5 Tips For Developing A Marketing Strategy For Your Small Business

Creating a marketing strategy for your small business doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does take some forethought and planning. Before you jump in with both feet and start working on the actual promotional materials, come up with a solid plan of attack that will help you make the most of your limited time and resources as well as keep your focus in line with your goals. The following five tips are sure to help you develop an effective marketing strategy that will increase sales and boost the success of your small business!

1) Begin with a list of goals

Marketing is a vital aspect of any small business, but it can be difficult to know where to start. To help you develop a clear marketing strategy, we’ve put together five useful tips:

Brainstorm ideas and goals for the company and marketing campaigns.

Identify target markets.

Research competitors.

Define what success looks like.

Build a budget plan for your campaign.

There are many expenses involved in marketing a small trade or service, including printing materials and postage. It’s important to have a solid understanding of your goals before putting too much time or money into developing a campaign. Consider what type of materials will work best for your target market – There are many ways that you can market yourself on social media, depending if you are a B2B – business to business or B2C business to customer; such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram etc. But if you want to reach customers who are not yet on these platforms, other methods such as flyers, pamphlets, and email might work better for those prospective clients that don’t frequent social media.

2) Strategize around what you can control

How to Research your market.

Identify the product or service that you offer, your target audience, and the competition. This will not only help you with marketing but will also give you a better idea of what advertising would work best for your company. Make sure to set goals and objectives so you know how to keep track of progress as well as be able to create new campaigns in the future. It is important to have patience when it comes to marketing because it takes time for any business to build their brand recognition so make sure you are prepared before starting a campaign. Also don’t forget to keep up with changes and trends within your industry.

3) Consider who you’re targeting

What does your customer want?  How can you solve a need they have? What age are they?  Which platform does your demographic engage with? Questions like these will help you put together a marketing strategy that is not only effective, but also aligns with the wants and needs of your clients. Keep this in mind as you create each part of your marketing plan. Be sure to use the same tone relevant to the group you are targeting across all platforms- social media, website, email blasts- and make sure that it’s always clear what you’re trying to say.

Finally, be consistent! If you change anything about your business or marketing approach after you’ve already established yourself on certain platforms or channels, people might get confused or think something is wrong. You should revisit your strategy periodically to see if it still meets all of your goals and objectives.

4) Define how you will measure success

The key to knowing if your marketing strategy is working is by establishing measurable success metrics. Every company should be tracking how many new customers they are acquiring through any particular marketing campaign. If your company is using a different metric for measuring success, make sure you can quantify it in a way that’s easy to understand.

As an example, let’s say your target customer is families with children who are under the age of five. You could measure success as the number of times parents Like your Facebook page or sign up for your email list during a given time period. 

In addition to understanding what makes up a successful marketing campaign, establish goals: To be successful at marketing, you need to know what you want out of the project before starting. What do you hope to accomplish? What will success look like for you? Do you want more traffic on your website? Do you want more people to purchase a product from your e-commerce store? Do you want to gain brand awareness and name recognition in the industry?

5) Establish how much time you have to devote

Start by asking yourself how much time you can commit to your marketing strategy. Is this going to be a side-hustle on the weekends, or are you committing to devote 10 hours per week? Once you know the time commitment, focus on which marketing activities are best for your business needs and then create an action plan with specific tactics and timelines.

As you progress through your plan, adjust as needed – this is all about trial and error. The more you test out different strategies, the better idea of what will work for your company!

We recommend a start-up company to devote at least 15% of their time on marketing. If you have more time to spend, that’s great! But if you’re just starting out, don’t feel like you need to have an elaborate strategy. Start simple and add on as needed.