If you own a small business, your marketing strategy will be what sets you apart from your competition. Without a defined approach to how you will market your product to your customers, you will not be able to cope with changes or fluctuations in the market. But before you sit down to conceive the ideal market strategy for your business, do your research.
Without a data driven approach to your marketing strategy, you lose out on crucial information such as what your target audience is interested in, what makes your competitors successful, and data on others who have succeeded or failed within your industry. The more information you gather on your product, your industry, and all developments within it, the more accurately will you be able to create a business strategy that can capitalize on the data you have gathered.
Develop a business plan
Once you have gathered your data, the next step is to sit down and construct your business plan. A business plan is vital for every small business, and without it you will not be able to draw in good investors. A lender or investor always asks to see your business plan first, and only after viewing it and approving of it do they usually ask for a pitch presentation or direct communication.
Your business plan should be to the point, concise and written for the audience. The business plan can also be considered a form of marketing and sales for your business, where you present your brand to a potential investor or lender, with the objective of selling them the potential for your business’s growth.
There’s no need to create your plan from scratch; use a template to make the process easier and faster. Try to find a template for your business type. For example, a nonprofit business plan template would be quite helpful for both startup or existing non-profit organizations.
Create a brand identity
There are hundreds of small businesses being formed everyday, and this makes it very important for your small business to develop a brand identity that immediately makes you recognizable to your customers. Your brand identity sets you apart from your competition, and with a brand story that is relatable or interesting, you will be able to draw in more customers.
Alongside your brand identity, you should also develop a consistent brand voice. Your brand voice is key towards how you represent yourself to your customers, so do some research before you settle on a voice. You can discover what kind of a brand identity best suits your small business by studying your target audience to better understand what they relate to, what they are interested in, and how you can develop a brand story that they resonate with.
Showcase only the best of your content
In order to succeed in the marketplace, you need to develop good content. But even if you consistently develop good content, promoting it all on various online channels can be expensive. That is why you need to selectively showcase the best of your brand on different online channels with set marketing objectives in mind.
Without promoting everything you develop, showcase only that content which is best suited to drawing in new customers. If you use various social media channels, only promote content that us best suited for marketing on that platform – for example, images or video for Instagram, and text-based content for a blog.
Make use of email marketing
Email marketing is a great way to reach out to more people without putting a dent in your budget. If you invest in an automated email marketing system, you will not have to personally send out the emails either. You can use email marketing to send messages to your customers, offer them discounts, show them exclusive previews or sneak peaks of your upcoming products, send them surveys and more. You should also consider sending a standard introductory email to all your new customers.
Make use of audio-visual media
Content today is increasingly becoming more driven by audio-visual media. You can make use of this by making introductory videos or how-to videos using your products. This allows your customers to experience what it would be like to use your product, and could be a great draw when done correctly.
You can also make use of social media channels to place digital advertisements that will instantly reach your followers and subscribers, without having to turn to billboards or expensive advertising campaigns.
With just these ideas, you can elevate how you market your business.