Marketing is an integral part of any business venture. In the past, marketing just consisted of a few people in the room who had a good sense of what consumers like to engage in; today, we live in a different world. The kind and method of marketing, along with which audiences you want to reach out to, are various and varied. What you need for your business may be insignificant to your competitor or collaborators, and what you excel in may be just what competitors need to incorporate.
While marketing has become far more nuanced and interactive as the industry has grown, there are some practical aspects that will hurt you business if you do no stay on top of them. The world is ever growing and businesses need to not only keep up, but remain proactive in their goals. Some angles to consider when going over your marketing strategy are as follows:
Take Your Marketing Strategy Seriously
The first step to a plan is to actually decide on a plan. Your marketing is no different from any other aspect of your business; you need to decide and budget specifics, as well as look ahead in how to measure success. Measuring success is important because you need to know if what you implement is a waste of time and money, or if it accomplishes exactly what you intended it to. For that to happen, however, you need to have intentions that you can articulate and map out.
Interactivity Is Key
Many business today know that social media is important, yet do not know where to start. Over half of small businesses lack a website in a world where billions of people use the internet. The simple fact is, no matter what you want to accomplish, you need these two things to gain and retain an audience. You can’t afford to lack some sort of online presence!
A website and a social media presence are important today, but keep in mind that only a good website and powerful social media presence will get you where you need to go.
Think of it this way: if you create something and just place it in the middle of the street, no one is going to buy it just because they see it. You need to know what kinds of media work for your business and, oftentimes, there are built in systems to measure the success of that media. If not, there are ways to outsource that data, but that requires a knowledge of what you need, what you want, and if there’s a middle ground to work with.
Your Network Is A Resource
You need to know how your audience communicates to best communicate with them. You should avoid being a jack-of-all-trades because it is a waste of time, money, and energy. Your content needs to be quality and consistent, but you also need to know who would actually buy into the dream you are selling. If you start with those people, you can only go up.
You also need a network of professionals to get the word out. This isn’t always available but, as a business owner, it should be in the works. As you grow your business, get to know others in your field and do well by them, even if the interaction is limited. Things like referrals build a professional reputation, which is just as crucial to your marketing as you throwing money at a strategy.
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– Kris Johnson