Your products and services might be great, but that doesn’t mean people know about them. Marketing can change that. But when you’re a new or small business that doesn’t have the funds or other resources for a full-scale marketing plan, what can you do? This guide will help you implement a small business marketing strategy without breaking your budget.
Your business marketing strategy is your plan for reaching new and existing customers through multiple channels such as email marketing and direct mail. It involves determining your target customers; assessing their needs, wants and problems; and positioning your business as the best solution.
“A business marketing strategy is a set of tactics designed to increase awareness of your business, while increasing sales and revenue through new customer acquisition,” said Jayson DeMers, founder and CEO of EmailAnalytics.
Your audience is out there, but they might not know about you if you aren’t marketing effectively. Steven Jaenke, founder and CEO of Digimark Australia, said people are looking to solve problems, and a good marketing campaign serves to educate them about how your products or services offer solutions to those problems.
“Without marketing, you’re reliant on hard selling,” Jaenke said. “You’re approaching people that aren’t ready, don’t know who you are and may not even know they have a problem. Marketing helps people discover the small business, identify the problem that they have and the solution that the business provides as being the solution for them, and don’t feel pressured but instead relieved.”
Tip
87 percent of marketers use email marketing to organically distribute content. Visit our page on the best email marketing software to find the right platforms for your own organic content distribution. Start with our Constant Contact review to see why it’s our top pick for small businesses.
Developing a brand is a comprehensive first step in any marketing strategy,” Jaenke said. “You need to first identify why you are in business. If people can’t identify with you and why you are doing what you do, you don’t have a brand. Construct a brand story, demonstrating how you came to be in business and why it started. Tone, typography and logo are also important for [defining] a brand, but not as important as the brand story. It’s the glue that holds everything together.”
Any good business marketing strategy begins by identifying your target audience, the groups of people who are most likely to become your customers. Knowing your target audience, their wants, their needs and their behavior helps you better craft a message and deploy it in the places they are most likely to see it.
“Many small business owners struggle with finding a target audience,” Jaenke said. “This is because they feel that they are limiting their options by narrowing their focus. It’s important to remember that choosing a target audience doesn’t decrease your marketing, it only focuses your attention.” [Read related article: Everyone Is Not Your Customer: That’s OK]
Once you understand your target audience, create buyer personas to get to know them better. Making up fake customers with fake lives and hobbies might seem silly at first, but the more detail you go into, the better.
“Your market research should help guide this, but effectively what this means is identifying a fictional person that represents a segment of the market,” Jaenke said. “You want to make it as thorough as possible, including more than just demographic.”
Jaenke provided an example buyer persona based on his business: