In order to make the best use of your limited resources you need to find the most effective channels to reach your target customer.
Where does your target customer hang out? In order to make the best use of your limited resources of time, money and energy, you need to find the most effective channels to reach them.
It may be time to go back and check the basics.
Remember that marketing is way more than simply promotion – it’s go to whoa, from building your brand to putting your products or services onto the market.
You’ll need to allocate budget and time to develop your marketing strategy, and it starts with research:
- Who is your customer?
- What do they need?
- What products and services meet their needs best?
Where do your customers hang out?
First, who is your ideal customer? Once you narrow it down from ‘everyone’ to a specific demographic or group/s, you can narrow it down further to a person who might be typical of that group, picture that person and address them in your marketing materials.
Look at your business model for these things:
- who is your target audience
- what is the quality of your products
- where you are positioned in the market
- how you price your products and services
It can be easy to lose focus when you’re writing, whether it’s social-media posts, blogs or other marketing material.
In my editorial up the front, I was telling you about an on-air radio technique I’ve found a lifesaver, using an ‘imaginary listener’.
Now picture your own ‘imaginary listener’: go on, make that person real. Can you see them?
- How old are they?
- What gender are they?
- Where do they live? Do you need to think local, national or global?
- What do they love and what do they hate and what don’t they care about?
- What do they struggle with?
- How can you help them with your product or service?
What channels will you choose?
Now you can decide on your marketing channels:
- What are the essentials you need to cover on your website?
- Should you consider letterbox drops or local media?
- What PR should you budget for your chosen media?
- Which blogs are most relevant to follow, share and comment on?
- Which social-media channels would they use?
Good marketing means good storytelling. If your customers can engage with your business story, they’ll have a reason to buy from you, not your competition.
Your own marketing kit
Now you have the foundation of your marketing kit, which will drill right down to the details that set your brand in the mind of the customer: everything from how they are greeted and served right through the details that add up in their minds – the music that plays at your place of business, how your staff dress, even your email signature.
And, of course, your signature colours, your logo and your tagline.
A marketing kit is a system devised by John Jantsch of separate pages of information that you can interchange, depending on your audience. You base all your messages on it.
Rather than cutting and pasting information each time you need it for a bio, a blog or brochure, you can invest time at the start in a marketing kit that keeps it all together in one place.
Then you can pick and choose from your marketing kit when you’re pressured for time and you need to create the various things your business needs. You can also customise what you offer a customer according to their needs.
A marketing kit will be the foundation for – business cards:
- business cards
- website
- blogs
- social-media page info
- newsletters
- brochures
Good marketing is all about storytelling. If people can engage with your business story, it gives them a reason to purchase from you, not your competition.
Essentials for your marketing kit, both for your own use and the world at large:
- tagline
- six benefits your products/services offer your customers
- testimonials
- FAQs
- unique value proposition
- ideal clients
- results
- case studies
- bios
Tips
Make sure you keep the same tone and voice throughout – this builds brand awareness and trust.
Tell people why they need you – focus only on facts that they can really use.
Voila!
Now you have your marketing kit, you won’t need to rewrite bios of you and your staff, search through your files for case studies or ask your past clients for testimonials – again.
Simply refer to your marketing kit for everything you need.
Then spend your saved time doing what you do best – making your customers happy!
More on marketing kits: Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch, ducttapemarketing.com
Web marketing: Web marketing that works, Adam Franklin and Toby Jenkins (Wiley) or bluewiremedia.com.au
Jackey Coyle, Wordy Gurdy Publishing, www.wordygurdy.com.au
This article first appeared in issue 10 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
