4 Ways to Jump-Start Your Marketing Strategy Right Now
Focus on the right message for the right people using the right tools
One of the top reasons business leaders — across size and industry — struggle with marketing strategy is not knowing how to say the right thing to the right people. Add “using the right tools” and what you have here is a messaging strategy problem. Remain calm. We can get you out of this.
Tip #1: If you’re struggling, simplify and clarify
First, the cold, hard truth. Usually, a messaging problem has nothing to do with the words you’re trying to come up with and everything to do with an unfocused business.
You don’t necessarily need to stop providing a variety of services, but you might need to stop talking about them all at once. Similarly, you might appeal to different audiences, but choosing just one as your primary target can automatically narrow your focus in order to produce more consistent messages. Or you might need to think more thoroughly about your product design or user experience.
If you keep hiring copywriters and feeling like it’s just not working, go back to the basics: who are you talking to, what problem are you solving, and what makes you different.
Tip #2: Communicate with purpose
Over the years I’ve come to see producing content for the sake of producing content as a sort of business stress response that results in a sudden communication explosion followed by a prolonged lull. I know you know what I’m talking about.
One of the keys to communicating consistently and with purpose is knowing what you’re trying to get folks to do at all times. This might be based on your fundraising and events calendar, or an evergreen push for lead generation, or on engaging a community in entertaining conversations. Marketing is a push in order to pull, not a stream of consciousness.
Before you communicate, always have a call to action in mind.
Tip #3: Learn from the abandoned tactics graveyard
Why didn’t you keep up with Instagram? What made coming up with a monthly newsletter so hard? Have you ever actually checked your questions@ yourbusiness.com inbox?
What’s keeping you from keeping up with past strategies? Why time and money, of course! If you take anything away from this article, let it be that there really is no secret marketing magic trick — the answer is investment. It’s learning and committing to using the tools yourself, adding staff, or outsourcing. It’s paying a monthly fee for the slightly fancier email plan, or hiring a part time social media manager.
The good news is that if you follow tip #1 and simplify first, you won’t need to invest in everything, just the resources you absolutely need to communicate with purpose. So, don’t just look at past tactics for what didn’t work, look at what did work, too.
To get a sense of what worked in the past, start with your successes and look back through the actions you took that got you there.
Tip #4: Talk to people
Remember people? If you’ve been in a working from home, single, solo business person pandemic situation like yours truly, maybe you kind of don’t! At least, beyond heads you meet with on screens or masked strangers you dodge in the grocery store.
Here are some instant marketing benefits you can acquire from talking to people:
- Getting feedback on your work or offer — including capturing testimonials!
- Generating interest
- Generating leads
- Making sales
- Learning new ideas
- Identifying collaborators
- Receiving useful advice
- Establishing a brand presence
You’ve heard it before: at the end of the day, business — marketing in particular — is about relationships. Staying connected to people in an open, curious, responsive way can never be totally automated, and is the deal you make with your audience to be a successful marketer.
Ready to craft messages that connect? Download the free Own Your Message Guide
This article was originally published on LizaDube.com
