Make marketing matter

Get Savvy with your Marketing!

Visibility in the marketplace is more important than ever for business owners right now. Taking a fresh look at how you market your business is vital. An appropriate, focused marketing strategy could be the difference between success and failure in such testing times.

How do you see your marketing budget? A cost, or an investment?

When times are hard and finances are a struggle often the kneejerk reaction can be to tighten those purse strings and make cuts to spending and investing. This is completely logical but can also be detrimental to a business surviving and moving forward. In many circumstances it would more savvy to think of marketing as an investment rather than a cost. Now is the time to get people to initiate a purchase process with streetwise marketing that will generate a measurable return on investment.

You need to grab people’s attention, then track their flow from your marketing activity all the way through to the purchase. Design a strategy that provokes a call to action and builds a transaction. Despite the current situation we’re in, people haven’t stopped buying, in some cases businesses are thriving right now. So now could be the time to double your marketing effort, your business really needs to stand out. Ensure you’re marketing your business in the most efficient way possible:

• Treat your marketing budget as an investment rather than a cost: it’s an investment to get a return further down the line. Ensure you have a scalable and predictable marketing programme. If you were to put a £10 note into a ‘machine’ and the machine gave you a £20 note in return, it’s safe to say you would happily deposit many more £10 notes. Make your marketing do that.
• Marketing is a numbers game. You need to understand the numbers that govern your marketing activity. Knowing what the return on investment is early in the process is key to driving successful campaigns. Measure it using metrics like cost-per-lead and cost-per-customer. If you know those numbers, it’s then predictable and scalable: you then have access to that proverbial ‘machine’. You’re now in a position where you know that if it costs you £20 to buy a customer and you get a return of £50, you’ll keep spending the money wisely and driving further investment.
• Firstly, before you start spending money, be really clear about who your target market is; understand their needs and where they hang out in the greatest numbers, then go after them with a compelling offer and draw them into your web.
• Progressively build up to at least 10 different marketing strategies for your business to widen the top of the lead funnel. Savvy business owners are now getting to grips with numerous digital tools by hosting online seminars, recording podcasts, developing filmmaking and editing skills and posting movies on YouTube, and learning how to best use Facebook Live and connect with larger audiences. Whether you’re creating an audiobook or webinar, make sure you promote the channel properly. You never know who will be watching and buying into you.
• Make sure you have a functional website which is optimised for Google. Having a website is one thing, but if people can’t find it, you’re wasting your time. Not only does it need to be discoverable, but it also needs lots of doors and calls to action, as well as clear signposting of your social media accounts.
• Finally, don’t forget that once you have a great website and lots of marketing strategies established, it’s absolutely essential you move your audience from one place to another to generate the transaction. Use communication to convert an online to an offline audience. An alternative tool is to get people attending a Zoom webinar or chat, and from that you will have generated a digital mailing list – utilise this list and ensure you engage with the participants and follow up on whether you can help them with anything. Let them know how you can solve their problems – in an uncertain world, people are looking for certainty and direction.