foundations

Does your business have strong marketing foundations?

by Amanda Daniels-Allen | Jan 25, 2017 | Business Growth, Marketing Strategy | 0 comments

ALL large projects are built upon their foundations.

For example, a Japanese skyscraper has earthquake proof foundations to ensure it can cope with the frequent earthquakes in Japanese cities such as Tokyo.

Your marketing should be as considered as this, because unless you have the RIGHT foundations in place, your marketing strategy WILL NOT be able to cope and change with environmental disturbances that come regularly in business.

Some of the changes I’m talking about may be:

• Consumer desires
• Competitive forces
• Resource availability
• Political decisions

All of the above could cause HUGE issues for a marketing strategy that has not been effectively developed with the proper foundations in place. Additionally, unless your company has a well thought-through marketing strategy it is likely that your marketing communication will be VERY general and unfocused, leading to untargeted, expensive and ineffective marketing communications.

It is key for business owners and marketing managers to understand what the foundations are within your own business and then to ensure you undertake the research and hard work needed for the businesses foundations to be put into action.

Marketing FOUNDATIONS

The marketing FOUNDATIONS are:

F – Focus

Find your businesses focus, this is a great way to start your quest for better and MORE effective marketing. The most successful businesses have identified a gap in the market and they are VERY focused upon what that niche wants, needs, desires, complaints, fears etc are.

So what is your businesses niche and how can you exploit it more effectively?

O – Out  Compete

Linked to the business focus, it is essential for all businesses to consider EXACTLY how they are out-competing their competitors

What are you doing better than you competitors?

How do you offer value to your customers?

This NEEDS to be communicated through your marketing, and some market research on your current customers can be very useful during this stage. You may not recognize the elements of your service that add huge amounts of value, in the eyes of your customers, such as effective customer service, efficient response rates and friendly customer engagement.

U – Up- to-date

One issue many firms have is that they will produce and implement a marketing strategy, that may be effective – But the marketing world is constantly changing. Therefore your marketing must be continually updated to ensure it is still as relevant and as effective as possible.

Take a look at your marketing every 90 days to see if you are on track with your business goals!

N – Nurture Process

This relates to the idea that it is much easier to retain customers, than to attract new ones…

They should already know how good you are!

It is crucially important for all businesses to nurture the customers that they already have. Don’t be so concentrated on gaining new customers that you forget the customers that you already have…that is a sure fire way of losing clients.

Nurture them, look after them, make them feel wanted…

You may be able to cross-sell to them or even up-sell, which  could be the equivalent of a new customer. This also relates to the sales process, and how you can nurture potential customers to ensure they are pulled through the sales funnel and become clients.

D – Decision Making Process

Consumer psychology is a key consideration for all businesses, as if we as marketers can get inside the consumer minds and walk in their shoes and understand the process by which they actually make a decision, then impacting that decision is much easier.

The decision making process has 5 stages, and each is an opportunity for your firm to influence the consumers in a positive way.

So how are you influencing your consumer’s decision making process?

A – Audience

Linked to the section above, the better you understand your consumers and your perfect customer, the more effective and focused your marketing can be. Therefore, by properly thinking about your target audience, what they do, what they’re like, the clothes they wear, the jobs they have, you can develop a deeper understanding of their behaviour and activities and thus engage with them more meaningfully and on a more frequent basis.

We have written a Digital Course on how to find and understand your AUDIENCE. You can find more information on our Digital Courses page.

T – Timing

While it might seem obvious that timing is essential for marketing. It is essential in a range of different ways.

Firstly, responding to current customers and potential customers as quickly as possible is key as it gives them a quality cue, that you are a firm who is efficient and effective in their activities.

Don’t keep your customers waiting.

Timing for email marketing is also key, as sending out and email marketing email at 5PM on a Friday would not be the most effective use of time and money, because everyone will be in the pub.

Furthermore, it is well-known that the timing of social media posts can also have a hugely significant impact upon their analytics. Therefore, while timing might seem simple, it is essential that firms consider it and produce an effective editorial calendar that takes timings into account.

I – Integration

Now THIS is where Koogar are specialist and it is truly essential, as users need and expect congruence and consistence between ALL of your marketing elements. If your offline and online elements and messages are not integrated your customers WILL notice.You will be sending out a range of

You will be sending out a range of mixed messages meaning your marketing will not be focused, which can have detrimental effects upon your success. We all want our brands to be recognised.

O – Outline

You need to outline exactly what you want your marketing communication to do for your business and outline a number of achievable objectives with set time frames – Ensure that the focus outlined above is integrated into this outline.

N – Numbers

Within marketing, one of the most common complaints from businesses who don’t have their FOUNDATIONS in place is that they don’t know which part of their marketing is working.

This is a numbers problem.

If you implement a proper strategy centered on the integration of measurable marketing communication tools, budgets and analytics then they would know exactly what money is being spent effectively.

Consider how the numbers look, and only continually invest in strategies that are actually economically effective for you and your business.

S – Strategy

Finally, once you have considered all of the above elements you will now be ready to create a well-focused, engaging and effective marketing strategy that is robust and responsive to the inevitable environmental changes.

Overall, this highlights the importance of having the marketing FOUNDATIONS in place BEFORE an effective marketing strategy can be developed.

So do you have your marketing FOUNDATIONS in place?

If not, and you want some help implementing them then contact us today for a FREE 30 Minute Consultation!