No two businesses need the exact same marketing strategy. Clients often go into the process of creating a marketing strategy with an expectation that there are certain platforms or features that have to be included – perhaps because they have felt pressure to do that type of marketing in the past. As someone who believes a good marketing strategy should be customized to each business for best results, I do recognize that there are still key phases of a marketing plan that should be incorporated in some way. Today, let’s look at four key phases of an effective marketing strategy.
No two businesses need the exact same marketing strategy. #marketing #marketingstrategy #biztips #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb Share on XBrand Awareness
People need to hear about a business – sometimes many times – before they can be ready to take an action. The more people recognize and trust your brand, the more likely they will be to choose your business when the time is right to buy a product or service like yours.
Sometimes consumers have an urgent need to resolve a problem. In those cases, for you to convince them that what you offer is the best solution, you have to pile as much validation as you can into the resources they are likely to check for information: Testimonials, reviews, arming your previous customers with language they can use for word of mouth, cross-marketing with other businesses with similar target markets, and a compelling public presence online that they may check (such as a website) to name a few options.
People need to hear about a business – sometimes many times – before they can be ready to take an action. #marketing #marketingstrategy #biztips #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb Share on XHowever, as business owners it is also smart to play the long game. Continuing to get in front of potential customers over time – even before they may be ready to buy – can build up a familiarity with your brand that will pay dividends later. In this case, any meaningful way of exposing your target markets to your brand is valid. There is no one way to do it. In fact, businesses that factor more than one method of brand awareness into their marketing plans often have more security and stability, because they are less at risk if any one of those methods disappears.
Lead Generation
It is all well and good that people in your target market see messages about your business. You also want to have a transition point – or many – in your marketing plan that allows you to go from spraying your marketing message to a faceless mass of humans in your target market to being able to have one-to-one nurturing conversations with possible customers.
The difference maker is having a way to reach prospective customers directly.
A lead is an individual who is a possible customer or client for your business – someone you can call by name and reach reliably. Leads may be captured online or offline. Some people move through the lead phase quickly and become customers in a short amount of time. Some businesses have the experience of people staying in the lead phase for much longer. Either way, this is a phase that is best met with a game plan. If your business makes it a goal to capture as many leads and as much contact information as possible within your audience, there is going to be a lot more data to measure so you can make sure your marketing strategy is getting the best results.
Lead Nurturing
Once you know how to reach a person in your audience, how do you stay in front of that person until they are ready to buy what you sell? Lead nurturing is a pivotal phase of a good marketing strategy and one that a lot of businesses have not developed to the fullest potential.
Lead nurturing is a pivotal phase of a good marketing strategy and one that a lot of businesses have not developed to the fullest potential. #marketing #marketingstrategy #biztips #smallbusiness #smallbiz Share on XLead nurturing can be done in bulk (such as with newsletters or bulk text marketing). It can be done one-to-one (through phone call follow-ups , mailings, gifting, or email sequences triggered by certain actions). It can be done by extending invitations to regular events so you can build the relationship face to face. Simultaneously, your leads may still be seeing your general brand awareness outreach. For some businesses, creating content is a way to have more to say to this audience.
Depending on how many touch points you find that your leads need on average before they become customers, you may benefit from having multiple methods of lead nurturing built into your plan. I know that has been true for me.
Businesses that document their strategy for lead nurturing are much better positioned to measure the results and tweak the approach over time to create the most efficiency. The more leads you retain in this phase, the more worthwhile it makes all the effort you did in the brand awareness and lead generation phases. (For more on this topic, read here to learn how the profit is in the follow up!)
Customer Retention
No matter what business you have, I recommend that you have a plan for how to stay in touch with customers or clients, both in the short term and the long term. In the short term, what is the follow up you do immediately after the purchase or contract? Some businesses have follow-up sequences planned out that go all the way to one year after the sale or the next likely time that a new purchase will be needed. It is generally easier and more cost effective to get a former customer to buy again than to bring a brand new person all the way through the cycle.
If your product or service is such that you are sure that a customer will never need to buy from you ever again – and I challenge you that there are very few businesses that fit into that category – it is still worth staying in front of those people. Why? They can be your best advocates. They could be walking ambassadors for your product or service, and they may very well be embedded in a network that has other prospects from your target market.
A smart marketing strategy will address all of these phases, but how you do it is up to you. When building marketing strategies for clients, I find that some marketing plans are leaner than others in terms of how much is being done at each of these levels. I encourage you to think about your own marketing strategy, whether or not you have ever formalized it. Is one of these phases a strength for you right now? Is one a weakness? Take a good look at the weakest area you have now and see what you can do to build it out!