Clear Marketing Strategy Tips

A clear marketing strategy is key to business making everything it does more effective. It is the foundation for creating awareness, generating interest, closing new sales and continuing customer engagement. It guides company culture, product and service mix and pricing. There are 5 key decisions that can help small business owners grow their sales.

Who is your narrowly defined target customer?

Who do you serve? The narrower you define your market so you can focus on those that you can best serve – and those that can best service you – the more effective your entire business will be, even if this means declining other potential customers because they are a bad fit for your narrow focus.

In which category does your business exist?

Most business owners over-complicate their company descriptions, leaving people unsure of what they do. Clearly defining your category helps amplify your marketing and sales efforts.

What is your unique benefit?

Your unique benefit should highlight the one or two main things your product or service actually delivers (benefits) that your target customer really wants, not a long list of all the things your product does (features).

Who is your real competition?

Many entrepreneurs haven’t specifically defined their real competition and don’t focus their messages to create clear differentiation for their buyers. This frustrates the buying decision process and makes marketing efforts weaker.

How are you clearly different from your competitors?

Make a list of all the things you do differently and better. Keep it simple: pick the top two and put them on your homepage and include them in your pitch. Is it cheaper? Is it faster? Do you offer the best personalised service?

Your Marketing Strategy statement will now look like this:

[Your company name] is the leading [category] for [target customers] that provides [unique benefit]. Unlike competitors, we offer [unique differentiator].

It makes no sense to Tweet, send out emails or build a new website until you have a marketing strategy with a laser-like focus. Remember, creating a clear marketing strategy is not what companies do after they get big, it’s what small companies do to grow and get bigger in the first place.

Have you created a clear marketing strategy with a laser-like focus?

Adapted from an article by Greg Head, Small Business Trends