Why your marketing efforts are wasted without a strategy

When us marketing specialists drove on about how vital a planned strategy is for any kind of success with your marketing efforts, we’re doing it because we care. More importantly, we’re doing it because we want to see you succeed.

I often hear from small business owners that investing in marketing strategy is just something large corporates do.  But in reality it’s exactly how those large corporates got that way – great strategy is the path to growing your business.

A lot of business owners hear ‘marketing strategy’ and immediately tune out because it’s not their area of expertise. But do you know what you ARE an expert in? Your business. You know what you deliver, and you know HOW you deliver it. Now, it’s just a matter of how you’re going to tell people about it.

Already sceptical? Hear me out. You won’t regret it.

What is a marketing strategy?

I’m SO glad you asked that.

It’s a long-term game plan for your business. It combines your business’s vision, marketing objectives, and overall goals into a neat little comprehensive plan that plots your course to success.

Having no marketing strategy is like building a house with no plans

Think about it like this – when you build a house, your builder needs plans. Those plans set out the foundations, the stages… every detail right down to the centimetre. Now, imagine if you decided to build a house with no plans at all. Your toilet would probably end up in your kitchen, your roof partially missing, and a collapse waiting to happen.

Your marketing strategy is your master plan. It sets out the foundations of your business, the tools, and materials you’ll use throughout the process, and what your end goal looks like.

Having no marketing strategy will cost you money and time you can’t get back

If you’re winging it without a marketing strategy and trying on tactics blindly, you’ll end up spending money in the wrong places, hitting the wrong target audiences, and spending a bunch of time developing content that is slipping through the cracks. A random $50 Facebook ad campaign here, and a $100 Google Adword campaign there, and before you know it, you’ve spent thousands on marketing tactics that haven’t resulted in anything.

What’s involved in developing a good marketing strategy?

In short, lots. But I’ll give you the reeeeeally quick version because I know your time is precious.

1.     Set your business goals and budget
What do you want to achieve over the next 3-5 years? Where do you want to be? Set clear and defined goals that can be measured.

2.     Develop a SWOT
Break down the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) so you get a complete picture of where your business is at.

3.     Identify your target market

What does your ideal customer look like? How old are they? What do they value? What problems can you solve for them?

4.     Do some research

How big is your target market?  How do they like to shop?  Where do they spend their time? By making sure you know them well you can safeguard against spending unnecessary money to reach them.

5.     Choose your marketing tactics

What kind of marketing tactics will best serve your business goals? Do you need a website? Facebook ads? Google Adwords? Video content? Blog posts? PR? Influencers? The list goes on! Choose the best tools for the job.

6.     Set everything out in a plan

Put everything you have into a big, beautiful document you can refer to. It can be a fancy PowerPoint or a stylish booklet with heaps of pictures, as long as it’s all together!

Sound daunting? It doesn’t have to be

I know you’re probably thinking, “this sounds super complicated and something I just don’t have time for.” That’s why marketing specialists exist. We do all the heavy lifting for your marketing strategy. Investing in creating a solid strategy is how you grow from being a small business doing it tough to a successful small business, growing to a big business and building for the future.  All you have to do is be passionate about your business succeeding and willing to put in the effort.

It’s worth it. Trust me.