All businesses need to invest in marketing. Whether you’re a sole trader, part of a partnership, or work for a much bigger company, a good marketing strategy will help your business expand to the next level.
Planning a Marketing Strategy
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on building your marketing strategy. Modern technologies make it possible for companies to reach prospective customers without spending a fortune.
Email, business SMS, and web based marketing are all ways that you can expand your audience easily and effectively.
Building Your Marketing Plan
If you want to grow your business, then you need to reach the right customers. To do this, you need to put together a sound marketing plan.
Don’t make the mistake of trying a scatter-spray marketing approach. This is a good way to waste a lot of money.
If you’re going to send emails, invest in an ad campaign, or spend money on bulk SMS marketing, make sure that the people you’re sending ads to are going to be interested in receiving them.
To make sure you’re reaching the right people, consider the following:
List Building
Whether you’re building a list for the purposes of business SMS or bulk email, make sure that your list will reach the right people. Don’t buy a list from an unknown provider.
Instead, build an opt-in list yourself. Start with existing customers, and offer incentives for them to sign up to your advertising messages.
Long term Marketing
Once you have a list, make sure that you use it carefully. Don’t send too many messages. If you bombard your list subscribers with dozens of messages then they’ll probably get irritated and unsubscribe.
Try to stick to sending one or two messages per week at most, and make sure that those messages are interesting and relevant to the list member’s interests.
Instead of sending purely marketing messages, consider “adding value” to the list by sending out informative messages too. Those could be sports results, special offers, tips and how-tos, or something else that would fit your market.
Calls to Action
When you do send marketing messages, however, it’s essential that they have a strong call to action. There’s no point telling people about the availability of a new product if you don’t make it easy for them to buy it.
A strong call to action, whether that’s “Pre-order now!”, or “Buy this in store today!” can make or break an ad campaign.
Cost Effective Marketing
Part of building a good marketing strategy is understanding what you want to get out of your ad campaign. Make sure you have a clear idea of your budget, and the return you expect on your marketing investment.
You may want to start small with a highly targeted email campaign, or a bulk SMS campaign that reaches out to local customers. Over time, you can expand your campaign to reach a wider audience, but remember that quality of leads is far more important than quantity.
If someone isn’t interested in your product or service, why pay to reach them?
Want to learn about the importance of Branding your Business? Check out the link.