All the entrepreneurs prepare a strong business plan before starting their venture. But most of us fail to build a strong marketing strategy, which is equally important. Marketing strategy helps you to attract customers to the business. A well-designed marketing strategy enables you to reach out to the customers and let them know about the products or services you offer.
It is not that hard to create a marketing strategy for your business. You can create a good marketing strategy by following some simple steps, or you can also hire the services of StoryBrand Certified Guide to design an effective marketing plan.
A StoryBrand Certified Guide will use the 7 step process of StoryBrand to design a marketing strategy that actually works. They create engaging stories to attract prospective clients and convert them into loyal customers for the business. StoryBrand guides believe in the philosophy that stories attract customers.
Steps in Creating a Successful Marketing Strategy
- Identify Your Target Customers And Gain In-depth Knowledge About Them
In order to get a high return on investment, it is essential to know about your target customers. Identifying target customers aids in creating a tailor-made marketing strategy that engages with them. Create a buyer persona, think about how your prospective customers would look like and chart out other details about demographics such as gender, age, location, education, income level, etc.
Create a very clear buyer persona by collecting real data from real people. Schedule interviews with your existing customers. You can also send out surveys to prospective customers and existing customers. Collecting accurate data will help you to define buyer persona clearly and devise a marketing strategy to suit the target customers.
- Research About Your Competitors
Every business has some competitors. Even if you’re the leader in the market, there will be competitors eventually, who will come up with innovative ideas to promote their products. Conduct thorough market research to assess competitors. Conducting competitor research will help you to identify untapped opportunities and find winning solutions to stand apart from the competitors. You can use online tools and social media to find out what your competitors are up to
- Choose the Right Marketing Channels
There is a wide range of marketing channels to reach out to your prospective customers. You can choose the traditional advertising channels, like newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc. or you can use digital marketing channels such as content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO.
Choose appropriate marketing channels that match the interests of your target customers. If you want to get a high return on investment in your marketing strategy, it’s advisable to choose the marketing channels carefully. Break down the potential channels into three categories- owned channels, earned channels, and paid media.
Owned marketing channels are the channels, which are owned and controlled by you. They include your email lists, websites, and blogs. You should have at least 2 owned channels to ensure that you do not depend on other platforms to promote your products.
Earned media is the exposure received from outside sources. They include guest posts on other websites, media coverage, and SEO. Earned media enables you to attract prospective clients through using the popularity of other websites or publications. You should have at least one earned media channel in your marketing strategy.
Paid media, as the name suggests, are media channels that you need to pay. They include Google Adwords, ads on social media, advertisements on TV and Radio, and sponsored updates on social media apps. Set a budget and experiment with different paid media and choose the one that works best for you.
A StoryBrand Certified Guide will help you to devise efficient marketing strategies to suit different media channels. They create engaging stories that speak to the customer and attract them to your brand.
Study Your Sales Funnel
The sales funnel consists of four steps, with awareness at the top end, followed by interest, desire, and action. First, you have to create awareness among people about the products or services, then generate interest by educating them about the possible uses of your product and how it helps them to solve their problems.
Next, you have to generate a sense of desire and compel them to act in your favor. Breaking down the sales funnel and analyzing it will help you to identify weak links and take action to overcome them.
Create SMART Marketing Goals
Create SMART marketing goals. These goals should be aligned with your business goals. Marketing goals should be specific and measurable. They have to be actionable, relevant to your business, and timely. SMART goals will aid to keep your marketing strategy focussed. You can measure the performance and take necessary actions.
A good marketing strategy is of utmost importance to business organizations. It helps to make the customers aware of your offerings and generates interest and desire to invest in your products. Creating a marketing strategy requires time and effort. You can also hire a StoryBrand Certified Guide to design your marketing strategy. A StoryBrand Certified Guide can create an efficient marketing strategy for your business. They are trained and experienced in creating brand stories that appeal to the customers and increase your revenues.