The new year, whether calendar or financial, is a great time to take a step back and review what you've achieved in your business in the previous 12 months.
If you missed those time frames, and right now is when you're zooming in on your marketing activities, then it's always a good idea to review the last 12 months from where you're starting.
Get Started Assessing your Marketing Strategy
Assess how you've achieved increased awareness and reach of your business over the last 12 months and what activities have led to the best results. Have you even done any marketing? And, if you have, to what extent have you prioritised it?
If 'more customers', 'more engaged customers' or 'different customers' is on your 'to do' list, then you'll need a marketing strategy and action plan to help you achieve those important annual revenue targets.
Did you know it takes up to 16 touchpoints before a cold prospect makes a purchase?
Website, social media post, blog post, email, phone call, newsletter, online reviews, LinkedIn profile recommendation, referral - did I get to 16 yet?
A Strong Marketing Strategy is Consistent & Persistent
Most business owners think that marketing is something to do once and then never re-visit. They often believe that if they run an ad campaign once for a month, then they should be seeing a tonne of new enquiries. Unfortunately, that's unrealistic, especially if you are a services business.
You can't expect to just drop into a prospect's inbox, newsfeed, mailbox, leisure time, or working day and have them immediately drop everything and want to buy from you - especially if it's the first time they've ever heard of you. You have to be consistent and persistent.
The truth is that if you're not taking focused efforts to market your business every day, then no one will know you exist, and you'll always be chasing referrals and repeat sales. These efforts should be well-considered and structured in the form of a marketing strategy.
A Strong Marketing Strategy is Multi-channel
You also need to ensure that you are hitting multiple touchpoints across multiple different marketing channels on an ongoing basis. With so many touchpoints available, and so little time to put it all into action, you'll need a framework to structure your thinking.
Ready to Iron Out Your Marketing Strategy?
Great news, we've done the hard work for you! You can grab our FREE download that walks you through the buying process of your prospective clients so that you can ensure you've got all bases covered and are reaching them at every point along their decision-making journey. This framework will teach you how to think like your prospects, so that you can influence their thinking, and promote your business in a way that's helpful and natural, not forced and 'salesy'.
This is the foundation to a needs-based marketing strategy.
Subscribe now to get instant access to the only framework you need to write a marketing strategy; "Marketing Results Canvas". Plus! Get Stevie's 10 week email mini-series and learn how to create a seamless Marketing Strategy for your small business.
The Change Starter® is a boutique marketing consultancy that builds outsourced marketing teams for established businesses who are committed to growth. Apply for a FREE Marketing Accelerator with Stevie to get crystal clear on the next steps you can take to promote your business to the right audience, at the right time, in the right place.
Comments