Coming up with an effective marketing strategy is dependent on research. In fact, most successful marketing teams will undertake an 80% research, 20% implementation approach. You can chuck some copyrighted memes on social media and build a website using a template you bought for $1.99, but are you actually achieving anything? We recommend undertaking a full evaluation of your business to identify where the opportunities are. Facts, numbers, and public opinion are all valid when it comes to marketing results.
1. Outline Business Objectives
When you’re nearly 100 years old, sitting in a rocking chair with your jumper inside out and a cup of tea in hand, what do you hope to have achieved in life? In order to grow, you need to think big. Create a chronological list of both short-term and long-term business objectives and give yourself something to strive for! This will be the foundation of your marketing plan, because strategies are tailored to facilitate growth.
2. Create a Mission & Vision Statement
So, what the hell are mission and vision statements? A vision statement declares where you see yourself down the track—let’s say ten years from now. Your mission statement details how your current operations align with your business goals. For example:
Vision: To become a house-hold name in cheese toastie distribution across Australia.
Mission: To provide our community with the most delicious gourmet cheese toasties by utilising local produce and offering our staff the highest level of training in sandwich construction.
3. Undertake a SWOT Analysis
Business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats… what are they? Take a moment to reflect on your business operations and segregate every detail into these four categories. Nobody’s perfect, so coming to terms with flaws can be quite confronting. Nevertheless, a SWOT analysis is a fantastic way to improve the infrastructure of your business.
4. Keep an Eye on Your Competitors
As they say, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer (*pause for dramatic effect*). As a business owner, you should always have eyeballs on what your competitors are doing. We’re not talking spies and mystery shoppers, but perhaps creating a SWOT analysis on the behalf of your competition to figure out how your strengths can exceed theirs.
5. Identify your Target Market
Not every consumer will be interested in your products and services. To get results out of marketing, you have to narrow down your market and figure out what makes them tick. There’s no point trying to sell nose rings to Betty from next door if piercings make her woozy, you have to tap into the right:
- Demographic—age, class and gender etc.
- Psychographic—personality, lifestyle, interests etc.
- Geographic—country, state, city etc.
6. Figure Out Your Points of Difference
What does your business do, that your competitors don’t? We call these factors points of difference (PODs). It might be that you add an extra slice of cheese to your toasties or crank Beyoncé at the checkouts. Whatever makes you different, sell it!
Life’s not about having all the right answers, it’s about asking the right questions. There is no generic step by step checklist that will guarantee your success. We hope our five tips will help you come up with an effective marketing plan for your business.
7. Make Sure Your Strategy is Applicable Across All Channels
It’s never been trickier to connect with customers then it is today, even with so many platforms to interact with people available at our fingertips. Even if you have your target audience down packed, they can be accessible across a whole range of media types rather than just one. Customers highly value convenience and reliability so making sure you are able to respond across different channels and gives the people what they want! Ensure your strategy can adapt to emails, websites, different social media sites, apps and SEO content
