Okay, week 4! We are well on our way to getting a business plan written and developing the formula for success in identifying what we want our business to look like, what we sell and who we want to sell to. Having in-depth and specific information about what we sell and who we sell to significantly helps develop the marketing strategy to target and reach your ideal customer AND know what to say to them based on your knowledge of why they want to buy and why they may not know they want to buy from you.
So, now you take all this information and knowledge and go in search of the best ways to reach your customer. There are unlimited ways to market, Hopefully, after the previous exercises, some of them have become obvious to you. Here are some things to think about.
Am I trying to market to a specific area, neighborhood? If so, there may be local neighborhood newspapers you can advertise in. In my case, it is better for me to write articles for such publications than to just advertise. Local publications are often times looking for content that is relevant and pertinent to their readers, so if you have a business where information dissemination is appropriate, see if you can become a contributor to their content. Otherwise, you can advertise in publications that reach your specific geographic area. Keep in mind that any advertising campaign needs to be repetitive, frequent and created in a way to develop brand familiarity. One ad might not get the job done, but if you have vetted your choice of advertising delivery, stay with it for several months AND track any and all leads that come to you, so you know which ad campaign is working.
Do you sell something that is best experienced in person? If so, then hosting monthly, quarterly, annual events in your location might be the best way to get your target market in front of you and your products. This can be tastings and samplings if you sell consumable items, this could be special happy hours with wine and food and a special offer during your event hours. This could be free informational seminars where you get to display your knowledge and expertise. This works well for anyone providing professional services. People are more likely to buy professional services if they can get a sense of you in person and a warm and fuzzy feeling of your mastery of the topic at hand. I have clients today that have been with me since the first couple of years I practiced because I hosted classes and seminars on the topic of the services I provide: CFO and Business Growth Strategist.
Do you need an email campaign? Lord knows we are all inundated with email these days, but that has to be a testament to the fact that it works. If you sell something that just needs a repetitive message, then email might be appropriate. However, make sure that your message is clear and concise and that you have a call to action. We have a client that sells promotional items, anything you can think of with your business name on it. An email campaign works well for this business for a few reasons: Highlight a few products in the email so you give the target market an idea of what they could do with it and then always provide a call to action. “Order 500 of these by this date and mention this ad and we will give you 15% off” It gives them the idea, gives them a deadline, gives them an incentive AND lets you know which email worked because they must mention it to you.
Does your website generate the leads it should? Is it written so that your SEO ( search engine optimization) brings customers to your website and then get them to buy? A little money spent with a professional website designer can go a long way to making your website your first and foremost marketing tool. People have to find you first and, let’s face it, Google is the name of the game there. You need keywords, title tags, blogs, links, action items that are integrated into your design to get noticed on searches and to get people who land on your site to act. A professional will be worth their fees in optimizing your website so it can generate leads. You want good organic results, but may want to determine an adword budget to give it a boost.
There are tons of ways of marketing. Social Media is huge. Next Door and Craig’s List can target a neighborhood. Facebook, Tick Tok, Instagram are just some of the ways you can reach your audience. Once you know your customer well enough, some obvious ways will present themselves. Then you need to consider using a CRM or other apps that allow you to continually market to current customers and your target market. Hubspot, MailChimp, co.schedule are all just a few of the apps you can use to generate, automate and schedule your marketing campaign.
Marketing can be fun. You just want to know that the money you are spending is reaching the customer base you want. Wasting money on marketing that reaches 1,000,000 people but does not target itself to your ideal customer is still a waste of money.
