Marketing should be a key focus for business owners, but it’s often an afterthought.
Many SMBs are losing money by running their marketing as a one-off event. What normally triggers action is the realisation that the business isn’t getting enough sales, leading owners to ask, how do I get more sales right now? However, treating marketing like an event is like playing Russian roulette – you’re leaving it to the spin of the chamber, hoping that you just manage to get the right person at the right time.
People aren’t ready to buy all the time. They aren’t even looking at what you’ve got all the time. Effective marketing is about making them aware of you. Being consistent with your marketing is the difference between hunting and farming. It’s the difference between sending out an email to a thousand people alerting them about a new product, and emailing them often over many months with useful information, so that when the need to buy arises they come to you.
Here are some things you need to make your marketing a consistent, ongoing part of your business:
- Target market analysis sheet: When thinking about their marketing, many business owners think about what they believe their market needs. The truth is, your market’s needs don’t change that much, so if you’re going to spend time doing this, why not do all the thinking about your target market’s needs and wants just once? Split them up, get in to the details, and understand their needs, fears, and aspirations. Get an understanding of where they look. Interview some of your customers or clients to find out what’s really influencing them and what factors are important to them. It doesn’t need to be rocket science, but if you’ve got a list, it’s a starting point in your marketing library that you can draw upon again and again and again.
- A marketing campaign plan: Draw up a list of tactics you’re hoping to implement, divided by each quarter. Give each tactic a name and description, note what target market it applies to, and how it will be implemented.
- Test and measure sheet: It’s no use running any marketing if you don’t know whether it’s working or not. Get yourself a good recording and tracking system, whether it’s a spreadsheet, a tally sheet, or even some software that will measure the results for you (for example Google Analytics).
- Marketing collateral: This is the actual marketing material – the email template, the scripts, the letters, and the flyers.
Once you’ve got all these, you’re one hundred percent equipped to start running your marketing consistently. Start focusing on consistency in your marketing and you will see your leads, prospects, sales and profit all increase.