As mentioned before, your business needs to have a solid marketing strategy in place to thrive. Unfortunately, not every company has this done-for them or even for themselves.
With so many distractions around us these days (social media, mobile devices, etc.), it is easy to become distracted by what seems more important than investing time into creating an audience that will eventually spend money on your product or service.
The way to avoid this is to invest in a long term plan with incremental steps. This article will talk about some ways to start building your marketing strategy from the ground up.
As mentioned before, your marketing strategy is an integral part of how you advertise your business and what messages you convey to the public. Yours comes down to two main components: internal and external.
Your internal marketing strategies are those that focus on improving your company’s image and promoting teamwork within the organization. These include advertising on social media, creating content for website and blogs, and developing engaging slogans and Mottoes.
External marketing strategies aim to create awareness about your product or service by spending money to promote it. This can be done through advertisements in the form of billboards, magazines, newspapers, and online ads.
There are several ways to develop effective internal and external marketing strategies.
Before you start marketing, you must first have a way to let people know who you are and what you offer. This is your website!
Having a site is one of the most basic things needed to market yourself or a business. It’s like having a place where people can go to find out more about you and what you have to offer. Websites also provide a platform for you to showcase your products and services.
We’ve discussed some ways to develop your professional image in earlier posts, but now it's time to put that into action with creating your website!
It’s important to remember that while websites may seem expensive at first, they're cost-effective long term investments. You get back what you spend on them every time someone visit your site, views your content, or purchases something from you!
There are many free web hosting sites out there such as www.wpbeginner.com/how-to-start-blogging/. Many of these offer limited features (such as email) which you can add onto as paid accounts.
Most professionals pay around $10-$20 per month for an online account such as Aweber or Mailchimp to send automatic emails. There are several free alternatives to these apps if you don't want to invest in those.
As mentioned before, having a social media account is not enough! You must know what to do with it. Creating a profile is one of the first things you should do if you want your business to succeed.
It’s easy to create an Instagram or Facebook account, but staying engaged and updating content takes more than just that. If you are too focused on getting lots of “likes” and comments, then no one will ever notice how hard you work for your company.
Your followers and users of the site can tell when you don’t put in any effort at all, so make sure you’re putting some time into your page. It would also be helpful to use the built-in features such as posting videos, sharing links, etc.
Making changes to your profile and using the various features of each platform is another way to enhance your business. If you are looking to take your marketing efforts to the next level, try exploring different strategies.
Another way to increase exposure is by distributing promotional material about your business or product. This can be an interesting mix of materials such as flyers, pamphlets, billboards, etc. that you distribute through various channels to achieve this goal.
By distributing these materials, you are creating awareness for your company, what you have to offer, and yourself as an individual leader of the organization.
People who know you and like what you have to say will spread all information they obtain about your company via those sources, thus enhancing your image and exposing your brand to others.
This also gives people more opportunities to interact with you and your team members since they are using resources to gather knowledge about you and your company.
It’s not just about how many advertisements or brochures you drop, but rather how well you use them to promote your message and strengthen your reputation.
Keep in mind that most people look at their phone while walking around so don’t waste money by advertising on a screen that someone could easily avoid. Print out adequate copies and put up appropriate signs to get the right results.
Running an event requires time, money, and effort to pull off successfully. This is why most people don’t do it unless they are extremely passionate about the product or service that they are trying to promote.
Business owners who want to launch their own event must first identify what kind of event they would like to host. You can choose from formal events such as conferences and seminars, less formal get-togethers such as birthday parties, and even something more casual like eating together at a restaurant.
Whatever type of event you decide to hold, your audience will come in two main groups: those who know about the event and those who don’t. The former will attend because they are interested in the topic, while the latter will attend if you advertise the event well and offer them some sort of reward for attending.
Your rewards could be getting free merchandise, having your picture taken with the speaker, or just being part of the community. Your rewards don’t have to cost anything either – giving away snacks or serving soup and bread is usually enough!
Finding attendees is half of the battle won, but keeping up with the rest of the event marketing strategies isn’t. These include posting reminders, responding to comments and messages, and creating good online communities around your event.
Market segmentation is one of the most important marketing strategies for any business. It’s also one of the hardest to do well because it requires you to identify who your potential customers are first!
If you’re in the restaurant industry, what types of people eat food? People that live nearby probably don’t spend very much money eating out, so they're not your typical diner. More affluent individuals may frequent restaurants but only for special events or rewards (e.g., dinner at a top hotel), which means they’re not necessarily in the hungry state of mind when they walk into a restaurant.
Business travelers are still within budget constraints, so they’ll likely try to find foods they can pack in and go before getting too expensive. The rich and wealthy will continue to spend extravagantly on overpriced gourmet cuisine, making it hard to appeal to both groups at once.
This isn't a bad thing unless you happen to make delicious food, in which case you've got a leg up on the competition.
A good way to start marketing is by setting a budget. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the different ways marketers spend their money, so choosing a limited amount at first helps you focus only on the essentials.
Most online advertising comes down to two main types: paid advertisements or organic (natural) search results. Paid advertisements are expensive, but they work!
By starting small, you can save some money until you know what works best for your business. There are many free tools that do not cost anything to test out your marketability before investing in more elaborate strategies.
Organic SEO (search engine optimization) is also very important to have a healthy website, but it takes time to develop strong links and keywords.
As we have discussed, there are many different ways to market a business, and it can be tricky deciding which one is the best fit for you or your company. The first way to identify the right marketing strategy is to consider what kind of messages your organization delivers and how these messages influence others.
A good test of this is to ask yourself why people interact with your organization and what they gain from doing so. For example, if your organization offers educational courses about improving your career as an accountant, then that is a successful message that your organization sends.
By using strategies such as advertising on television, radio, magazines, and newspapers, you are letting other people know about your organization and its services. This is called direct outreach. Direct outreach is very effective when done at the correct time and place.
Indirect outreach involves creating content that people can find through search engines like Google or YouTube, sharing valuable information via social media sites, and producing engaging conversations with like-minded individuals on forums and chat apps. All of these activities help spread the word about your organization.
