Developing a successful marketing strategy is one of the most important aspects of experiencing success for any business. You can offer the best products in your industry and still struggle to scrape by if nobody knows who you are or what your business can do. To help you get your business off on the right foot, follow these easy steps for marketing your business.
1. Know Your Customers
This one may seem easy, but taking the time to determine exactly who the target audiences are for your business is the key to the success of any marketing strategy. While it may seem easier to use a one-size-fits-all style to marketing, many business owners who take this approach end up wasting a lot of time and money marketing to audiences who aren’t interested in, or cannot afford, their services.
Instead, take a little time to review who can and will actually use your services or products. For example, a pop-up restaurant at a neighborhood bar will probably market themselves to a different audience than an established restaurant offering a fine dining experience. Try to determine the demographics of your specific target audiences so you can market to them directly. Consider demographics like age, gender and income, to name a few.
2. Use Digital Media
In this day and age, using digital media to market your business is necessary for success. It has been shown that 91% of customers have visited a store because of an online experience. With those kinds of numbers, it only makes sense to build the digital presence for your business now rather than later.
To start, your business must have a website. When researching a business, the first step most people take is to go online and seek out information, whether they are looking for pricing, menus, listings, services or just trying to learn more about the company itself. Make this step easier for potential customers by building a clean and professional website that offers them all the information they need to know about you and your business.
Utilize social media in your marketing efforts, as well. Social media offers unparalleled opportunities for reaching target audiences. Just as no two businesses are the same, no two social media platforms are the same. Facebook offers access to a different set of audiences than Twitter, and LinkedIn offers access to a different set of audiences than Pinterest or Instagram. The trick is determining which platforms are best for reaching your specific audiences, then consistently posting content that engages them and makes them more aware of the services you are offering.
3. Create a Marketing Calendar
Running a business is time consuming, and you may not always have time to come up with content to share on social media and your website on the fly. Having a marketing calendar will help alleviate this problem by allowing you to schedule content you want to create or share ahead of time.
While putting together a calendar of content for the entire year may seem daunting, the work you put in now will save you time and effort in the future. To make things easier, base your marketing calendar on a wide range of events including product sales cycles, seasons, holidays, and national and local events. Consider developing monthly or weekly themes so you can more easily organize the content you want to share with your audiences.
Consistency is key when it comes to sharing content on social media. If you only share information sporadically to your audience, they will lose interest. Providing engaging content on a consistent basis will keep your business top-of-mind with your audiences. Developing and maintaining a marketing calendar will make the effort to remain consistent more manageable in the long run.
Orion Marketing Agency specializes in developing and managing marketing strategies for businesses in a wide variety of industries. For more information on how we can help you reach target audiences, generate website traffic and develop leads for your business, please contact us.
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