A short article with advice on when you are considering starting a marketing plan for your business
Like many companies out there, you may not have a clue about professional marketing planning and techniques. Not many businesses do. They get lost behind the others who use professional marketing practices. Most companies out there will just send out the odd letter or email, maybe put an advert in the Yellow Pages but this isn’t reaching your full potential as a business. A lot of companies also make the mistake of thinking that creating a website will instantly give them exposure. A website will go nowhere without proper marketing, it will in fact get lost with 95% of websites out there. If you think of how many successful websites you know, there are many, many more online achieving great success. They account for only 5% of websites on the internet so you can imagine how many websites get lost and ignored just because of bad marketing techniques. It is not because the websites themselves don’t actually work, it is because the companies creating them either don’t have any marketing knowledge, the website doesn’t particularly look good or they just don’t understand the importance of marketing their website. Some companies create great looking websites but do not get any traffic; they may as well have not bothered at all.
However, this being said, it means that if you do decide to put in place a good marketing strategy then you’re likely to be ahead of your rivals in terms of actively seeking new customers. As mentioned earlier only 5% of the internet is successful, so you have already beat 95% of other websites on the internet. Think about that, 5% of the internet isn’t going to all be in the same field as you. There are many different businesses in a variety of industries; this may mean that your competition may only be 3 or 4 other businesses. As long as you put the effort in, understand your competition and your customers you could well place yourself in pole position when vying for business.
All you have to remember is to find your niche, how would you like people to remember you or what would you like them to know you by? Come up with a plan and stick to it properly, don’t be intimidated and remember that all good marketing strategies take time. You don’t have a lot of people to beat so if you can invest the time and effort you will definitely get far and have a great outcome. It just takes time but is definitely worth it.
Find your target market; only you will know this, who are you marketing to, and who do you want to buy your products or services and who will benefit the most from them? What kind of things are going to catch their eye and make them more likely to buy from you or come back to you or recommend you? Work out what the most effective way to market those people and document every method you try and the outcome of them as well; figure out what works and what doesn’t. Whatever works then try, tweak and try again.
