What value can marketing provide your business?

Do you ever feel like marketing your business is just too hard? Don’t give up. It just takes a bit of planning to make marketing an asset that is well-directed and cost-effective.

1. WIIFM?

Marketing ‘What’s In It For Me?’ is the question every customer asks when they find out about your product or service.

Businesses often talk about themselves and how good they are. This is not what potential customers want to hear. They want to know what your product/service can do for them, to meet their needs or to make them feel good.

2. Plan a strategy

Develop a plan for marketing your product or service. Put aside preconceived ideas you have about the type of marketing you should be doing and consider all options. Research what mediums are best suited to your product or service.

For example: Radio Advertising

Positives: creates awareness, can be targeted, promotes brand image, is a mainstream medium, will invoke an immediate response.
Negatives: the cost, it requires frequency/ repetition, and is non-visual.

3. Budget

Allocate a set amount of money, perhaps a percentage of your annual gross turnover, to your marketing budget. Spend this allocation on the strategy you have put together for your business, rather than on ideas you get on the run and implement because they seemed like a good idea at the time. This is money wasted.

It’s not how much money you spend that matters. It’s how you spend it, as part of your overall plan, and the results you achieve.

4. Develop an identity

Work out what your business stands for: what do you offer customers?

marketing For example, are you just another business selling lawnmowers, or are you a family business that provides great customer service, stands by the products it sells and provides aftersales service and repairs, which is why everyone keeps coming back? Think through how you want to present your business to potential customers.

5. Measure marketing performance

Many businesses don’t do this, but how else will you know whether your marketing dollars are correctly allocated and working for you? You can measure marketing performance by asking people how they heard about your company when they call, see if there’s a boost in sales for a specific period during a promotion or check if there has been a spike in traffic to your website.

HOW CAN RSM HELP?

If you have any questions regarding your business marketing plan get in touch with your local RSM office.