You have a business. You need customers. To get customers you need to do to marketing. This post looks at different ways how to market your business.
Not all businesses are the same. Not all markets are the same. Each one is different.
However, there are marketing and sales principles that apply to all businesses. Let us look at a couple of these marketing principles:
#1: Direct Response Marketing
First principle; direct measurable marketing. Always. 99,999999999% of businesses cannot do brand marketing. Brand marketing is where you invest money on marketing in the hopes when someone is interested in your type of service they think of you. It is expensive.
Direct measurable marketing is focused on higher return on investment from your marketing and sales. People also call this direct response marketing.
Some business owners think one advertisement is enough. In our social online driven world it is not enough anymore. Long ago you could just put an advertisement in the newspaper and you are done.
In the digital world there are more moving parts.
#2: Sales Cycle
In some markets the sales cycle is very short others it is longer.
Buying a cold drink is such an example of a short sales cycle. You are thirsty; walk into the local supermarket. In front of the cold fridges you have a couple options. You choose an Ice Cold Coke. This is called the moment of truth. It means when that decision is made; the brand effect comes into play; and you choose at that exact moment.
Other markets take a very long time. For instance; putting up a big power plant will take years to finish the deal and complete the project.
In-between all of that you have different time lines. Why is this important? Because when you are marketing you need to understand and know the sales cycle. If you get in too late you have no chance of making a sale. Getting to early and the client is not ready.
Marketing and sales is not about timing the market; it is time in the market. About 3% of the market is looking to buy now. Not buying; looking to buy. That is 3 out of a 100 people.
#3: Market Competition
For most businesses you are not alone in the market. There is a lot of competition. You need to be aware of your competition. This includes their marketing, sales, products, prices, promotions, etc. Having this information will help you in your marketing.
#4: What makes your business different
If price is your only competitive advantage you are in trouble. If service is your only competitive advantage, you are in trouble. Service is expected to be part of it. It is part of the delivery. It is expected.
There can only be one lowest price competitor. Below that it does not make business sense. Having a small profit margin will put your business at risk. Consider products and services with good profits margins.
If your customer is comparing 2 quotes; how will they make their decision? What will be the things that will make them buy from you? That is what makes your business different.
#5: Focus on your ideal client
Not every person in the world is your ideal customer. There are groups of customers who will benefit more from your products and services. Typically they are interested (they have a need), and they can afford it (they have the money for it).
Now that you know a couple of marketing and sales principles; let is look at 10 different ways you can market your business.
How to Market Your Business
- Ensure you have a mobile friendly website. More than 90% of traffic is now from mobile devices.
- Traffic. Leads. Quotes. Sales. These are the 4 pillars for your business. Get traffic to your website or your store. How do you get traffic? There are a couple of options
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is the process of making your website friendly for search engines (and people!)
- Social Media Marketing: There are so many social media sites. You need to find the sites where most of your customers are.
- Paid Marketing: Paid marketing gets you faster results. Traffic and testing your marketing is critical.
- Email Marketing: Building a list of potential customers is extremely important for any business.
- Mobile Marketing: A lot of people have smart phones. This means when you send a sms, or whatsapp messages it appears on their screen. People instinctively look at their messages.
- Audience: Build your audience on social platforms. This makes your message reach more people. You do need to know the social media sites are consistently changing. This means at any moment you might lose your audience.
- Build a list of current and potential customers. A business is 100% dependent on customers. When you build a list of customers you can easily contact them again.
- Create opportunities for people to buy. It does not make sense to have a list and never offer them anything. The more opportunities you create the more sales you will make.
- Join Local Business Groups. In your area there are local business groups. Join and take part.
- Network. Work on your network. Build your list of contacts. I enjoy LinkedIn. It is the professional business networking site.
- Create content. People are looking for information. Create and share your ideas. An easy way is to create blog posts and record videos.
- Use Videos. More people are watching online videos than traditional TV. Be there. Create videos. This can be demonstrations, how to use your product or service, before and after, the options are endless.
- Test and Improve. Marketing is always a test. Test different ideas and concepts. There will always be campaigns that did not work.
- Build It. Campaign It. You need to market your services and products. One post is not enough. Think in terms of multiple advertisements. Multiple posts. Multiple images. Share across social media sites.
There you have a couple of ideas on how to market your business.