When it comes to marketing in your business, do you seem to do lots of things, but nothing makes an impact?

Many businesses have a scattergun approach to marketing. 

Marketing has so many channels, platforms, audiences, messages and ways of communicating that it is not surprising that this approach develops over a period of time. 

Many businesses are trying (or have tried) many different marketing activities, and either nothing has really delivered results, or one thing delivered great results five years ago but is not working so well anymore.

The problem with a scattergun approach is:

Activity focused instead of outcome-focused

“I should do some Facebook Ads”. If I had a dollar…

Many businesses with a scattergun approach are focused on what they think they “should” be doing in the marketing space rather than focusing on the customer and the outcome they are trying to achieve.

This leads to lots of activity but poor or mediocre results.

Lack of cohesion

A scattergun approach is a very siloed approach. This means that each activity is operating independently of others rather than forming part of an overarching plan.

To use an old cliché, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.

Marketing activity will deliver better results when part of a cohesive, well-thought-through strategy that places the customer at its centre and has a clear outcome defined.

Costly

The truth is, there are thousands of marketing tactics out there, and there are lots of Google experts telling you what you should be doing.

The problem with doing lots of things without an overarching plan is that it is expensive to just “give it a go”. As someone wise once said to me, “It’s like throwing a sausage at a dartboard”.

Here is what to do instead

1. Know who your ideal customer is

HINT: this is not “everyone who could ever buy OR use your product/service”. It is also not that random person who used your service once. 

Your ideal customer is the person(s) who makes the buying decision to purchase your product/services the most often. This is your target audience.

The easiest way to define this is to write it down as if you were describing a person. Give them a name, age, family status, income level, geographical location, likes/dislikes, the channels they use to find information, hobbies, interests, behaviours, pain points, challenges.

2. Know why you are different

What would make your ideal customer buy from you over your competitors? What problem does your product/service solve for your customer that is different to your competitors? What is your competitive advantage? What makes you stand out?

Defining this is known as your Unique Service Proposition or Unique Selling Point (USP). Having this defined will help you in every aspect of your marketing messaging and communication. It will also demonstrate to your customers how your product/service solves their problem and will help to nurture them through the purchasing process.

3. Know your business goals

Do you want to increase awareness of your brand? Generate more leads or enquiries? Increase referrals? Gain more repeat purchases?

When you have a clear understanding of the main goal(s) for your business, this will determine which marketing strategies and tactics will help achieve that goal.

As marketers, we use different tactics to achieve different goals 

4. Get some help

Before you roll your eyes thinking, “Here comes the sales pitch” (that is below), it is a good idea to talk to someone who can help you bring it all together.

It might not necessarily mean that what you are currently doing is wrong (or it might!). It might just be that you need to understand how it fits into the bigger picture of what you are trying to achieve as a business and what areas of focus will deliver you the best results.
SALES PITCH – If you feel like your business has a scattergun approach to marketing and you’d like to bring it all together in a solid plan focused on your business goals, drop me an email at kelly@onetribemarketing.com.au