You've decided to set up your own business, you know you need to market it, but just how exactly should you do this? Before creating your strategy it's important to realise that the rules of marketing are changing - no longer can you simply ‘advertise' your services and directly sell to your customers - they now expect a whole lot more. All small businesses need to invest in building budding relationships with them.
Sounds like a tough mission? It doesn't have to be
By making sure your customer is the central focus from day one you will instil trust, loyalty and brand allegiance in them. They will then be more susceptible to your marketing further down the line.
Here are my top ten tips to help you build a marketing campaign focused around your customers:
1. Know your sector or marketplace. It sounds obvious, but do you fully understand it? If not, do a bit of research. What is common practice? How big is your marketplace?
2. Study your competitors. Who are they? What marketing do they do? What are they offering their customers or prospects? What are their USPs? How do you compare with them on price, quality of product, service etc? Know how to position yourself.
3. Who is your target audience? Where do they gather, what media do they use - on and offline? What are they looking for? Can you divide them into different segments and approach them in different ways? Know as much as you possibly can about them. Get under their skin, listen to them talking, you'll be surprised at how much you can find out through this.
4. What channels are going to be best to reach them with? Think in terms of the amount it will cost you to reach them and of how they like to consume messages from people/companies that are similar to your brand.
5. Do you have a USP? (unique selling point) How big a deal is it for the people you're targeting? Is it really unique?
6. Sounds silly, but what are you actually selling or communicating to your audience? If it's complicated, simplify it.
7. What tone of voice should you adopt? Again think about what's right for the audience. Should it be chatty and friendly? e.g If you were selling pet food Or professional and serious? e.g If you were selling financial advice.
8. Imagine yourself as one of your customers that you personally know. How would you talk and write to them? Now adopt this style in your marketing.
9. Make sure you remain single minded in your communication. Don't get sidetracked. This can be made easier by having clear brand messages that you always adhere to make sure you're giving a clear message.
10. Differentiate between the benefits and features of your product/service. Make sure you focus primarily on the consumer benefits. Why should I buy this from you? How will I benefit?
Just one more thing to think about. Can you do all this stuff yourself? There are elements you'll need to work out in terms of what you really want to offer as a business, but then could be the time to ask for outside help, calling on experience of experts to bring your plans to life. Marketing can be a really fun element of business - but remember it's also a science.
For more information please visit www.kanjo.co.uk
