Prepare, Activate & Perfect! There is the famous saying;”If you fail to plan, plan to fail”. Preparing your marketing strategy should cover some key elements. Research – Who are you selling to? Who is your customer? Who are your competitors? What is going on in your market place?
The next step is to write it down. A recent survey I carried out showed 60% of business owners did not have a written sales & marketing strategy. Writing what you plan to do helps you to focus and commit to the activities and actions you want to do to achieve your goals for your business.
After this you need to prepare a budget! Even if it is only a small budget – it will help to keep you on track and also help your suppliers when they are working with you.
From the preparation – you can go into the activation of the strategy and then perfecting it!
Activate – Now you have your plan you can start to activate it. The key with marketing activities is to try and do a little bit each month and on a consistent basis. It doesn’t have to be a lot – and consistency is the key. I liken it to a hamster wheel! In order to get the hamster wheel going there is a lot of momentum needed to start turning. Once it is going then it is really easy and can continue for a long time. The same is true of marketing; get it going and it will start to work for you. Stop it and you will need to put a lot of effort and time into getting it moving again.
Perfect – Tracking, Tracking & Tracking! A good marketing strategy will have a check & review process built in to ensure that you are checking what is working and what is not. Do more of what is working and either change or get rid of what is not! Have you perfected your sales pitch? You need to be your best sales person so when someone asks what it is you do, be clear and concise. Have confidence in what you do and what you help your clients with and why they would benefit working from you.
Now we go back to the beginning – Prepare, Activate, Perfect! A marketing strategy never sits still!
Prepare, Activate, Perfect