Tom Welbourne
Helping Small and Medium Businesses Achieve Their Full Marketing Potential | Digital Marketing Expert
Marketing Strategies We Use To Help Business Owners
- November 8, 2019
- , 11:32 am
We’ve worked with our fair share of small business owners here at The Good Marketer.
Some businesses can’t be helped no matter how much money they pour into their marketing because the business’s product or service is just not good enough and the market doesn’t want to buy it.
On the whole, however, 90% of the businesses we speak to can be helped by implementing certain marketing strategies.
And we’ve noticed a trend with our clients where the marketing strategies and process we use, work for 8 out of 10 of our clients no matter what industry they’re in or what they’re selling.
This is probably surprising to you and it did surprise us at first until we started looking back and connecting the dots looking backwards because as Steve Jobs said:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect the dots looking backwards”.
In this article, we’re going to show you the strategies we use for the bulk of our clients which include:
- Locating the audience before launch
- Removing all unprofitable marketing channels
- Creating a stable strategy that requires minimal tinkering
LOCATING THE AUDIENCE BEFORE LAUNCH
Before you begin to implement your marketing strategy, you need to locate your customers.
This is a given when you think about it but many businesses bypass this crucial factor as they want to “just increase sales”.
Of course, there are going to be people out there who will buy your product even though they weren’t necessarily in your target market.
For example, a person who goes to a shopping centre may go there for one specific item and then come out with a bunch of unrelated items they didn’t want at first.
It’s different online because people are going to be targeted by and large from what they type into the search engine of Google.
If they type in “Nike Blue Running Shoes”, they’re not going to receive a page for “Adidas Yellow Weightlifting Shoes” unless this is shown on the product page for the product they originally searched for.
So, how do you locate your audience?
Join forums
Go to trade shows
Join Facebook groups
Use tools such as SEMrush
If there is an audience and it’s a niche audience (which you should be aiming for as a business owner) then you should look for forums online and Facebook groups.
You’ll be surprised by how many people get together online to discuss interests that you didn’t even know existed.
For example, if we were setting up a plumbing business that serviced a local area, we’d find the community Facebook group where all the residents have their daily online natter and listen out for any locals needing plumbing services.
Tip: ask before you advertise in the group if it’s allowed because you may not only get banned but give yourself a bad reputation as a pushy salesman!
You also want to get out there and speak to people face-to-face where you can get more in-depth questions from your target audience.
Tools such as SEMrush will help you find long-tail and LSI keywords + questions your target audience is asking.
REMOVING ALL UNPROFITABLE MARKETING CHANNELS
This is often the case for around 50% – 60% of our clients who come on-board.
They’ve heavily invested and still are investing time + money into marketing channels that they have no reason to be using.
We empathise with this because there are countless teenagers on Youtube telling them they can spend £5 a day on ads and get a six-figure income back within 3 months.
We’ve personally never heard of any businesses spending £5 a day on Facebook ads and achieving a six-figure income within 3-months but if you do know someone, please point us in their direction!
Anyway…
Like the last point, in order to rectify the marketing channels you are using, you need to find out which channels your customers are using.
Don’t try and be an innovator before you’ve got traction on one channel by testing out new waters that your audience aren’t using.
There’s a reason why they’re not using other channels and your competitors are putting all their money into one or two marketing channels:
The buyers and the sellers are using them.
Customers (buyers) and businesses (sellers), both require one another to use the same channel(s) to buy and sell.
An audience that is made up of predominantly 60+ pensioners won’t be using Instagram or Tik Tok.
They’re going to be using social channels like Facebook or using offline channels such as trade-shows.
Channels that your target audience aren’t using are unprofitable.
Tip: There will be channels that could pay off in the long-run which aren’t profitable in the short-term; do your research and take extra caution if you find such a case in your own niche.
When you’ve culled the marketing channels that aren’t profitable, you will give yourself more time and money to spend in the ones that are.
CREATING A STABLE STRATEGY THAT REQUIRES MINIMAL TINKERING
A lot of business owners don’t want to be tinkering with their marketing strategy every day or week for that matter.
That is why they hire a marketing agency or in-house marketer.
However, 50% of business owners struggle with finances and they have to do the marketing on their own for a couple of months until their finances are back in order.
Or, they may be moving their marketing from a freelancer to an agency and vice versa.
This causes a problem for some business owners because they then have to take over what the previous marketer(s) started.
And if you have a rudimentary knowledge of marketing then it can be overwhelming.
Which is why we implement marketing strategies that produce results, are stable and require minimal amounts of tinkering.
For example, we’ve bought the manuals and read the books that use phrases such as “Advanced Marketing Secrets” or “Expert Insider Marketing Information” and to give you a little “secret” of our own, there are no secrets to marketing!
As soon as you realise that marketing requires a product or service that people are willing to pay for and articulating your message in plain, simple English, the quicker you’ll get results.
You don’t need these advanced tricks that you have to pay £1,000 to get access to.
Just make sure you have the following:
A product/service people are willing to pay for
You’ve located your audience
Your message is clear and people know what you sell + how it benefits them
We do the front-loading for you and get the plane off the ground and in the air so all you have to do is put your foot on the gas.
