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Creating a marketing strategy is not an easy task, nor does it happen quickly. It takes time to think about how you can spread your brand’s message to potential customers. You have to consider many different factors before deciding what strategies will work for your business.
As with any other part of your business, there are several steps needed to develop a successful marketing strategy. This article will talk more in depth about some of these steps including why they matter and when to do them. So, stay tuned and read on!
If you would like to see our list of must-know tips about developing a marketing strategy, then keep reading! We have gathered all of those into one place for you here at The Nerdy Shopist.
A good first step in developing your own strategic plan is to take a look at how you're currently performing and what seems to be working for your organization. Are you spending money effectively on various types of media advertisements? Do people recognize your business and brands well?
If so, great! But if not, it may be time to make changes. You can't improve what isn’t known, and by figuring out where you are now, you can begin creating a roadmap towards more efficient marketing strategies.
By doing this, you will also identify areas that need improving, which is an important part of any successful re-design process.
Here are some questions to ask yourself about your current marketing strategies:
Is our message matching our audience? If yes, then why aren’t we reaching more people?
Are our messages sound bites or are they rich with content that engages potential customers?
How effective are our ads in terms of grabbing attention and communicating our value proposition?
You don’t have to do anything dramatic like start from scratch, but making small tweaks here and there can help you find new ways to communicate with your audience while still sticking to your brand voice.
Something as simple as changing the color of your banner or picture logo can totally change the way your business looks to potential clients.
Developing new marketing strategies is an integral part of keeping your business competitive and thriving. As discussed earlier, staying in competition requires that you know what types of marketing are working for your competitors, and how to apply them to your business.
By this point, you should have gathered some valuable information about your market and determined whether there are any gaps in the services that you offer. If so, then it’s time to consider which ways you could add value to your product or service.
You can start by reading through our checklist above and Figuring Out What To Offer Your Customers article to see if anything looks interesting. Perhaps you’re already offering something similar, in which case, great! But if not, read on to learn more about how to make that opportunity exist for your company.
Before you even begin creating or executing any type of marketing, you have to make sure that your business has a clear mission. What is your company there for? Are you trying to get people to buy this product, service, or thing? Or are you just looking to increase your brand exposure?
Your marketing strategy is really an extension of your company's main purpose. You may want to use different types of content to convey that message, but it all comes down to what your company is here for.
After you have identified your target market, determined their needs, and learned how to cater to those needs, it is time to run some marketing campaigns!
As we discussed before, every business has different marketing strategies that work for them. What works for one company may not work as well for another. It is important to find what works for yours and stick with it!
Some of the things that can be done to test out your strategy are: creating new products or services, changing your product line, offering coupons, putting up signs or flyers, doing direct mail pieces, advertising on television, radio, or the internet, and gathering feedback from customers.
By using all these methods, you will get an overall picture of how effective each part of your marketing campaign is and if there are any ways to make it more efficient.
After you have done your research, gathered your resources, and determined your target market, it is time to start producing content!
Producing quality content should be your number one focus. It costs no money and takes very little time, which are both good points when you are trying to increase traffic and exposure for your business or website.
Content production can range from making a short video about how to do something helpful for your business to creating an entire article full of information that your readers can take advantage of.
Whatever kind of content you create, make sure it benefits your audience and your business. If there’s not much new information in it, people will notice.
Your first step in developing your own style is to analyze the styles of others. Then, use those tools to develop your own unique brand voice and tone. You want to be familiar with using humor, telling stories, giving straightforward advice, emphasizing keywords, and establishing rapport with your followers.
The last thing we would recommend is letting yourself get distracted by the trends of the season. What works now may not work next month or the month after that. Find out who your targeted audience is, what they look for, and add products or services that fit their needs.
As your business grows, so does your marketing strategy!
As you begin to reach out to people about your services and products, you'll need to have a way to capture their attention and spend time talking to them.
A good first step is to create an online presence or website. This can be done through various free web hosting sites like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft Azure.
You should pick a domain name that captures your business's brand, but is also easy to type and remember. For instance, if your company name is The Best Lawn Care Company, thenyoucan.com may not make sense as a domain name.
It would be hard for anyone to remember that ending! Try going at it one word at a time instead - bestlawncare.com, tblawndc.am, etc.
As we have seen, creating your marketing space includes establishing business accounts on all major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn as well as other sites that promote content or interactive engagement.
These are referred to as “social media” accounts and you can find free resources to create most of them through sites like Fiverr and Canva.
To be successful, however, you will need to update these accounts consistently, add value to others by sharing engaging content, and manage your account settings to make sure your personal life doesn’t interfere with your work.
As we mentioned before, marketing strategies are not one and done! You will constantly be developing new strategies to better reach out to your customers.
One of the first steps in this process is identifying your target audience or market. This can feel like an impossible task at times since there are so many ways people interact with brands these days.
With all those touch points it gets harder to determine who your audience is actually listening to. It is important to know who your audience is so that you can create content they will read, respond to, and buy.
Your target audience may have different levels of spending money depending on how much they spend outside of buying products from you. Some people may only spend enough to satisfy their need for your product but cannot afford to purchase more than what they currently have.
Other individuals may spend heavily without worry because they have invested in other areas such as food shopping and/or savings.
