Marketing and business strategy
So you want to take your business viral, make a heap of money and sit back
watching the pile grow with a quaint Marketing and business strategy.
Don’t we all?
The marketing world is changing so fast that any report over about 12 months old is not current.
I lived in the olden days when Yellow Pages were the primary marketing tool for business. It cost me about $18,000 a year and we never knew if it worked or not.
It was like Blackmail, you had to be in it.
Seems to be a bit like a web page now.
The difference is a Webpage lasts the distance, you build it once and then just manage the content.
The big boys are still paying out $600 plus a month for SEO and many thousands for Paid clicks.
A friend of mine is paying over a thousand a day for clicks, yep you read that right. Selling a finance package so they get a return.
Another friend promotes her Hairdressing salon completely free on Instagram, Full studio and lined up for bookings. In fact, her brother rang for a Haircut to go to a special occasion and she had to recommend a good Barbour.
So what is your business strategy?
I posted recently about Donald Trump using Twitter as a strategy. He is brand building and using controversy to ignite the readership of his posts. Not only do people read the post the News agencies rehash it and talk about it. Like him or loathe him the strategy works.
I have talked about Kayla Itenes who branded her Bikini body workout using Instagram. Millionaire overnight.
Marketing strategy or building a marketing plan.
You must have a great Website and SEO policy in place.
If you want to learn more about that go to The Wealthy Affiliate for free training.
Are you and your Key people registered in Linked In with a full Bio.
It is where important people will find you and a must do.
Yes, a Facebook page is necessary, Don’t groan out loud it is still the number one tool for delivering people to your website.
How do Facebook and web pages work together?
Let’s take a little sidetrack here and explain something really important. The role of a webpage and a Facebook page. They are different and have really different roles.
A Facebook page is to entertain and explain, to educate and to Brand your business.
Facebook will send people to the webpage, not the other way around.
Your Webpage is a sales Vehicle, it takes customers on a journey that will end up with them buying a product. You don’t want to send them away to waste time on social media. You want them in the sales door fully armed with product information.
Don’t get these confused, Use them as tools to achieve an end.
Targeting your clients.
Pick your market and work your market. You can’t be there for everyone. Yes, there is overflow marketing and an example could be a Kids store.
A majority of buyers will be young mothers but what about the Grandparents? They will be buyers as well. The difference is that you can target the Yummies on say Instagram but the oldies won’t be there.
Look at the bigger picture.
Social media must be current
One problem with all social media is that it must be current. You must post and post regularly or you achieve a negative impact. This is both easy to do and really hard to do.
You can do posts a week or month ahead by using web tools or just the Facebook post Scheduler.
The hard bit is doing it.
Think about when you visit a page and see no activity for a month or worse longer. They don’t care.
So why should you?
Where do you want to market, local or national or even International?
For local marketing use Trade Directories.
For local marketing pick out every trade directory you can find and place an advert in them.
How do you find them? Google whatever business you are in and they will take up most spots on pages one and two. Do they work, not that well but in total they give you a presence and will generate some traffic.
Google and YouTube, are they for business?
Yes, they certainly are, Youtube searches outrank the others so you need to be seen to be believed.
This is a younger demographic search but the older do as well.
Have you searched for how to do something and watched a video. I did it the other day. I wanted to adjust the brakes on my Pushbike and I could not get it right. Google YouTube, watch the video and all done.
I use Noble samurai as my video builder because it is easy, cheap and reliable, try it out for free and my connection here, you get a bonus by using this link.
Google my business, a free listing of your address and how you can be found.
Now a word of warning on your marketing plan.
Don’t do a plan and stick it in the draw. It is a daily review if something is not working to make changes on the fly.
When to make changes?
A couple of examples for you:
I do a lot of SMS marketing, I will send out say a thousand messages for about $150. The responses will be instant because people read act or delete so there is no shelf life. If it does not work we change something and try again until we get it correct.
If I place an Advert in a magazine that ends up in a Doctors surgery it has a long-term shelf life, perhaps years so it is hard to quantify.
Branding and your marketing plan.
In small business don’t fall for the old branding trick, your Advert is not delivering sales but you look good, rubbish.
For the small business, you want customers and sales and branding will be in the background. Concentrate on getting them in the door at a cost you can afford and delivering an ROI that you can be proud of.
Consistency is the key to marketing.
This is the age of instant gratification, we want to be fed information and the more the better. If you are using social media the target is daily, or twice daily not monthly.
Your Web Page needs new input at least weekly and your results need viewing daily. Things change so be ready to go with them
My final say on Marketing and business strategy.
This is not a nice to do subject, it is a must do project that will impact your business. Make a plan, review the plan and make changes when things don’t work. A few words can make a difference, a nice picture, addressing people by name, just little changes can make a big difference.
Enjoy the journey
Peter Hanley
