Promoting a new business requires a robust and comprehensive marketing strategy. It’s not the kind of thing you want to do just by ‘winging it’. You need to have some kind of plan, some goals to move toward, and a few key steps in place to see you on your way.
Without a strategy, you’ll be throwing all kinds of things against the wall just to see if they stick. And while that might not sound so bad right now, in 6 months’ time, you’re going to see just how expensive an approach like this can really be.
But if you’ve never had to market a new business before, you’re probably new to coming up with a marketing strategy that’ll actually work.
Of course, there’s no 100% guarantee you’re going to get the results you dream of, but a good marketing strategy is made to bring back some kind of return on investment.
Because of that, we’ve drafted up a guide for developing a marketing strategy that you might find useful.
Know Your Audience
Defining your audience is the first step to create a proper workable marketing strategy. You can’t go any further without knowing whose attention you’re trying to catch.
You might get a couple of early hits on a Google Ad when you’re just seeing what works, but it’s not a long term strategy you should rely on.
Instead, you need to work out who your audience is. Identifying your audience means understanding your product or service, what it was invented to solve, and who is most likely to have this problem.
When you know this, you’re going to be able to draw up some demographic categories you can actually focus on targeting for some tangible results.
And once you’ve got these key facts about your target audience in place, you can make things like marketing personas, and identify where you’re most likely to find the people these personas represent.
Know Your Goals
What do you want your marketing to achieve? This is the main question, but it’s going to be hard to answer if you don’t unpack it a little.
Start with where you want to be in a year’s time. Is there anything you’d like to be known for? And ultimately, how much do you want to have grown? It’s OK to have ideal images of the future here.
Once you’ve got these ideals straightened out, it’s time to box them down and look at them from a realistic lens. Firstly, what’s it going to take to reach that point within a year? And secondly, will it actually be possible for you to have gotten to a point like that?
The less it adds up, the smaller your goals should be. Remember, they’re not overall achievements. They’re simply stepping stones on your way to becoming a thriving business.
Focus on Online Visibility
Marketing in the modern age means going digital. Offline marketing techniques will always have their place, but the internet is the prime vehicle for businesses to build their customer base.
As such, your marketing strategy should incorporate a focus on online visibility. Doing so can marry the three steps above, as becoming visible online requires an understanding of your audience, a commitment to reaching the number one spot, and the use of multiple marketing channels.
On top of that, there probably hasn’t been a single person in the world who hasn’t turned to a search engine to find something within the last ten years. Being in the right spot for someone to discover your website simply makes it easier to align your goals with theirs.
Online visibility often requires SEO as a foundation. Search engines need to be able to understand your website’s content, its context, and who it might be relevant for. It’ll be impossible to be found otherwise, so optimizing your online presence for the search engine algorithm is a must.
You can use the services of an SEO agency to get started, and have them take care of this portion of your marketing strategy. That can make it a lot easier to mesh it together with the overall strategy you’re adopting, and it’ll be far less stressful for you as well. For one thing, having a proper SEO partner means staying on top of search engine changes far less overwhelming.
Don’t forget about physical visibility though – custom neon signs outside your business are bound to attract attention!
Create the Right Content
There’s no marketing without content! Even if you’re not specifically content marketing, you’re going to need to create some eyecatching, well thought out content to convert the customers you’re selling to.
To create the right content, you need to know what your audience wants to see. What questions do they have that you can answer? Be valuable in everything you create.
On top of this, remember that you need to stay on brand, in both your overall design and tone. However, don’t be afraid to get a little experimental and/or humorous within this. When content is entertaining, it always does better.
Track Your Marketing Results
Tracking your marketing results makes it a lot easier to do the right things next time. You need to know what worked and what didn’t, to use your budget more effectively AND target your customer base in a relevant way.
So, what platforms did you receive the best response on? Did any social media adverts get a notable amount of clicks, compared to any others? What CTAs brought in the most engagement? When was the best time to post and have a large share of your audience see you?
Track things like these and run through a debrief of your marketing campaign once it’s over and done with.
The Necessity of a Marketing Strategy: Final Thoughts
When it’s time to promote a new business, don’t do so without a marketing strategy behind you. You need to know who you’re targeting, what you’re aiming to get, and how you’ll make it happen. And once your campaign is over, you need to know what went well for next time!