Get Your Marketing Strategy Right and the Rest Will Follow
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
