Going back to the basics strengthens your foundation!

Whether you are a new business or have been in operation for a few years, going back to marketing basics helps you make more informed decisions on where you should spend your time and resources, thus ultimately strengthening your foundation.

With an overwhelming choice of online platforms, tools and strategies, bringing back marketing to the foundation of product, price, place and promotion and specifically within the main frameworks of the promotional mix, e.g. direct marketing, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity can enable you to narrow your focus and focus on what is really important.

By being unique and offering your services in a way that makes you stand out from your competition makes your business memorable and credible.  In the long run you want a customer to be able to quickly and easily understand what you do and what sets you apart from your competitors.

The following recommendations will make sure you are well on your way to simplifying your marketing offer:

Specify what business you are in

The business you are in is more about the experience you create and the result of your efforts. Think about your business from the perspective of what you enjoy offering your customers and how you add value to them, e.g. are you in the business of construction or are you in the business of creating beautiful homes?

Create a niche

Creating a niche within your industry sector allows you to become an expert in your chosen area, making it easier to market your products/services. This not only means your company becomes more visible to your target customers, but can also attract potential customers who may feel your products/services can solve their problems too.

Set realistic and achievable goals

Setting realistic and measurable goals, e.g. attracting enough new customers to increase profit by 10% over 12 months help you focus on efforts that produce the results you want, eliminating activities that waste time or direct your attention elsewhere. Goals also help you make decisions about whether to spend resources on a marketing activity. If the activity doesn’t get you closer to your goal, look at an activity that does.

Know your customers

Knowing exactly what your ideal customer wants or needs and how to best reach them makes your marketing more effective. Ask your sales team about the biggest selling points of the product or service. What resonates most with your customers? What do they get the most questions about?

When you speak precisely to your target audience, you simplify marketing because you can be extremely clear about the value you offer and why your ideal customers should work with you.

Build a profile of potential customers, e.g. think about what they want and how you can appeal to them. Always aim to be special or offer better value for money than your competitors.

Develop your core message

Once you know what makes you unique and different from your competitors, incorporate it into your core message about the benefits of working with you. A captivating and simple core message speaks directly to the needs of your ideal customer, allowing you to connect with them.

It explains how you help your ideal customer, the value they will receive and the end benefit to their business. E.g. how you can solve a problem, improve a process, increase sales, cut costs, find new clients or open new markets.

Choose marketing activities

Now that you understand the market you are targeting, you can begin to select the marketing activities that will help you achieve your goals. Not all marketing strategies will reach your ideal customer, so be sure to align them with your industry, ideal customer and goals.

Before you can get the digital channel, or any marketing channel to work for your business, you need to get back to marketing basics. This could include:

• Updating your signage or business logo
• Updating your website
• Creating leaflets/flyers
• Direct mail/email marketing campaigns
• Giving free advertising on your website to non-competitors who return the compliment
• Pay-per-click advertising online
• Getting coverage in your local paper or trade press, by compiling a newsworthy case study
• Going to trade events and speaking to as many people as possible
• Finding new sales channels, e.g. start selling online

The tools and channels of marketing change, but the basic marketing processes of strategy, targeting, positioning, crafting a message, communicating and selling have to remain the same.

It would be great to help you get back to marketing basics, therefore, if you are a business looking for marketing support on any of the above elements, to have more free time to work on other areas of your business, then please get in touch. Tel: 07557 040 830 or e-mail: [email protected]

Many thanks for reading!

Clare