Have you ever heard the expression ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail’? It’s a good rule for life, but it goes for your marketing too. Many business owners have a good plan in place for promoting their business during the first 6 months to 1 year of running their business, but when year 2 rolls around they start to get a bit lost. Some just keep on going with the same marketing plan as before, which can lead to them seeming ‘out of touch’ with current affairs and marketing messages.
At Moyralla Marketing we’re big advocates of putting as much planning into your marketing strategy as your marketing materials. After all, pouring energy and money into leaflets, websites and social media will only get you so far if there’s no tactics behind using them. By planning and reviewing your marketing efforts every few months, your business can stay fresh and agile, and always deliver the right content to the right people. That means looking at 3 main areas.
The Needs Of Your Audience
While the demographic in your head about your audience might stay the same (aged 25-30, female, owns own business, for example), the needs of that demographic might not. Buyer attitudes and behaviour are changing all the time, so if you want to keep attracting your ideal customer, you need to keep your finger on the pulse.
This is a huge part of your marketing effort, and one that shapes everything you do. After all, you don’t want to be sending your prospects irrelevant information, do you? Instead, by conducting regular market research and tracking the patterns of your sales, you can get a better idea of what is important to your customers. You can then take that information and use it to modify your marketing efforts, delivering the right message to fit your audience. To be clear you don’t have to start the whole market research process all over again – instead simply revisit some of the information and check if it’s still accurate. If it’s not, you can look into it in more detail and adjust your marketing efforts to match it.
Your Content
Your content is informed by your audience needs, and shaped by the platforms you use. This means you need to understand both in order to get the best results. Planning your content in advance allows you to draw a narrative for your readers through your content. Instead of sending out unrelated blogs, newsletters and social media posts, you can create an interconnected theme, so that every time your prospects see your marketing, your message is being reinforced.
You could divide your content month by month and theme it, so that for example September will be all about back to school. Or you could plan your content around the offers you have running that month, or any other theme you like – the options are endless. By planning in advance you are showing your customers that you care about them and your businesses, and that you take pride in your cohesive marketing strategy.
Your Distribution Strategy
Of course, it’s not just your content that takes some planning. Once you have decided what to talk about, you need to figure out where to put it. Where are your blogs going to live? Will they be cross published to forums, on LinkedIn or promoted in your newsletter? How will you build up your mailing list, and which social media platforms are best to spread your message? Are you looking to create video content on platforms like YouTube, which could be chopped up and repurposed into short pieces on TikTok and Instagram reels?
Your distribution strategy is almost as important as your content, and it keeps you on track for delivering the right messages to the right people in the right way. If you can do that, you are well on your way to seeing more interest and more sales.
Small businesses evolve quickly, and part of the reason so many survive is their agility. Your target audience today may only be a fraction of the audience who buys from you tomorrow, which is why you need a strong strategy in place that you are regularly reviewing.
Marketing and social media is a very fast-moving world, but if you can keep up with it, it can bring some truly great returns. At Moyralla Marketing, we help businesses of all shapes and sizes make the most of marketing with bespoke support, training, and done-for-you options. If you would like to know more, just get in touch with us today to get the ball rolling.
