Are You Under-utilizing The Marketing in Your Business?

One of the most under-utilized methods for growing your business and the value of your business is marketing. However, you can’t just run out and start slinging money at random marketing options. You need a plan. I’m going to ask you to slow down. Take the time to research and focus then devise a plan that utilizes the marketing options that best work for your business. Quit complaining that your “random” marketing doesn’t work.

What a Basic Marketing Plan Addresses

When you’re growing the value of your company, developing a strategy will add more value than you might consider. Therefore, I want to look at the basics of a marketing plan.

1. First, you make a goal. What is it you want to accomplish? Do you want to increase your profitability by $100 per patient or per customer? Do you want to increase your patient or customer base from 1,000 to 1,500?
2. Second, you need to identify the challenges you will face as you try to achieve your marketing goal. Are your current customers uninterested in high-end procedures or products? Have you tapped-out available patients and customers in your zip code?
3. Last, you must know who your target audience is. “Anyone who breathes” doesn’t help you target your market. You must get specific. Know your target consumer’s age, gender, likes, dislikes, pain points, and more. The better you know your audience, the better you can market to them.

RELATED ARTICLE: How to Develop a Marketing Plan for Your Startup

The Discovery Process

Once you’ve identified your target market, then you must figure out how to move your product or service in front of them. How will you do that?

• Research your competition. Who are your competitors? Are they geographically close to you or are they close on the Internet? Why are they your competition? What do they offer that you don’t? How are they marketing differently than you are? Are they marketing at all?
• Create a targeted message. What does your target market need? Does your product or service make their lives better? What value does your product or service bring them?
• Examine your tactics and advertising channels. How will you get your message in front of your target market? Will you use social media? Print advertising? Television, radio, YouTube, blogging, public speaking, or word of mouth? What would your target market be most likely to see or hear?
• Set a budget. How much money are you willing to spend? Will you spend a certain percentage of your gross revenue or your profits?
• Use metrics to grade your results. How will you judge the results of your marketing campaign? Will you analyze increased revenue? Will you measure your results by the number of followers on your social media accounts?

RELATED ARTICLE: Readdressing Your Marketing Campaign System for Business Continuity

Utilizing The Marketing Options

Ultimately, though, you must do more than other businesses do to utilize your marketing plan and make it advantageous for your company. To set your business and your marketing plan apart from others, I recommend doing the following things:

• Implement and integrate your sales strategy into your marketing plan. – In other words, listen to your sales team for customers’ pain points and work with them to understand how well the marketing efforts are working for them when they’re communicating with customers.
• Document your marketing plan and its results. – Keep track of what you try and how well it works.
• Tie your marketing plan into your business goals. – Maybe even use marketing to accomplish one or more of your business goals.
• Reference your marketing plan often. – Don’t build one and throw it on the shelf. Have it visible to all team members at all times so they know and understand the plan.
• Make your marketing plan a living document. – As you document what works and what doesn’t work, revise your plan.

Any business owner can do marketing. But it takes a savy company to follow-through with, track, and revise a real plan. The companies that can utilize a marketing plan effectively can increase sales and increase the value of their businesses. So, what are you doing to utilize your marketing plan?

For more information on this topic, be sure to listen to my Podcast! You can find it on iTunes,  Stitcher, Spotify,  and many other channels.

Continue in our Marketing series with: 9 Core Elements Of Marketing