How to Build a Marketing Strategy for Your Small Business
A well thought out marketing strategy is key to any business. It is a plan on how to reach a targeted audience and gain their business. You must ask yourself why the consumer would want your product, what achievable goals you can lay out, what is your budget, what is your timeline.
Small businesses need a marketing strategy just as much as any global company. If they wish to compete with other businesses in the local sector, they must be prepared to compete with their prices and offers, and especially to consider the limits their budgets will allow. According to the Co Schedule Marketing Strategy Report, companies with documented marketing strategies are 313% more likely to report success.
This blog will give you 8 Steps to follow which should give you a clear sense of how to build a worthwhile and efficient marketing strategy for your business.
1. Define Your Business Goals
It’s important to define your goals early on in the process. This applies to issues such as revenue targets, which establishes the target income the business hopes to earn over a chosen period of time. Customer acquisitions and awareness to your set goals are also crucial points to follow in this area.
It’s important to tie your goals to specific marketing metrics. For instance, leads, conversions, and website visits. A helpful resource for getting your goals in place can be found at SMART goals framework (HubSpot)
2. Identify Your Target Audience
Every business has its target audience that it directs its focus to. Once you have a sense of who that audience is, you must alter your business demographic to suit their specific needs. This can be in terms of psychographics which can be obtained through surveys, different needs for different locations, and taking the customers pain points for problems they normally face into account.
Creating a customer persona is a wise move. Through surveys and consumer studies, it allows the business to alter its selling point to different needs. Take a look at Creating Buyer Personas (HubSpot Guide) for more tips on catering to your target audience.
3. Analyse the Market and Competitors
A SWOT is a marketing strategy which asks salespeople to look at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that this business venture could bring. Each point is crucial to bear in mind when pursuing.
There are tools which can be used to observe competitors and gain insight into their marketing strategies. These tools include ; Google Trend, SimilarWeb, Meta Ads Library.
It is crucial to identify what competitors are doing online, see what ways you can match their offers and angles where you can improve on what they are lacking.
4. Choose the Right Marketing Channels
There are two different strains of marketing channels used in the digital age: Online and offline. When dealing with online marketing, the main points to consider are factors such as SEO, PPC, social media, and email. This contrasts with offline marketing, which is acheived through the use of events, flyers or television commercials.
In choosing which marketing channel to use, take into account your goals and target audience, considering which strain they are more likely to interact with.
Start with a few core channels and see which one works best for you. You don’t have to try everything at the same time. A useful guide on marketing for small business can be found at Mailchimp’s Small Business Marketing Guide
5. Create a Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
You should want your product to stand out in contrast to the other options that consumers have been given. When promoting you must ask, why should people buy from you instead of a competitor?
What makes what you are offering different to the countless others?
Your UVP should be short, impactful and easy to understand. Focus on benefits you can provide, as well as a unique perspective that competitors don’t have. Look into Neil Patel’s Guide to Writing a UVP for more assistance.
6. Set Your Budget
As mentioned previously, organising your budget is one of the earliest and most crucial points that should be considered when starting up your business. How much should a small business spend on marketing?
You must allocate a budget by channel, which optimises your spending into the most worthwhile sectors, for the most profitable results. WordStream’s Guide on Marketing Budgets is an excellent source for more help.
There should be a balance between fixed costs and performance based ones (e.g., Google Ads vs. content writing).
7. Build a Content Plan and Messaging Framework
Content is the backbone of digital marketing. You must ensure that the key messages you want your business to have are represented across all of your platforms. This is why you must have a content strategy plan in place.
Blog posts, videos, email campaigns, social media - all of these should be aligned to your strategy. Here is a link for a template to help - Content Strategy Template (Content Marketing Institute)
Importance of brand voice consistency. Will you alter your messaging depending on the customer segment you are dealing with? What is the main message you wish to enforce?
8. Track Performance and Adjust
Keep track of your performance and figure out what works and what does not. Use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor factors like traffic, conversions, ROI’s or click rates.
Some tools we recommended to use include; Google Analytics, Meta Ads Manager
It’s so important to review and refine your business at least monthly. This prevents falling behind when it comes to competitors and allows you to update your content, based on what has been performing well.
Conclusion:
A business cannot function or grow without a clear strategy in place. It takes time and effort, but in the long run it can make a huge difference in results. So define your goals, get a sense of who your audience is and don’t be afraid to experiment. For small business owners, we’d encourage you to start with a lean version. Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. With a well thought-out plan and clear messaging, you're already well on your way to building your small-business.
Need help building a marketing strategy tailored to your business? Contact us for a free discovery call.