"He who fails to plan is planning to fail" ~ Winston Churchill
Most business owners see marketing as a necessary evil, that is primarily a set and forget task. You do what you have to in order for people to be able to find your business and purchase your goods and services, but there is little strategy behind it. So when they launch the business, they create a website and social media accounts, but then fail to leverage them to their full potential or keep them up-to-date. Is marketing really that simple? Is its only purpose to drive sales? Or is marketing more important?
Why you should be marketing & what marketing is most important?
Marketing is far more complex than simply advertising products and services in order to make sales. In fact, during the development of your product/services, you should be engaging the services of a marketer.
Great marketing starts at the inception of your business. It begins with market research and analysis to determine the viability of your business. Once viability is determined, marketing should be used to identify and assist you to understand your ideal customer. This information should then be used throughout your product & service development; to tailor them for your ideal customer; to ensure that your RRP and offering is commensurate with sales targets; that your design and aesthetic is tailored to your ideal customer; and that your presence online (on social media for example) is targeted toward your ideal customer.
Once marketing has helped you to clarify your ideal customer and tailor your service and/or product to them, market research and analysis is used to help determine the best way to distribute your product/service. Should it be via an online store, a physical shop, throughout department stores - and if so, which ones?
Only at this stage does marketing become about sales and advertising.
Marketing allows you to reach your ideal customer to tell them about your products/services.
Marketing allows you to determine which messaging is going to best resonate with your customer.
Marketing involves designing your customer’s purchase journey for maximum conversion.
Once you establish what the customer journey looks like, then it is time to create sales and marketing resources you require to create your customers' purchase journey, and push live this journey (launch your website, social media profiles, ads, email marketing automations and internal sales resources).
Once your purchase journey is live, your marketing team will be able to assist you with the language and responses that you will need for your customer service, and customer retention and re-engagement strategies.
Where do most businesses fall down with their marketing?
Most businesses completely miss leveraging marketing throughout the planning stage - particularly when it comes to product & service development. For most businesses they only consider marketing when:
Launching a new business after already determining their products and services.
When sales are slow and they want to drive quick returns.
When rebranding or launching a new product/service.
When there has been capital investment in the business, and/or new management.
At Optimax Agency, we always recommend a long term marketing strategy as they support predictable & stable business growth.
Rather than having to start fresh with each marketing push, wouldn’t it be better to have a long term strategy in place that can be pivoted and iterated to include new product/services and changes in the market?
Isn’t prevention better than a cure? ~ Desiderius Erasmus
With an always on, long term marketing strategy, your business is empowered to operate with a more predictable and stable growth trajectory. While there will always be a time and place for short term marketing strategies, and in some instances (such as rebrands and product/service launches) they are completely appropriate, our recommendation is always that these strategies should work in conjunction with your long term marketing strategy.
Your long term strategy should look at your business goals over the next 1-5 years (and beyond). They should work to reduce the cost of your short term strategies when you run them, by ensuring that your cornerstone marketing components (like your website) are optimised for customer experience and search engine optimisation, which reduces the cost of marketing components like Google ads, by improving your Quality Score. This will drive higher conversion rates, due to excellent user experience (UX).
Optimax Agency is a Toowoomba based marketing agency servicing clients throughout Australia. We work with your business to ensure that you are successful in reaching your goals by supporting profitable growth with strategic marketing.
If you require assistance with your marketing, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to schedule an obligation free appointment hello@optimaxagency.com.au
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