I talk about marketing plans a lot, don’t I? But I have good reason, and in this blog, I thought I’d explain just one of the reasons why you should have a marketing strategy.
Panic stations
When things go wrong or not quite right in any aspect of life, a natural response is to panic, isn’t it? For example, your car breaks down and you think ‘how am I going to get from A to B, the kids to school and clubs, what if it can’t be fixed?’ and panic sets in. Or a more extreme example, you’re injured or unwell and you worry how you’ll run your business. It’s at these points of panic that knee jerk decisions can be made. Sometimes they’re good decisions and sometimes, they’re not so good.
I see this impulsive behaviour mirrored a lot in business decisions, particularly when it comes to marketing.
The not so good decisions
Here’s an example. A business launches a new product, they talk and talk about it on social media, but sales are reaaaaaalllly slow. So they panic. They spend some money on Facebook ads. Or they add themselves to more social media platforms. They offer ridiculous discounts so they make no money at all. And they see an offer on social media that says Joe Bloggs can teach them marketing in 20 minutes for just 20 quid. And before you know it, the business has given up on that product and moved onto something else.
Potential customers see all of this. They’re confused, they don’t value the product, they’re sick of being sold to on social media, so they don’t engage or most importantly, purchase.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Because there’s no plan or strategy in place, it’s easy to get distracted and give up on what you want to achieve. And that’s one of the reasons why you should have a marketing strategy.
Clarity around what you want in your business
So what’s the first step in a marketing strategy? To make sure that your marketing is going to help you sell your product or service?
The very starting point is with your business goals. You need to have clarity on what you want to achieve in your business for marketing to make any sort of sense. Once you are clear on what you want to achieve, you can then start to think about the marketing that you’re going to do.
Why you should have a marketing strategy
Let me tell you a story about why marketing strategy is important. This tale is about a service-based business, who is a mentoring client of mine. The business owner came to me and explained that although the business was doing OK, it wasn’t growing at the rate she’d like. And long-term her goal was to be able to take some time out of the business for herself. She could see that marketing might have something to do with that.
Through a series of mentoring sessions, we identified that to grow the way she’d like the business to, she’d need to expand her business with existing clients (so offer more of their services to clients) and attract two new clients per quarter over the next year.
And once we’d specified these goals, her marketing became much, much simpler.
Fast forward a year, the company is growing at the desired rate, and most importantly, the business owner has carved out that time for herself.
So what made the difference?
Without a doubt, having good solid business goals made a difference. But without good solid marketing goals to go alongside that, it would have been a very different story. There was no need to get distracted by flitting from one idea to another, just solid foundations to market the business.
You want your marketing to be working towards your business goals, otherwise what’s the point of doing it?
Why marketing strategy is important for business
So when you’re next wondering whether your marketing is working, think about why you’re doing it first of all. And if it’s not clear or aligned with your business goals, then maybe it’s time to have a rethink.
If you’d like to know more about how my marketing mentoring sessions work, then fill in this form and I’ll be in touch to arrange a chat.
And if you have any questions, please give me a shout, I’m here to help.
