Now that the world is coming out of its recessionary doldrums, it's time to take advantage of the opportunities to grow your business. Here are 5 simple steps to make sure your marketing will achieve your goals:
1) Validate your understanding of your customers. A lot may have changed with them over the last year. Spend some time this fall finding out:
- what are their biggest challenges
- how are they making decisions about what you sell
- what sources of information are they using now (and what do they trust)
2) create a profile of your target customers
- define what their characteristics and needs are.
3) create a clear strategy.
- what types of clients do you most want to attract (your target market)
- what do you offer to them (your value proposition)
- why should they buy from you (your competitive advantage)
4) identify the tactics you will use
- what specific tactics are you going to employ to reach your customers and generate awareness of your company. your tactics should relate to your priorities - is it to create awareness, generate leads, enhance perception of your brand?
5) identify new tactics and tools and experiment with them
- spend 10 - 15% of your annual marketing budget on new tools and media you haven't used before. the marketing world is changing fast. you have to innovate or in a few years you'll find your company badly out of date.
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