For your marketing to work properly, you need to plan it. You need to know what you’re doing, when, how and why. If you just do a bit now and then, when you’re not too busy, you will struggle to grow a profitable business. You’ll stay on the ‘feast and famine’ rollercoaster that sweeps you up to having too much work one month and no time to enjoy the income it brings, and drops you down to no work and no money to pay for the marketing you need to do to get back on track.

People often ask me about the best marketing they should do for their business. They want to know if this activity will work, or if they’ll get a good return from that tactic. Before I can tell them exactly what marketing will get the best results, I need to know things about their business. Where are they now? Where do they want to go? What sort of marketing strategies are they looking at (i.e. do they want to focus on existing or new clients? Existing or new services?) And I need to know what sort of clients they are looking for. I’ve covered these four topics in the last four of my weekly blogs – click on the links above to read or reread them – preferably before you carry on reading this blog!

Have you looked over the previous four stages? Then we’re ready to move on!

So now that you know where you business is, where you’re going, how to get there and who your ideal clients, you can start to look at the best marketing tactics to use.

For example, if you’re a sole trader who provides a small range of face to face training courses to local businesses, who are very loyal to you, and you’re looking to grow gradually, then marketing tactics such as email newsletters, regular client meetings and your website will work well for you.

However, if you’re running a large accountancy firm that you’d like to double in size in the next two years grow, by branching out into the neighbouring county, then you need the help of your existing clients to provide testimonials, case studies and referrals. Your website will also pay an important role.

There’s no magic wand when it comes to marketing and no one size fits all. However, do the background planning, answering those four questions and you’ll be in a much better to see what marketing you need to do, to help you grow your business.

What’s the best marketing you do for your business? What is most effective for you?