Marketing Strategy
You wouldn’t try to climb Mount Everest without a plan, training and a sherpa to show you the way. While your local business isn’t trying to conquer the highest mountain peak in the world, you would like to leave your competition in the dust and grow your business, wouldn’t you? Let Revved be your sherpa and we’ll show you the way to a marketing strategy for your local business that will have you feeling like you are on top of the world…
How do you reckon Alexander the Great became the world’s greatest conqueror? Simple answer: he had a strategy. That’s what’s going to make your marketing plan better than those of your competitors. While your competitor’s marketing schemes will consist of doing random things until they get lucky, we’re going to have a plan that we’ll execute perfectly and produce results.
Everyone needs to market themselves in some way. How else are you going to share your wondrous product and wonderful services with the world? A decisive marketing campaign is going to get a business ‘out there’ and establish its brand. You’re going to create – or expand upon – a clientele that could be sticking with you for a while.
A conquering marketing strategy
No matter the industry you are in, I’ll bet you are facing competition that’s every bit as hungry as you are. Oftentimes, the products or quality of service are so close that it comes down to which business can do a better job of advertising. If you can understand the minds of your targeted audience – and their desires – you’ll find attracting them to be an easy task, even with modest resources.
Every little action counts, but without grasping the thought processes of your clientele, you won’t get the real results – those that make subsequent campaigns on your parts seem effortless. It’s a point I sometimes make – you’re not selling your product as much as you’re selling the belief that it’s good for your customers. The world would be a lot different if product sales were more dependent on the product and less on the marketing skill of the individuals involved. Indeed, how well you can market your product and whether you can make it seem appealing is what sales are all about most of the time. Now, to truly hit a home run when advertising whatever you got cooking, you won’t go blindly rushing to the first PPC campaign that comes to mind – you’ll employ a clear strategy. Why do you need one?
With a marketing strategy, you’ll know exactly what your goal is, the type of people you’re trying to reach, and what to expect. Let me go over some popular blueprints that marketing gurus model their efforts after.
Strategic and tactical marketing strategy – mapping your plan
If you split a marketing effort in half, you’d end up with two of its main aspects – strategic and tactical marketing. Both sound serious, what are the differences?
Strategic marketing is the ‘thinking’ part. During the strategic phase, you’ll develop the long-haul plan of action. Here is where you’ll need to think about every step of the advertising process. What is my target audience? What type of input do they react best to? Make sure to tailor the pitch to them – don’t overreach. You’ll also want to give some thought to the length of your plan, the desired effects, projected results and so forth. Once this part is done, it’s time to get doing…
Now comes the tactical marketing… Once you’ve thought about what your selected group of customers wants, it’s time to give it to them. Make sure you’ve covered every scenario, and then set things in motion. Get those ads out, engage your audience, give them promotional goods… This part will also help you get a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t, which will prove to be precious knowledge later on.
To get the best results, try not to mix these two – if you’re wondering how to react to something during the tactical part, you probably didn’t plan well enough and could use a time machine to go back and regroup. I never let my clients commence a haphazard campaign, even if it means boring them to death with details – they’ll thank me later.
Attraction marketing – who’s being attracted?
Attraction marketing is simple in theory yet difficult to pull off in practice – things become even harder when the marketing is done online. Much of it rests on the individual a.k.a. the advertiser, and his or her ‘people skills’.
Basically, your clients or customers need to place their faith in you as a person. They need to think you know what you’re talking about and – equally as important – that you’re telling the truth. This is particularly effective because it creates a potential for long-term client relationships and returning customers when done right. When done wrong? Well, angry mobs aren’t as bad as they used to be…
To become an attraction marketer, you’ll need to give some thought about your customers’ desires. What do they really want, and how can I give it to them while also selling them my product? Blend those things, and you’re on your way to riches.
A 6-month and 12-month marketing strategy – working with Revved Business
The first 6 months of your marketing strategy should involve the basics and some landmarks to reach. Make a mental note that, in these 6 months, you’ll get the ball rolling in every way possible. If you’re a go-getter, make a point that you’ll also attract a specific number of leads every month.
Start by polishing your product and making it more appealing, doing some search engine wizardry and citations listing, trying to get some shoutouts… Then, you should consider creating some additional media as well as getting the most out of search engine marketing. You should also get a feel of the competition in your niche and your local area in general.
If you’re satisfied with the first 6 months, the remaining ones should build on the initial success. Continue your marketing campaign, expand your backlinks and – in some of the luckier cases – consider reaching out to a broader audience. Be sure to keep up with the latest trends – a lot can change in half a year’s time.
But what if things aren’t going so well within the first 6 months? If 2-3 months have passed and you aren’t getting anywhere near the results you wanted, don’t be afraid to scrap your existing plan and go back to the drawing board, keeping awareness of what went wrong. Although… you won’t really be needing this paragraph since you hired us to help you with your marketing strategy.