When it comes to marketing your business, you'll often hear people say, "be strategic about it"... cool but like, what does that even mean?
HOW do you think strategically? And WHAT specifically are some of the things you need to consider?
When developing a marketing plan, there’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all. Every business has a unique brand, audience, buyer journey, sales process and supporting resources.
All of these things influence how you market your business, and what’s going to be effective.
Today’s blog dives into a handful of the key factors & considerations to keep in mind when mapping out your marketing strategy.
BUYER JOURNEY & FREQUENCY
When developing your marketing strategy, consider the journey your average customer goes through with you, including how often they buy from you.
Purchasing frequency will majorly influence how often they need to hear from you, as well as whether you place more energy on top or bottom funnel activities.
For example, if you sell only large-ticket items that are bought once every 10-20 years, emailing them every fortnight after they’ve bought from you is going to feel pointless and annoying and likely end in a lot of unsubscribes. A better approach would be to email quarterly or twice a year with advice on how they can care for or enhance the item that they’ve bought. This will keep you in their mind, without bombaring them unnecessarily.
In addition, due to the low purchasing frequency, a business like this is likely going to need to put more effort into top-of-funnel activities to ensure they have enough leads coming through. This might be in the form of paid ads, extra pre-sale and purchasing communications, etc. Larger purchases often come with more complex decision making, and they tend to require more time and nurturing to get across the line.
Businesses who have clients return daily or every few weeks will want to place a lot of emphasis on loyalty and retention. Building relationships and creating brand advocates are fundamental to these businesses. In time the clients become the marketing source through referral and repeat business.
PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR
When developing your marketing strategy, consider where people go when they're looking for products and services like yours, and the factors that will influence their decision-making.
What will win them over and where are they going to find that information?
Consider factors such as:
Are they seeking testimonials and reviews from others?
Do they want to see samples of your work?
Do they need the ability to purchase testers or tasters before committing to higher-ticket options?
Are they making the buying decision on their own or do they need to consult with someone else?
Do they need help deciding between Product A & Product B?
Are they shopping based on price and taking their time to compare quotes, or do they simply want someone who is going to take away the stress and provide service that makes the sale easy?
Are they searching for you on Google or TikTok or asking their friends?
Do they have questions that need answers before they can commit?
Understanding your target client is key here. Knowing them deeply will help you answer these questions with ease. From there, you can develop content and communication processes that ensure everything they’re looking for is served up on a silver platter making it impossible for them to say no.
CHANNEL PURPOSE
When developing your marketing strategy, consider the purpose of each marketing channel you use, and where it fits within your customer buying journey.
It’s up to you what channels you use, but they should always come with a purpose. One channel e.g. Instagram may service multiple purposes, others may only serve a single purpose. At the very least it’s important to know what these are and to tailor your content accordingly. You also want to make it clear for your audience where/how they can find the information they need.
For example, you may use TikTok as your channel for awareness. Here you might focus on creating trending reels designed to grow your audience and brand. From TikTok you might guide people to sign up to your mailing list, where your focus is on nurturing those in the consideration phase. Here you’ll be sharing content that answers their questions and helps them decide that (a) you’re the brand they want to buy from and (b) what it is specifically they want or need to buy. Once the purchase is complete, you may invite them to an exclusive group where they can stay in touch and where you can continue to nurture the relationship for future sales.
What channels you use and what purpose you assign them will depend on your business model, audience and resources. Ensuring there’s a purpose ensures you’re not wasting valuable resources on a channel that doesn’t add value and it helps you craft the right content for the right people and places.
1:1 VS. 1:MANY
When developing your marketing strategy, consider your overall sales output.
Do you sell one product to multiple people, or are your services tailored to each client?
Do people purchase physical goods, or services that take your time?
Your selling frequency should match your output capacity.
If your time and work capacity is limited, you want to ensure you don’t over-market and find yourself either disappointing customers because you’ve made it appear as though you’re available when really you’re not, or committing to work you can’t complete and winding up with a heap of unhappy customers.
If you sell products that set-up ready-to-go, your focus will be on shifting the stock and/or making the sales to keep things ticking over. In cases like this, you’ll want to market the shit out of the product to ensure you have consistent sales coming through.
DIGITAL VS. BRICKS & MORTAR
When developing your marketing strategy, consider the physicality of your business. Does your business operate from a physical space with foot traffic and a lived presence? Or is it purely online? Or perhaps a bit of both? Different tactics are needed for different modalities.
If you’re a bricks and mortar business then things like position, signage and accessibility matter. The overall environment and ambiance too will contribute to whether or not people feel drawn to visit and drawn to return. Maximise on the physical marketing opportunities you have available to you.
If you’re a digital business then things like your branding, your website and your content really matter. Sometimes these are 90% of what your client experiences, especially pre-purchase. They need to communicate a vibe - your vibe. Design and copy make a massive difference, getting it right could mean everything. Getting it wrong could mean being lost forever. If you say you’re high-end, but your content is a rainbow of mis-matched Canva templates full of spelling errors the message just doesn’t compute.
KEEN FOR MORE JUICY INSIGHTS LIKE THIS?
Join us for Ignite. A one-day marketing event for the non-marketing. Together we’ll define a simple, streamlined and strategic approach for marketing your business that factors in all of these things, and MORE!
With good vibes,