While some may unexpectedly fall into a business from a hobby that they enjoy, others may have the idea of developing an idea into reality. Regardless of where you’re at with your business, you are going to want to develop a marketing strategy to avoid spiralling out of control. Every business needs a strategy as it helps outline the vision and keeps you heading into the right direction and optimising on opportunities.

When creating a marketing strategy, ensure that you lean away from copying and pasting what your competitors are doing, as you want to stand out as a unique brand. It’s ok to take a few ideas, however the overall goal is to differentiate yourself to convince the consumer to go with your product. If you’re always following, it’s going to be impossible to keep up.

You are now probably thinking that you need to get to work immediately with that strategy, however you don’t have a clue where to start. Truth be told, there isn’t one answer but there are things that are important to add. In today’s blog, were going to be guiding you with an overview in what you can include and what areas to look at when writing up your strategy.

Lets Begin!

 

  1. Mission statement and unique selling points

 Number one on the list is your mission statement. Your Mission statement provides your business with an identity. It’s a few sentences to explain who you are, what you do, who you provide to and why customers should purchase from you.  This last point covers your unique selling points as to what makes you different from all your competitors.

 

  1. Market research

 One of the most important stages when creating a strategy is understanding the market that you are competing in. This is vital to the success of your company as you need to understand what opportunities you can take advantage of and where your weaknesses lie.

In this section you should include the following….

  • Background & Current Situation
  • Key Challenges
  • Strengths & Points of Difference
  • Competitor Analysis

 

  1. Target Market and their persona

Now that you understand the current position in the market, you are able to focus on what kind of customer you want to attract. You may have the same type of customers as your competitors or you could even aim to attract a specific niche. Whoever you decide on targeting, ensure that you study them as this will help you when choosing a promotional strategy. Try to identify the type of customers that you aim to sell your product to in detail.

A few things you may wish to consider when finding your target audience………

  • Geographics
  • Demographic
  • Psychographic
  • Behavioural traits
  • Will they be a niche or a broad audience?
  • Customer needs

 

  1. Understand your marketing mix

Product, Place, price and promotion! These “4P’s” help to position your service/products in your industry and can even help you decide on the way to take your products to market.

There are a few questions you should consider asking yourself before creating your market plan.

Products

  • How does your product differentiate from your competitors?
  • Can you identify what issue or problem your service or product solves?
  • What do your customers want from your product?

Place

  • Where can consumers find your product/service? Where are you going to sell your product and/or service?
  • How can consumers get information and access to your product/service?
  • What are your competitors doing?

Price

  • What is the value of your product/service?
  • How does your price compare to your competitors?
  • Will you consider discounts and promotions for types of customers or certain holidays?

Promotion

  • How will you reach your audience? E.g. advertising, PR, digital marketing, word of mouth.
  • How will you get your message across to your target audience?
  • Is your business seasonal or are there certain times of the year you need to increase promotions?

 

  1. Promotion strategy in detail

 Now that you know everything about your Business and the industry, it’s time to start planning on how you’re going to reach your customers. Nobody is ever going to buy a product or service if they have never heard of you, so we need to figure out how to get you noticed.

A strong set of promotional strategies can help boost the position of your company and open new avenues.

  • Cold-Calling – Old school but very useful in gaining leads
  • Social media Promotion – Using FB, Instagram, Google+
  • Newsletter / email marketing – Don’t forget about your existing customers!! Stay in contact and keep them as customers
  • Product giveaways – Give potential customers the chance to win your product
  • Direct Marketing – Get individuals to fall in love with your story
  • Blogging – Great for SEO
  • Networking – Have a look at events in your area or even online

 

  1. Marketing Goals

At this point you should know everything that there is to know about your business and its time to put some targets in place to reach your goals!! Its important to set realistic goals as although the world may be your oyster, you need to take small strategic steps to get ahead of the game. Be clear and as realistic as possible on what it is that you want to achieve. Setting up quantifiable targets is a great way to keep track of your progress along the journey. For example, you can aim to obtain 400 new customers in one month through a 2k spend on fb adverts. These targets can help you gain knowledge and statistics to show your return on investment.

 

We hope you find this blog beneficial! If you need any help in the process or need a hand creating and writing our own strategy, feel free to get in contact with the team at  Ava Rose Marketing.