This is probably the number one question that small business owners ask themselves every day.
What does marketing strategy even mean?
Marketing strategies vary from company to company and generally include market research, advertising, branding, sales, and PR. Each company has a different type of marketing strategy that they believe will help them reach its objectives.
Why You Need A Strategy For Your Small Business
To be competitive in today’s market, you need to establish a marketing strategy.
As an owner of your own small local business, you need to know how each element of a print marketing strategy applies to your business and how it can best support your company to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Focusing on print over something more digital-focused is a great idea for small local businesses as it will help you attract your target market much easier and connect with them on a personal level.
Start with the Goal of your Briefing
What are you trying to achieve, and what do you want from it?
This is often referred to as a business brief and will be the basis for all marketing strategies your company undertakes, print as well as digital.
Get Clear on Marketing Objectives
Who is your target audience? What do they want, and how can you give it to them?
This can be done by conducting market research or asking current customers, suppliers, investors, and employees.
From this research, you can indicate what you have learned and what other information you need to find out more about. More importantly, this should show where your best opportunities currently lie and where they are likely to lie in the future.
Develop Your Ideas by Thinking About Your Customer
What do they care about? What are their interests? What are their pain points? How might they be persuaded or enticed with a new product or service that addresses these needs? How could you use this product or service in an innovative way? Further to print marketing, consider implementing a Loyalty Card App system to promote customer loyalty and retention.
Developing your ideas includes looking at your marketing content and materials. Invest in getting a good designer and a good printing service like Soyang Europe to ensure your marketing materials are high quality.
Put a Budget in Place
This might include investment in new technology or systems to support information sharing.
The budget might also include investment in marketing activities such as attending events to meet new customers.
Always assume your budget will be at least 20% higher than the amount you initially estimated if you want it to be realistic. You may need to revisit this budget each year so that it keeps up with your growing company’s needs.
Plan Out All of the Activities You Need to Complete
Break your strategy down into steps and include who is going to do each activity, when it will be completed and what resources are required for each activity.
This helps you stay on track throughout the entire process, but don’t forget to leave enough time to test your strategy and make changes where necessary.
