Every business is looking for the latest way to increase traffic and get more people to buy their products. And while there are numerous methods out there, what are the keys to marketing successfully? Hint: it’s not exactly about SEO!
Step 1: Define Your Customer
This will be the first port of call for any marketing strategy. If you can define exactly who your customer base is, you are able to tailor your marketing directly for them, so rather than having a generalized target market, having a narrow focus will create a dedicated customer base.
Step 2: Do You Know Your “Business Category?”
A lot of startups are trying to cater to all demographics, and much like the step above, you are much better off knowing your own identity so you can streamline your marketing techniques.
This is something that SEO services will want to know about you because it will inform how they create the content for your website and increase your rankings in the search engine results.
By understanding your business category, it means you can communicate what it is in a few simple words, which will leave people with a distinct idea of what your business does.
Step 3: Identify Your USP
Every business has its unique benefit (or benefits) to deliver to the target customer. This is what will set you apart from your competitors, and the key to this is being simple.
This is what will keep you from over-egging the pudding and trying to be all things to all sorts of customers.
If you can focus on delivering two or three things that nobody else can deliver, you will very easily set yourself apart.
Step 4: Identifying Your Competition
It is the key way to solving any problem with regards to set yourself apart. You need to identify who is in your vicinity that offers similar services to a similar customer base.
This means that you can have a clear mind about how you can best make your business as individual as possible, and while it’s impossible to escape comparison on the most part if you can whittle it down to being compared to one or two other businesses, that would be deemed a success!
Step 5: Making Sure That You Are A Benefit To Your Customer
This is ultimately what will keep them coming back to you so you need to make sure you are doing everything you can for that customer base.
The best way to do this is to make a list of the things that you can do differently to your competition. It’s important to be simple in this respect. For example:
- Are you cheaper?
- Are you more personal?
It’s these things that will keep you in the customer’s mind.
Step 6: Making Your Marketing Strategy
Once the previous five steps have been completed, it will give you a much better all-round view of what you are capable of as a business, how you can sell to your customer, and how you can build a quality brand.