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As a small business owner, you always need to do more with less. Unlike larger companies, you don’t have a big budget or a lot of room for error. Instead, you need clear strategies that you know are going to deliver results.
Your marketing strategy is one of the most important plans you’ll ever develop. How can you create a strong marketing strategy that gives you an excellent return on your investment and helps you grow your business?
Here are some tips you can use today.
You don’t have the budget or time to cast a wide net and hope you catch some ideal customers. Instead, you need to determine where your target market spends time, and then deploy your resources in those areas.
You probably already have a good idea of who your best customers are, but if you don’t, that’s the place to start. Take a look at your sales and see what types of people are most likely to purchase, as well as those who make the biggest or most frequent buys. Those are your ideal folks!
Next, do some research to see where these people spend their time, especially online. Very few people read physical magazines anymore or watch cable television. Instead, people stream TV shows and read blogs or online websites.
Ultimately, you want to meet them in those places and invite them to visit your website using a strong marketing strategy.
Once you’ve found your customers, it’s time to take the next step: tuning your message.
The next thing to do is to ensure your marketing messages are connecting with your audience. You can do all the marketing in all the perfect places and get nowhere if you’re not resonating!
It’s important that all your marketing be focused on your customer. Their concerns, their problems, and how you can help solve them. What are the problems that keep your customers awake at night? If you can address that right away, you’ve captured their attention.
You can also research how your customers talk about their problems to make sure you’re using the right language. For example, if you discuss “self-care” but your customers never use that phrase, you’re missing the mark. Similarly, a plumber doesn’t want to use technical jargon, but rather the common words customers use to describe their issues.
Once you have your target area and your message, you’re ready to grow!
You’ve found out where your customers spend time and you’ve set up the perfect messaging. Now it’s time to share it!
This might mean starting one or two social media pages and posting regularly to build an audience. It might mean running a limited number of social media ads. However, don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal: to engage your audience and invite them to your website.
Your website is the centrepiece of your marketing strategy. Other platforms have rules and regulations that can change at any time and may not favour your industry. On your website, you have the opportunity to share in-depth information and sell directly to your prospects.
We often think of marketing solely as finding clients and interrupting them while they’re doing something else. We might buy an ad during a popular TV show, or place an ad on social media. This is outbound marketing.
Search engine optimization allows you to go the other direction: place yourself where people can find you when they are actually searching for your products or industry. People use Google to find out information and solve immediate problems. When your website is at the top of the search list, you come across as authoritative and may be exactly who they call for help.
This approach is known as inbound marketing. You’re drawing people in when they need you, instead of sending your message out during other activities. Inbound marketing is incredibly powerful and can bring consistent leads and customers over time.
The best marketing strategy will combine inbound marketing and outbound marketing, with a gradual shift toward more inbound marketing over time. You’ll grow more quickly with less investment!
If you’re excited about developing a great marketing strategy, this article will show you where to start. However, if you’re a small or medium-sized business owner, you might not have the time to implement all of this.
That’s where Local SEO Search comes in. We can help you develop a strong inbound marketing strategy and maintain it over time. You can focus on what you do best, which is managing your business.
Let us help you develop a winning strategy. Contact us to learn more today!
