Six marketing tips for your business
Hundreds of books have been written in-depth about marketing but to define it briefly: Marketing identifies, anticipates, and satisfies the customer’s needs and does so through the 7ps of the marketing mix – product, place, price, promotion, people, processes, and physical evidence.
For example, imagine you are buying a new television. You have seen a TV advert about the brand of TV you are interested in, researched it on a website or social media and asked your family and friends for recommendations. This is all part of the marketing process.
So, when you have carried out all the research about your new TV you then go to the store and speak to the salesperson who helps you make that final decision to buy the product (this then becomes the sales process).
Marketing develops the relationship between the product/service and the client, it is then up to the business owner or sales team to ‘close a deal.’ Here are a few of our tips to help focus your marketing strategy:
1. Know your customers
Know who your customers are and where they are (are they on Facebook, LinkedIn, the radio, looking at certain websites?) You can’t market your product or service to everyone, and you’d be wasting time and money if you did.
You must know who your ideal customer is before you start utilising various marketing methods so that you can correctly target the people that are most likely to buy from you.
2. Marketing vs selling
There is often confusion between sales and marketing. Marketing is very different to selling but the two are often lumped together with some jobs even advertised as ‘Marketing and Sales Manager.’
Marketing takes place before you get to the buying process. Sales, however, is a tactical process involving a transaction between two (or more) people in which the buyer receives a product or service in exchange for money.
3. It’s not always sell, sell, sell!
Don’t always use promotional posts on social media to tell people about your product or service, give them advice and tips as well. For example, what will the benefits be to your followers if they use your product or service?
This type of content will help to build relationships with your online community. Of course, it’s still okay to tell people about your services/products but only one in four posts should do this.
4. What works, but equally what doesn’t?
It’s just as important to know what doesn’t work in your marketing strategy as well as what does.
Test different marketing methods such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads or leaflets (these methods will differ depending on the nature of your business and your target audience) and set a goal as to what you want to achieve from them.
Track the results from this, this is so important – was your objective successful? If it wasn’t don’t be too disappointed as finding out what doesn’t work is as important as finding out what does. Just test other methods – every business is different so what works for one doesn’t always work for another.
5. You make your business unique
It’s you and your team that make your business unique, use this to your advantage and let your personalities shine through in your marketing methods and when you’re talking to current and potential clients. You may also find that different personalities within your team work better with certain clients, and this should be seen as an advantage, not a disadvantage. It all helps build trust and long-term business partnerships.
6. Marketing takes time
This is probably one of the most important points. Remember that marketing takes time and should be consistent to become effective. You can’t expect to carry out a week’s promotion and the world then knows about you! It can take at the very least six months to see the results of marketing so don’t give up, be patient.
Read more of our marketing tips or book a free marketing discovery call
Email: info@brandspacemedia.co.uk
Phone: 01227 478605
