Having an effective marketing strategy is key to seeing your business succeed and stay for the long haul. The question is, how do you create this “oh so necessary” effective marketing strategy? You have come to the right place! Check out what business partners Jane Toohey and Michelle Gamble have to say about this in their interview with Dale Beaumont.
In 2001, with Michelle based in Sydney and Jane in Melbourne, the pair created Marketing Angels, a marketing consultancy that develops and implements marketing strategies for small to medium enterprises.
How should a business go about creating an effective marketing strategy?
- Get clear – know who your ideal customer is and identify what attributes they have and how they would seek out your type of product or service. Ask current and past clients, friends, relatives – whomever you can!
- Evaluate your brand – make sure that your brand reflects not only what you and your business are about, but also what your customer wants to hear. Does it speak into their needs? Does your promise to the market match the demands of your target customer?
- Develop your strategy – your strategy should be developed around generating leads. Look at all the ways a customer might find you and then look at how to effectively target them – the internet, direct marketing, telemarketing, advertising, networking, referrals. What will drive them to enquire and how can you best capture that enquiry? The trick is to not rely on just one medium but to look at several and how they might work together. For example, you might develop a direct mail pack that refers people to your website. Does your site make it easy for people to respond to you? Do you have an enticing offer that encourages them to give you their contact details? Can they find the information they want easily and are they driven to act?
- Revise the strategy – remember to track and revise the effectiveness of your strategy. Just because a tactical approach works well once, it won’t necessarily always work. Customers’ needs are always changing, so the important thing is to stay aware of what those changing needs are.
For more of this interview check out Dale Beaumont’s “Secrets of Marketing Experts Exposed!“.