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3 Questions Every Business Must Answer Before Planning A Marketing Strategy
Planning A Marketing Strategy? Ask Yourself These Questions First
You want more customers. So do 99% of companies that exists. But if that’s all the information you have to go on, “getting more customers” is like wandering around the streets looking for random money floating around. Planning a marketing strategy is an art and a science and you shouldn’t start spending time and money before you have a proper plan in place.
In order to truly achieve marketing success, you need to know what success looks like. By envisioning your goal, you can work backwards on what needs to be done in order to get there.
In order to know what that success looks like, you need to know who your perfect customer is so that the things you are doing will attract them to you. Who can receive the most value and benefit from the products and services you have to offer? Who do you enjoy doing business with? What relationships can be the most profitable?
By defining who you are as a company, you will provide guidance on how to position your brand while executing different marketing tactics and how to interact and engage with your ideal customers.
Who Are We As A Company?
Defining your brand’s identity and core values are a necessity before you can start marketing your business.
Why does your company exist?
What makes you better than your competition?
Why should someone buy from you instead of the next result showing on Google?
Understanding this of yourself is the first step in being able to communicate it with your prospects. The more clearly you can define who you are, the more clearly your ideal customer will be able to recognize and connect with you.
Who Is Your Perfect Customer?
The answer to this is not “anyone” or “everyone” and if you think that you are different then you have a lot more to learn.
To be able to create quality marketing content that will attract and convert customers, you need to specify exactly who your customers are. This is done with a combination of demographics, psychographics, and behavioral characteristics. When you have this information, you can speak directly to your customers and connect with them on a higher frequency than any generic marketing blast could ever accomplish.
What Is Your Goal?
Are you trying to get more customers? Build your proprietary audience? Increase your Lifetime Customer Value?
Are you trying to maintain your status or dramatically increase your revenue? Do you want to become a thought leader in your industry?
There are different routes to take based on what your goals are. Based on your ultimate goal, you can then set benchmarks to track your progress and make sure you are on the right track to reaching your goals. By measuring your movement on a frequent basis, but keeping your mind focused on the big picture, you will be able to adjust your tactics accordingly.
Now Get To Work!
Start answering these questions right now. Take the next ten minutes to just make an outline with some bullet point thoughts to get the ball rolling. You don’t need to create an entire plan right now, but getting started is going to give you some momentum.
