Having a clear marketing strategy is crucial for small businesses. If you want to:
- Attract more customers
- Increase profits and
- Take advantage of business opportunities to give you a competitive edge,
then you can’t afford NOT to have a marketing strategy!
However, for many small business owners, determining a marketing strategy can be a daunting task, especially when they are confronted with the urgent daily demands of running a business. So in order to simplify this process, and help you get a clearer picture of where you are and where you would like to go with your marketing efforts, we have created a list of 12 questions to ask yourself as a first step in the process of creating a marketing strategy:
- Who is your ideal customer? Consider factors such as age, income, and location in order to paint a detailed picture.
- What is your marketing goal for this year? Once you’ve determined your goal, break it down into actionable steps. Make sure to consider how you will measure success in order to know when you’ve reached that goal.
- What is your brand tone? Try this exercise: “We are ____ but not ____.” For example, we are informative but not boring.
- What is your reputation in your industry and your community? What do people think of when they think of your brand/product/service?
- Where is your target audience on social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)?
- What customer problem do you solve?
- Do you typically sell through fear, inspiration, or solving a problem? Consider how your technique is working for you.
- Do you have an email list? If not, consider creating one.
- What data are you currently tracking and what are you doing with it?
- What are your customer retention strategies and how are you implementing them?
- How has your product or service evolved over the past year? How has your marketing message changed? Does it need to?
- What are you doing to help people get to know, like, and trust you?
Having the answers to these questions will help you determine your marketing strategy and ultimately save you time and money. For more help creating a new strategy (or refining your current strategy) you can check out some of our Chamber Webinars featuring local marketing experts to discover new, time-saving strategies to grow your business.
While it requires some work now, once you put the time into creating a marketing strategy, you’ll be glad you did.