What’s your marketing strategy?
Last week I wrote about setting goals for your business and marketing. Once you’ve done that, you then need to plan how you?re going to get to your goals ? the strategies you?re going to use.
Whatever sort of journey you?re on, you need to work out the best way of getting to your destination. Will you drive or take the train? How will you get to the station and if you drive there, where will you leave your car? There are lots of options to consider and you need to select the most appropriate, which will be based on your starting point and your destination.
There are four main strategies you can consider, when deciding how to get to your destination. Unlike with an actual journey, you can use more than one of the strategies. In fact you could use all four of them in combination, if appropriate, to help you reach your goals.
Why do you need a strategy? For the very same reason that you set goals your marketing and your business. You could just set off and try lots of different marketing activities, in the hope that they will take you to your goals ? a bit like just turning up at a bus stop and hoping that one of the buses that stops there is going your way (and assuming that buses still stop there!) Or you could plan the best approach and only spend your valuable time and money on what you know will work. Having a strategy and following it is much cheaper in the long run than the scatter gun approach to marketing.
The four strategies are based on your clients ? current ones and potential ones ? and your products and services ? existing ones and new ones you can develop. There are four ways in which you can combine these elements, giving the following four strategies:
- Sell more existing services to your existing clients
- Sell new services to your existing clients
- Sell existing services to new clients
- Sell new services to new clients
Many people overlook the first strategy, yet it is usually the easiest and most cost effetive one to use. Number four is usually the most expensive and risky, although it can provide the greatest returns. Start at number one and once you’re sure you’ve done all you can there, move on to the next one. Each one needs a different type of marketing, so getting clear on what you want to achieve will help you get there.
Click here to read last week’s blog about the starting point of your journey.
