Numerous factors drive or limit the growth of your business. Some limits come naturally, such as geographical location. Logically, a Californian homeowner hires a Californian plumber to conduct repairs on their plumbing systems, not a Pennsylvanian plumber. Expect natural limits for your growth. Other factors limit your company from succeeding based on the choices you make as a business owner. Personel, financial decisions, goals, and other management-level decisions all contribute to the hinderance or fueling of business growth.
Marketing strategy often lacks the attention and funding of other aspects of the business, especially in a small business. Small businesses rely on word of mouth referrals, disorganized Facebook posts, and printed flyers or business cards handed out at networking events. The combined marketing fails to connect the separate marketing efforts with a unified company strategy.
Marketing strategy establishes goals that affect the fundamental operations of the company. It focuses on the value proposition of the company or the sustained competitive advantage that your company wields. After understanding the value proposition, marketing strategy determines how to align marketing efforts with the company’s value proposition. It includes setting a market position, selecting a target market, and creating a marketing mix.
Most small businesses market aimlessly with disjointed materials. Their marketing efforts lack consistency and clarity. Creating a marketing strategy requires time and resources that small companies view as an unnecessary expense; however, they limit their potential growth without investing in marketing strategy.
Knowing that a vast majority of small businesses need a marketing strategy, our marketing specialist, Josh, assembled a list of the steps necessary to create a marketing strategy.
Creating A Marketing Strategy
- Create a Business Strategy – A marketing strategy aligns with the company’s business strategy. Business strategy answers the question, how do we compete in this market. Read our blog post here about creating a business strategy.
- Identify Your Target Audience – This depends upon the product you sell and your value proposition. Walmart markets to lower-income households who shop on a budget, while Target chooses to market to the middle-class who desire higher quality items. You approach marketing in drastically different ways depending on your audience. Segment Your Audience – Segment your customers into different demographics. Different ages, races, religions, and experiences require marketing approaches to ensure you avoid offending anyone. Determine Your Marketing Mix – The marketing mix consists of the 4 Ps, Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. All of the Ps correlate directly with targeting and segmenting your market. Walmart’s products lack in quality in comparison to Target’s, so they sell them at a lower price. They tend to open stores in rural areas rather than urban centers and focus on promoting their everyday low prices.
- Create a Story – Customers desire stories rather than sales pitches. Use your marketing team as a group of authors and storytellers rather than a group of salespeople.
Creating a marketing strategy takes time, a plethora of data, and meticulous research. Small business owners lack the time needed to develop a marketing strategy; they also fail to invest in a full marketing team. Without creating a marketing strategy and hiring the personnel to implement the plan, your business continues to squander the opportunity to grow. Stop neglecting your business’s growth. Set aside the time necessary to develop a marketing strategy, hire or outsource a marketing team, and you will unlock your business’s true potential.
If you have any questions about marketing strategy or are considering outsourcing your marketing, reach out to our marketing expert, Josh, at jokumura@origamitg.com. As always, we thank you for reading our blog! Make sure to like our Facebook page for more content each week!
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