Is growing your customer base your top priority in 2023? The good news is you have hundreds of ways to create leads and new relationships. But with so many options, is it any wonder small business owners get overwhelmed? Yet choosing the best marketing strategies for your business is a key to getting more customers — and doing it profitably.
Past performance can be a good indicator. So start there. When evaluating previous marketing strategies, consider three things: the number of leads generated, the quality of those leads, and your return on investment. If something is working, keep doing it.
If it’s not producing enough quality sales, then it’s time to look in other directions and add some new methods to your mix.
7 Questions to Choose the Best Marketing Strategies
What products or services do I want to promote? You don’t need to promote every product or service you offer. Invest in the most profitable or those that are in the highest demand. Avoid trying to sell everything to everyone with your marketing. It’s costly and a recipe for failure.
Related: Do Your Products or Services Need a Facelift?
How do my target customers like to give and receive information? Too often businesses choose what is trendy or maybe low-cost. Do your customers prefer communication in-person, by phone, email, snail mail, text, digital, or social media? It may vary based on the type of information. And they may be okay with multiple methods. Choose what works best for them.
How many touches do I actually need to build relationships and create sales for my business? It takes more than one or two contacts to build awareness, nurture relationships and create a sale. With so much noise in the market, ten or more is typical. For higher-priced services, where prospects may perceive more risk, the number of touches may be greater. So build a variety of possible touch-points and deliver the same message consistently.
How can I get existing customers to keep buying, buy more, or buy more frequently? The short answer is to stay connected and continue to market to them. Invest some of your marketing dollars in your current and past customers. It’s also a lot cheaper to market to those who already know and like you!
How much time and money should I invest? Consistency in marketing matters. Marketing strategies have both a time and money component. Some, like networking and social media, are low-cost but consume a lot of time. Others, like direct mail or pay-per-click, require a higher money investment but little time. The key is to balance out your time and money investments so you can do marketing consistently throughout the year.
What do I like and what am I good at? Let’s face it, nothing happens until you implement your marketing strategies. When choosing, most people avoid what they dislike or struggle with. It makes them uncomfortable. First, recognize this bias and try some things outside your comfort zone. Then do what others do: delegate, outsource, or learn how to do it effectively.
How do I systematize my marketing so it gets done easily, effectively, and profitably? Once you have decided on what you want to do, create the campaign, implement it, monitor it, modify it and document it! Look for ways to make it easy, repeatable, and more effective the next time. When your marketing takes less time and effort and still delivers the return on investment you want, you will find it’s not so overwhelming. You may actually grow to like it!
Ready to Put Your Business on the Path to Success?
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