of bread than none at all.
Know what is going on
Research the trends and issues in your market segments, understand changes in client attitudes and competitive activity. Go on a journey of discovery, how do your customers think and behave?
Continue developing your brand
Marketing budgets are easy to cut, but don’t abandon your brand. Take advantage of new marketing methods and associated technologies, which are becoming better and cheaper all the time.
Look for marketing breakthroughs
Dare to be different. Look for ways you can make your business stand out from the crowd. Drive your marketing strategies to be the best in your industry. Bad strategies lead to bad outcomes.
Measure what your marketing achieves
Every dollar you spend on marketing should be working for you, so track the results. Without measurement it is impossible to know which activities bring in clients and which simply use up your budget.
Start with a few simple measures that relate directly to sales:
- How many enquiries come in each month, and where they come from.
- How many of those enquiries become paying clients.
- Which pages on your website attract visitors and keep them reading.
- How much repeat business you receive from existing clients.
Ask every new client how they found you and record the answer. Over time a clear picture emerges of which channels deserve more attention and which can be scaled back. Review the numbers each month and make small adjustments rather than waiting for the end of the year.
Turn tips into a marketing routine
Good marketing ideas only make a difference when they are put into practice consistently. Many small businesses start strong, then let marketing slide when they get busy, only to find the pipeline has dried up a few months later.
Set aside a regular time each week for marketing tasks, even if it is only an hour. Use it to publish useful content, follow up past clients, update your website and check how your campaigns are performing. A simple calendar that maps out topics and activities for the next three months keeps everyone focused and makes it easier to stay on track.
Share the plan with your team so they understand the message you want to send. Staff who speak with clients every day are often the best source of content ideas, testimonials and feedback on what customers really want.
If time is the main obstacle, consider which tasks you can hand to someone else. Bringing in outside help for website updates, search engine optimisation or social media lets you concentrate on serving clients while your marketing keeps running in the background. Consistency, more than any single clever idea, is what builds a business that stands out.
