With a sense of continued caution amongst small business owners, this month it feels like I am having quite a few conversations about the best way to attract new clients on a budget. This was also one of the key questions that came out of our annual customer survey back at the beginning of the year. During a recent networking event we discussed this very challenge at some length. With the macro landscape continuing to change and technology evolving at a tremendous rate, it can be daunting for a small business owner to know where to invest the marketing budget.
I cannot believe we are in June already, I feel like I have only just worked on our Christmas campaigns. Mid-way through the year is a great time to review our marketing strategy and check in with the ambitions we set out at the beginning of the year. You may have a whole set of objectives, but now is the perfect time to check in and understand how things are going. “Did you launch that new product, service or programme you intended to?”, “Are you on track to achieving your revenue targets?” or “Did you start your website project?”. If the answer is yes, and all is going well, that is brilliant – perhaps consider how you can stretch those targets. If however, as many discover, things are not going to plan, we can help. Our approach to helping our clients create impactful marketing campaigns requires some planning and is as follows:
Evaluate the business landscape
With any new client project, we start with an internal business review which identifyies what is and is not currently working. We would start do this by looking at the current marketing metrics; this may include looking at website visitor figures, email open or click-through rates, social media engagement, the pipeline of clients and, of course, sales. Depending upon the size of the business, this may also include some research, to gain feedback on the customer experience and processes.
The second part of the evaluation phase is to also understand the external business landscape. For example, what is happening in your sector? where are the opportunities? and what are competitors doing? Once we have a clear understanding of the business and industry landscape we can then move onto the implementation phase.
Question to consider: Is there an opportunity for you to launch a new product or service in Q3?
Develop your marketing plan
Once we have a clear understanding of where things are now, we can start to create a plan to realise the small business owner’s ambitions and identify the best way to attract new clients. This inevitably would include reviewing the website, setting a content plan, and deciding on which media to use; it may also include refining the messaging. In a content-driven world, clearly and authentically communicating your business message is important.
Aside from building the marketing foundations, the decision on which type of media to invest in will depend upon the business revenue, target audience and available budget. During challenging times I am a big advocate of increasing marketing spend, as this will ensure you are forefront of mind for your target audience, vs your competitors. It is recommended to set aside 10% of your revenue, to invest in your marketing activity.
Question to consider: What Q3 marketing activity could you do differently to drive more business?
Implement your marketing campaigns
Once we have defined where we are going, and how we are going to get there, we then move to the delivery phase. It is important to first build our marketing foundations, which may include the website, defining a clear brand, email marketing campaigns, writing regular blogs, social media and networking. As part of the delivery, we need to consider how we drive awareness of what we do, amongst our target audience; so hopefully they like what we do and then trust us enough to buy from us. This is known as the know, like and trust model, created by Professors Laurent Georges and Paolo Guenzi in 2021.
There are many factors to consider when implementing your marketing campaign and each brand will be different. However, taking a sustainable marketing approach is becoming increasingly important as consumers are proactively choosing to work with brands who have this focus. We can do this by not only creating a solid CSR approach and policy to guide our business principles, but by also being mindful of the impact our campaign has on the world around us.
Question to consider: What actions could you take today to make your business more sustainable?
Analyse your success!
One of the steps to any successful marketing campaign, that many marketers forget, is to evaluate performance. Take time to review and reflect on how the campaign has worked, check-in on the marketing metrics and define what you would do next time is important. Simply, do more of what works and less of what does not.
Question to consider: Do you understand your marketing metrics?
Click here to discover more about how we work. If you have a marketing challenge or are keen to identify the best way to attract new clients for your small business, please get in touch to see how we can help.
