"You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore"

Your business has achieved a key milestone, you have happy and loyal customers and your business is viable. However, this is only the beginning of your journey, if you want to ensure long-term success for your business, be prepared to take a big step outside of your comfort zone and make marketing a core and consistent element of your business.

Based on my product management experience, I will highlight below why consistent marketing is so crucial to the success and growth of your business and why having the courage to take a big step into marketing will enable you to shape customer perception, differentiate your business from your competitors and enable you to develop your brand.

Enable your customers to understand your business better

It is just as important to consistently promote who you are and what you do as a business to your external customers as well as internally, as there is a possibility that their perception of your business could always stay the same.

Give yourself choices

If you are actively doing marketing to promote your business there should always be a constant demand for your products/services. This gives you the freedom of focusing your time and effort on the most profitable customers.

Adjust to different target audiences

Whether you are trying to attract a new target audience or slightly change your current target audience, it is important to adjust your strategy and messaging accordingly.

Ensure you are targeting the correct customers

By carrying our market research you cannot only ensure your products/services accurately meets the identified wants and needs of your customer, but you can effectively communicate the right, customised message.

Allow targeted and repetitive communication

Once you have your potential customers' attention, the next step is to send them a powerful message that will motivate them into action. With repetition, e.g. repeated advertisements your message can make an impact and prompt a prospective customer to go out and buy what you are selling.

Gain a competitive advantage

Undertaking competitive analysis can help you see gaps in the market for your business and allow you to create clear differentiation and USP’s.

Increase awareness

By raising awareness through promoting your business’s brand, for example using your products/services and your benefits in the mind of your target audience, you will build a huge audience of potential customers who know who you are, know what you can offer, and know exactly where to find you.

Build trust

The earlier you start marketing your business, the longer your target audience will have known you. If you start early and build a relationship with your target market that forms an image of reliability and honesty, people will respond by trusting your business to live up to its image.

Develop an accurate customer profile

Your ideal customer profile includes variables like age, income, location, hobbies and interests and occupation. Once you have marketed to hundreds or thousands of customers, look at your data and search for patterns and characteristics that you could use to profile your ideal customer.

The more you can learn about the people you are marketing to, the better. Surveys are a great way of learning more about what your customers are looking for and you can use their data to better target your marketing campaigns.

Build a powerful brand

The ultimate goal of your marketing campaigns should be to have customers come to you. Every type of business can benefit from the increased sales and heightened brand awareness that a great marketing campaign can offer.

A marketing program that gives your company the best chance is a healthy mix of different forms of marketing, such as website development, public relations, print and broadcast advertising, design and printing, trade shows and other special events.

Branding is what separates your business from your competitors. It’s what makes customers choose you instead of someone else. It’s your business’s style, reputation, and culture all rolled into one. Without marketing your business you will struggle to develop a memorable and powerful brand.

Marketing is about slow growth, being well planned and being consistent, it’s not going to result in overnight success, but if your target market sees your message over and over again this will build trust and credibility and ultimately result in a sale. If you put money into marketing in the early stages and invest wisely by targeting the best prospects, you will have a distinct advantage of those who don't spend the time targeting their marketing efforts, or who view marketing as an expense rather than a investment in the future of their business.

While some companies deem marketing to be ‘nice to have’ in a business plan, using marketing to form a basis for the direction your business will take, can identify your position in the market, help retain and attract new customers and also help drive future business priorities for growth.

If you are a business looking for support and advice and would like me to drop by for a chat to see how my marketing experience can help you then please get in touch. Tel: 07557 040 83007557 040 830 or e-mail: [email protected]

Many thanks for reading!

Clare