“Marketing is not an event, but a process…It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely.” – Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing. He also suggests 10 reasons- “Why your business need keep doing marketing”:
1. The market is continually changing
2. Marketing is essential to survival and growth
3. Marketing strengthens your identity
4. People forget quickly
5. Marketing enables you to keep your customers
6. Marketing maintains morale
7. Your competitors won’t quit
8. Your marketing program gives you an advantage over competitors who have ceased to market
9. Marketing allows your business to continue marketing
10. You stand to lose out on the money, time, and effort you’ve already invested if you stop
How do you start marketing your business? This boils down to your business marketing journey which should start from marketing strategy and marketing plan.
Marketing strategy
A marketing strategy is an explanation of the goals you need to achieve with your marketing efforts. It is a big picture of what a business will do in some market. Your marketing strategy is shaped by your business goals. Your business goals and your marketing strategy should go hand-in-hand. Simple as What to do!
A marketing plan is a written statement of a marketing strategy and the time-related details for carrying out the strategy. It’s attracting potential customers and turning them into paying customers and retaining them! Simple as How to do!
Most small businesses try to set out to achieve the “how” without first knowing the “what.” This can end up wasting time and budget. Here is an example of how the two work together:
Goal: Increase 10% of new patients in 6 months
Marketing Strategy: Introduce service to the new target audience.
Marketing Plan: Develop a marketing campaign that identifies and reaches out to that specific audiences.
Marketing Strategy should at least include:
1. What are your goal and objectives?
2. Who are your target audiences?
3. What service do you market/sell?
4. What is the benefit and purpose of your service?
5. Why does it work? Any proof?
A marketing plan should at least include:
1. A Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
2. A marketing mix (Product/Price/Place/Promote)
3. A marketing schedule
4. A marketing budget
5. A statement of measurable outcomes that you expect
Once you have the marketing plan, you need to take action to make it happen. Many small businesses fail to execute the plan because they cannot manage the processes effectively. The best way to managing processes is implementation through a “marketing system”. With the marketing system in place, you will get a consistency and predictive results that meet your marketing goals.Under this logic, we create the 7 steps USuccess Advocacy Marketing System (UAMS) that converts strangers into advocates:
1. Blueprint – strategy and planning
2. Attract – converts visitors to leads
3. Engage – nurture leads
4. Action – converts leads to customers
5. Service – service fulfillment
6. Advocate – converts customers to fans or supporters
7. Review – results measurement
We formulated the marketing strategy and marketing plan in the first “Blueprint” step. Then lead generation to happen in the “Attract” step! You start to acquire customers! That easy!
Let’s start creating your marketing strategy and plan to grow your business!
