Why a Marketing Strategy Matters
No plan = NO Customers.
Bottom line is that your literal bottom line will suffer both short term and long term unless you are able to determine which types of marketing mediums and channels are best suited to your brand and audience.
From there you’ll need to devise a profitable marketing strategy that leverages those types of marketing to your greatest advantage.
We all know and understand the importance of a rock-solid business plan. In fact, the importance of such a plan is often drilled into our heads as early as high school and all throughout our collegiate years. Yet surprisingly, many business owners and managers don’t put nearly as much effort into identifying the proper marketing channels and developing a strong marketing strategy for their venture.
You’ve invested countless hours and resources into creating and launching a business, don’t let this proverbial “Field of Dreams” go to waste. If you want to reap the fruits of your labor you’ll need to decide what type of marketing best fits your offers.
But don’t worry, if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of not having a defined marketing strategy in place, you’re not alone. A recent Smart Insights study revealed that up to 46% of brands are in the same boat you are (one that may be slowly sinking).
Steps to Earning the Exposure and Customers your Company Deserves
- Know your Target Customer
This simple, yet insightful step is a critical component of identifying which type of marketing will resonate best with your audience. Establishing a “customer avatar” will ensure that your marketing is focused and will connect with those that matter most to your organization.
In order to help you begin this process, ask yourself the following questions about your market:
- Where do they reside?
- Where are they least likely to live?
- What is the typical age range of your ideal customer?
- What is the gender breakdown of your ideal customer?
- What type of interests or hobbies is your audience fond of?
- What level of education have they completed?
- What type of work do they do, in which industries and what are their roles/titles?
- What is their average income range?
- Are they single, married, divorced, etc.?
- Do they have children?
- What languages do they speak?
- What places do they frequent online (sites, social, forums, etc.)
- What is their underlying motivation for purchasing your products/services?
- What are their concerns when making a purchase?
- Competitive Intelligence
Imitation, as they say, is the best form of flattery. But this isn’t about giving your competitors a compliment. Your competition (especially those beating you) have likely spent countless hours and vast amounts of money honing their marketing campaigns, landing pages, sales copy and more into a fine-tuned, money-printing machine.
Why not leverage their hard work to transform your own marketing efforts into a literal gold mine? No, we’re not advocating copyright infringement here. But what we are advocating for is utilizing all of the known data you can publicly gather regarding others’ campaigns in order to identify those marketing types, channels and strategies that by all accounts are yielding high ROI.
This data can be used to craft your own marketing strategies based on already “winning” formulas, lowing your risk of failure and increasing the time to return on investment. You may also learn of or discover untapped opportunities you had not thought of, or pitfalls that you should avoid at all costs.
- Take an Introspective Look
Often times the best type of marketing for your business might be something you are already doing or have not even given much thought to.
Where did your first customers come from? Were they from networking? From a social media post? A piece of content you had published online?
Taking a look at which types of marketing have already worked for you (and which have not) may be the answer you were looking for: staring you right in the face.
- Focus your Efforts
You may find that a number of marketing types may prove effective for your business. But not all channels are created equal. Some may cost more, some may produce a higher cart size, or customers with a greater LTV (lifetime value).
Many businesses take a “shotgun” approach, testing multiple channels at once. In theory, this may yield data you can use to choose the best of the litter. In practice, however, this strategy usually ends up with none of the channels getting the time, resources and funding necessary to generate reliable data.
Marketing campaigns take time to “dial-in”. Early-stage “non-winners” may end up being your best performers once tuned.
Types of Marketing You can Explore
Digital Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media
- Paid ads (display or pay per click)
- Content Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
- And more…
Traditional Marketing
- Print mediums
- Press/news
- Network marketing
- Referral networks
- Post / Mail
- Billboards
- Radio / TV
Struggling to Vet and Identify High Yield Marketing Channels?
If you are struggling to identify and take advantage of impactful marketing channels to grow your business, reach out to RadiusBridge today. Our team of analysts are ready to help you deep dive into data to find out what avenues to explore and how you can leverage various types of marketing to your advantage.