Get Your Marketing Strategy Right and the Rest Will Follow
September 9, 2009 by
Matthew
Filed under
Business, Entrepreneurship, Making Money
Have you ever wondered why you are not being successful in your current business or have struggled to really find a path forward? More than ever it seems these days that a growing number of would-be entrepreneurs are seeking to branch out by themselves on their road to fame and fortune. A small number actually reach the end of the journey whereas very many do not even get to crank the car up or move out of the driveway, as they fail to “zero in” on the correct marketing strategy to follow.
A small business owner must do a significant amount of soul-searching and must really target. It is rare for an entrepreneur to have a very specific goal and to be perfectly aware of the strategies necessary to help him or her succeed. Rather, it is often a process of discovery and one that must be undertaken up-front and before results of any kind may follow.
Don’t be tempted to go from one idea to the next, achieving little, but always be prepared to innovate. There are so many conflicting ideals that may attract you for one reason or another and you must be limited with your attention. It is easy to get caught up in hype, if you do not fully understand your direction and this will paralyze your ability to focus.
• To start off with, you must ask yourself who you are and what kind of business you’re in. What are your strengths? Narrow down to one ideal only and don’t try and adopt a scattershot approach, as one of the first things you will learn is that there are only a certain number of hours in a day and these will be whittled away very quickly, especially if your vision is dilated.
• You must match your potential product or service with a market. Make sure that there is a market in existence first. Don’t be tempted to become so engrossed in your new vision that you believe that “if you build it, they will come.” This won’t happen!
• Remember that a successful business is likely to be a problem solver. Analyze your clients’ wants and needs, their problems and not yours. A good way to look at this is to focus on features and benefits. It should be fairly easy for you to identify the features of your business, but you really need to focus on the benefits to your clients.
• When looking to differentiate your business, establish what is the true value proposition for your customer. You must have a unique selling proposition of some kind and this is the reason why your existing clients come back to you. Establish what this is and elaborate on it.
• When presenting your message to market, focus, focus! You have very little time to get your message across before the harried consumer rushes on to something else. Never over-hype your product or service but be very specific and ensure that you get the message across that your business can help solve their pressing problems.
• Communication is key. In an ideal world, you should be able to strike up a relationship with everyone who visits your website by establishing e-mail communication with them. This can be a huge source of clients, maybe not right now but after a period of communication. Many people forget that the answer may well be in “the follow-up.”
• Take time to develop your relationship with existing and new clients. Don’t just set it and forget it, but make sure that they are happy, as they are all potential sources of referral clients. Social proof is highly important and wherever possible you should utilize your existing clients to drive new business.
Share some of your marketing strategies with us?
Matthew Toren
Nice post, that is what I am thinking. It is hard to succeed on the Internet before because companies didn’t very trust Internet advertising. But when they saw the potential of Internet advertising, there are too many competitors, so it is still so hard.
Great post.
I run a small foot care business in Ontario, Canada. (www.foottherapycanada.ca) I took this business over in January 2009 and I have spent the last 9 months trying to find an effective marketing strategy that resonates with my target market.
It has taken various initiatives to find a model that seems to be gaining some traction. I have found traditional advertising in newspapers and inserts work but it is not cost effective, I have tried to move to more internet based and content centered strategies, as well as referral programs. This seems to be working better and lowering our average customer acquisition cost.
I found “The New Rules Of Marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott to be very useful in helping me formulate an online strategy to bring more customers to my website. By positioning my company in a way that allows my patients to find my business when they are looking for services I provide, and tailoring my messages to the particular buyer persona’s that value our service. I have seen a tremendous amount of growth in our revenue while dramatically decreasing the dollars we spend on marketing.
So your point about focusing on your buyers unique problems and how to help them solve them has been a key factor in our success. I have re-tweeted this post. Follow me on twitter @stuarttrier
Cool post and it reminded me of the fact that I need to indentify a core purpose for my business i.e ‘what problems do I solve’. Thanks for the post
Interesting post and you make a good point about setting yourself apart from the competition. Developing a brand and having a clear vision are vital to the success of any blog or small business.
What I would say is, no matter what it is you are doing, or what kind of business you own, When you are working on your marketing strategy it is important to know your own strengths and weaknesses as well as others around you, utilize your strengths to your advantage, and try to get the most out of your weaknesses by shifting the work to others who may be better than you at it. Definitely though, don’t try to Market something you definitely aren’t experienced with, again this is part of that weakness aspect. So the bottom line is… what I am saying is work with what you know.
Till then,
Jean
Great post, will take that in mind when I market my blog…
Good post and so true. Asking ourselves what it is we are doing, what service we are providing? is crucuial to keeping us focused. Many of us jump into business with just a general idea about what we are actually doing. I know I was guilty of this. I ran my business for a year before asking myself what my unique selling point is.
Once I sat down and answered that question I became more focused and was able to provide my customers a better service. I wished I’d asked the question at the beginning, it would have saved me a lot of wasted effort and time. Good post.
Thank you
Paul
Great advice, all very true. its too easy (especially with online businesses) to lose focus so when you say “zero in” on what you want to achieve I think youve hit the nail on the head. Setting goals both long term and short term is something else thats really helped me over the years.
Great post. It makes you think about your product and how to link it with your target audience. Be different and don’t over sell.
Thanks..
Matthew,
Great advice. I find that providing clients with value through the process helps gain new business and keep customers. Many companies are afraid to give too much away when trying to gain new business. I feel the initial contact needs to be strong, providing insight into solution right away. Most customers want to see actionable items from the get go. If they have a problem, they want it solved soon with as little B.S. as possible.
-Sean
What a great post.! Your tips are practical and very helpful. I take this as one of my good references when it comes to marketing strategy. Thanks for sharing. Keep on posting.!
A great information bulging post.
It all makes a lot of sense and anyone who is actively trying to market any product or service, could take these great tips and make some real significant progress in no time at all.
Keep them coming - if they’re like this please!
Andrew.