Sep 25, 2024,07:30am EDT
Joe Camberato is the CEO and Founder of National Business Capital, a leading FinTech marketplace offering streamlined small business loans.
Woman sketching a business plan at a creative office
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A solid marketing strategy is the best way to help your business stand out and reach its financial goals in 2024. It’s the framework for how you interact with your customers and ensures you show up consistently and deliver on your promises.
The right marketing strategy also ensures you’re using your resources wisely and only investing in the channels that provide the highest ROI. Let’s look at seven steps you can take to find the best marketing strategy for your small business.
Determine Your Goals
Every business has financial goals. Marketing is one of the tools you can leverage to reach that goal. For example, let’s say your company has a target of 20% annual sales growth. Current operations and referral channels can cover 10% of the growth this year, which leaves 10% of your growth plan still on the table. By establishing a marketing channel, you gain another stream of finding clients and, more importantly, strengthening revenue that complements your existing streams.
Marketing tools, like digital ads or media placements in publications your audience frequently reads, open the door to new customers currently outside your scope. If your business is an island, marketing is the bottle where you place your message. It’s the vehicle to spread the word about your company and excite new customers into giving you a chance.
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With that in mind, the first step—before building an email list or growing your social media following—is to take a step back and think about your goals. It’s best to have a combination of short-term and long-term goals.
Short-term goals give your business a “quick win” while supporting your long-term marketing goals. Some examples include increasing website traffic or increasing your website conversions.
Long-term goals focus on the bigger vision of what you want to accomplish in the coming years. Building authority in your industry and creating customer loyalty are examples of long-term marketing goals.
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Do Competitor Research
Competitor research is the process of gathering data about your biggest competitors’ products, services and marketing strategies. You’ll start by making a list of your biggest direct competitors; these are companies that sell products or services similar to yours.
You can identify competitors by doing market research or gathering customer feedback. From there, you’ll create competitor profiles and track the following information: market share, audience demographics, products, pricing and advertising strategies.
You’ll evaluate this data and consider your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. This information can help you identify new opportunities in the marketplace.
Research Your Target Audience
You can’t come up with a solid marketing strategy if you don’t understand your target audience. You need to know what your audience wants, their pain points and where they spend time online. This information will help you create effective content and determine how to reach them.
You can start by surveying your current customers to find out what they think about your product or service. Phone interviews and focus groups are a great way to get more detailed information from your customers.
You can also review your website analytics to gather data and understand your audience demographics. Look at how your audience interacts with your website: Do they linger on certain pages or leave almost instantly?
If you have a social media following, look at how your audience interacts with your posts. What kind of posts get the most comments and engagement? Social media polls are another good way to survey your audience.
Come Up With Your Marketing Message
Your marketing message is how your business communicates its value proposition to your ideal customer. It communicates what your company offers and how your products or services solve your customers’ problems.
Here are a few ways you can come up with your marketing message:
• Know your unique value proposition: You must understand what differentiates your business. A unique value proposition explains the unique benefits your company offers and what sets it apart from your competitors.
• Be succinct: An effective marketing message is clear and concise; it explains what your business does and who it serves in as few words as possible.
• Be conversational: Don’t use jargon or technical terms in your marketing message. Aim to be conversational and friendly when you’re talking to your audience.
Evaluate Marketing Channels
The marketing channel that’s best for your business depends on your audience and the type of business you run. For example, business-to-business companies may not benefit from influencer marketing the same way a direct-to-consumer brand would.
Understanding how different marketing channels work and what each one is used for will help you determine the best options for your business:
• Social media: Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, are great ways to build audience engagement and promote your products and services.
• Email marketing: Email marketing is a direct way to engage with your prospects and customers. It allows you to send personalized offers and newsletters and interact with a diverse audience.
• Content marketing: Content marketing involves creating blog posts, videos, white papers and e-books for your audience. It’s a great way to demonstrate your experience and improve your SEO.
• PPC advertising: Pay-per-click advertising allows you to target a specific audience and get immediate results for your business.
Come Up With A Plan
Next, you need to come up with your marketing plan, which is different from your marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy focuses on your overall goals and objectives, while a marketing plan outlines the specific actions you’ll take to make that happen.
For example, a marketing plan for a B2B software-as-a-service company could include:
• Sending a weekly newsletter.
• Posting thought leadership articles on LinkedIn.
• Posting a weekly SEO-optimized blog post.
• Sharing customer case studies and testimonials.
• Hosting a monthly webinar.
Test And Evaluate Your Ideas
Finally, it’s time to test out your strategy and evaluate the results. Once you’ve come up with a marketing strategy, it’s a good idea to stick with it for at least six months. This gives you enough time to see your strategy through and determine what’s working and what isn’t. Being consistent, tracking your results and learning from your mistakes will give your marketing strategy the best chance for success.
