The next step in a Game Changing Strategic Marketing Plan is to choose your channels and set a budget. There are so many channels to choose from and what works for one business might not work for another. Deciding how much to spend is another key point. You need to spend enough to get traction but you don’t want to spend all the profit you would have made. Remember, layers are important too. Gone is the day when you could choose one marketing channel and find the success you want. You need more than one. A mature marketing plan will have at least 5 layers.. The first step in choosing your channels might trigger middle school math class flashbacks: data analysis. Now, don't let your eyes glaze over just yet. Data analysis doesn't mean you need to don a lab coat or understand complex equations. Instead, think of it as a detective’s job. Now is the time to take the research you've conducted about your WHO (target market), WHY (unique selling proposition or differentiator), and existing marketing strategy, and use it to decide which channels will give your business the most bang for its buck. There are multitudes of channels available, each with its unique attributes: social media, search engine marketing, email marketing, radio, TV, print, outdoor advertising—the list goes on. But remember, not all channels will be effective for every business. A local restaurant might thrive on Instagram marketing and local magazine ads, while an e-commerce store could find more success using search engine optimization and email marketing. How do I research what channels will be best for my companies? Google it. Yes, you read that right. Take your company type (Keep it general) and your target market and ask Google where your target tends to spend the most time. Even better, ask Chat GPT. A.I. takes info from the world of information and can provide answers to questions using regular language. Here is an example of a business search I just did. I have included the screen shot of the results. You will see I asked it to provide me with three recommendations of how to hit my local market if I were a tire and auto repair shop. It recommended Digital Advertising with Paid Google and Paid Facebook ads. Direct mail was second. Our magazines are direct mail but you could also send post cards or other mailers. The third recommendation is Local Radio. In some markets, radio can still be great. But this is also an example of when the A.I. powered database doesn’t have all the information. For example, Ogden, UT is not a great radio town. Not because we don’t listen to the Radio, but because we are primarily served by radio stations that broadcast out of Salt Lake City and go across the entire Wasatch Front. Unless your business spans that entire area, you will waste much of your ad spend delivering your message to people who are too far away to do business with you. Chat GPT did say it’s wise to meet with a marketing specialist in your area to determine where best to spend your money. In our area, we work hard to know and understand our market so we can best guide our clients. We also have the Recommendation Engine which gives us access to nationwide data pool to know what similar businesses are spending money on nationwide. This gives you some interesting information, but you still have to make decision. The answer isn’t always black and white. Gather the best information you can, make your decisions and write them down. Now, with your shortlist of channels in hand, it’s time for a test run. Run some advertising on your selected channels. Some of it will likely work better than others. Look for metrics such as engagement rate, conversion rate, or ROI (return on investment). Are your Instagram posts generating interest and prompting customers to visit your website? Is your email newsletter converting subscribers into paying customers? This feedback loop will guide your final decision on channel selection. In Step 5, two weeks from now we will talk about how to analyze and adjust based on your results. Don’t be in a hurry with any of this. Take your time and make small adjustments as you go. Test two or three different ad styles and headlines to get the results you want. I have a friend who has been teaching himself Facebook advertising for his local business and he has really dug into the stats and analytics. He didn’t want to spend extra money having it managed so he is teaching himself. He has tested which ads are best and he has even had a few ads pulled by Facebook because he pushed the envelope too much, but he learned in each scenario. He told me in the last 3 weeks, he has earned $25k from his advertising on Facebook. That is awesome! With the right channels chosen, we shift gears to discuss another pivotal aspect of marketing strategy: setting a budget. The magic number will be unique for every business, but a good starting point is typically between 5% and 10% of your total revenue. However, this isn't set in stone. New businesses seeking rapid growth might invest more, while established entities might spend less. Your budget should reflect your goals. Are you looking for aggressive expansion or steady growth? I believe a rapid growth business should invest 20% in paid advertising, with the hope that they will increase revenue while maintaining the same ad spend. Their percentage will decrease as they grow. As with channel selection, your budget allocation isn’t a one-and-done decision. It requires consistent monitoring and adjustments. For instance, if your radio ads aren't generating as much traction as your social media campaigns, it might be time to re-allocate some funds. Flexibility is key here. Budgeting isn't just about how much you spend, but where you spend it. Look back at your channel testing data. Are there areas where you're seeing high ROI? Those might deserve a larger slice of the budget pie. Alternatively, lower-performing channels might still be important for maintaining brand presence, but could make do with a smaller portion of funds. Additionally, remember to allocate a portion of your budget to continue market research and data analysis. The market is a living, breathing entity, changing as consumer trends evolve. Think about the rise of TikTok. No one saw that coming, but it is now one of the most powerful product marketing tools in the world. You’ll want to stay ahead of these changes and adjust your strategy accordingly. We've established that your channel selection should hinge on where your target audience spends their time, and your budget should align with your business goals and the channels that offer the best ROI. Through it all, ongoing data analysis is key to keep your strategy sharp and effective. By now, you should have a roadmap to guide you through the sometimes overwhelming task of marketing channel selection and budget setting. If you need help, let us know. We are here to help you succeed.
0 Comments
This week, I’m sharing how to do top level market research so you can win with your advertising. This can affect your website and SEO too, so tune in for real world, usable tools that will make an impact. KEYWORDS First, I want you to learn your keywords. These are the words that people use when they google your company or your services. When someone looks for you it’s called Active Search. When someone isn’t searching for you but learns about you through advertising, it’s called Passive Discovery. Research and develop your keywords and use them across your business and in your marketing. Whether someone actively searches for you or discovers you passively, the right keywords will draw them in. Keywords create advertising that converts. As I mentioned last week, sometimes the first word that comes to mind isn’t the best keyword for your business. Think, mechanic vs. auto-repair vs. broken down. Don’t assume your customers are using the same search terms that you would. What are people asking for most in regards to your business? There are two types of keywords. Short-tail, which is usually one word that describes what you do. For example a travel agent would use the word “travel.” These words have high competition because everything to do with travel is going to contain that keyword. The second type of key words are called Long-tail. These are more specific and can be highly targeted. Instead of just “travel”, if someone searched for “family friendly resorts in Bali” and you happened to write a blog post about that, they have a much higher likelihood of finding your website. Both kinds of keywords are important for SEO but also in your advertising. If your travel agency specializes in family vacations, you can create advertisements detailing that expertise so families will want to work with you. How do you find out the best keywords for your business? I am glad you asked. First, google one of your primary products or services. Scroll through the results, and about a quarter of the way down the page, among the results is a section called, “People Also Ask”. Listed are questions that have been asked often enough that google displays them in case you have the same question. Here is a screenshot of what this looks like. Chances are, if people who google things ask that question, and it applies to your business, then you should answer it. Use it as a topic in your advertising, on your website, or in the form of a blog post where you detail the answer and establish yourself as the authority on the subject. I use this because the more I know what people might be asking in my community and the better I am at answering these questions, the more likely I am to earn their attention. You can do the same thing. Find out what questions people looking at your company might be asking and use the answer to speak to them. Another tool I find incredibly useful is Answerthepublic.com. You can use this tool on a limited basis for free and for a reasonable price, you can make more searches and utilize it more. I use the $100 a year version and I find it well worth the cost. It analyzes the subject you enter and gives you information regarding what people are searching for and what questions they ask, and how many people search for that question. I typed “Local Marketing” into the search bar and this is some of the information it spit out. This data tells me that people ask for “local marketing examples” and “marketing locally” quite often, whereas the term “why is local marketing important” is searched very rarely. I can use this information to make decisions on what I publish on my blog as well as what to teach my sales team to focus on when they visit prospective customers. This will give you a very powerful tool for creating effective advertisements. For example, for a local bakery, the most common Google search is “Best Local Bakery”. You could then create an ad titled “Why _____ Bakery is the best in Ogden (Or your community)!” You could also include this in a blog post talking about why you are the best bakery in town and give examples. Share recommendations from customers who love your business. This information is vital to your marketing and will help you be found more often when people search for your service or product.
YOUR COMPETITION As I mentioned in last week’s post, I used to walk through the Kmart in Henderson Nevada and think, you would think these guys have been in a Walmart, right? Walmarts have an air of energy, and shopping happening. There are signs all over and tight isles filled with products. There are people on the floor nearly 24/7 restocking shelves showing you that the products are moving so quickly that they have to restock as you shop. People follow trends and like to do what others are doing. I worked for a direct sales company for many years. We sold DVD packages to people and had an offering of monthly plans. In order to get people to talk to us we would give out a free DVD to anyone who would listen to our pitch. It was a great tool to get potential customers to listen. Sometimes we would sit at a home show or county fair and hundreds of people would walk by and we would call out, “FREE DVD!” over and over but no one would stop. Sometimes you could sit there for 30-40 minutes without a taker. Then one person would come over and say, “I want a free dvd.” We would start telling them about our plans and then suddenly 4-6 people would line up behind them waiting their turn to hear our spiel and get their DVD. We would go from no one interested to suddenly several people interested and many others looking over at us a bit longingly wishing they were getting in on the action. It is a classic human behavior to want what others have. Kmart stores were the opposite of Walmart. The store was in a nice new shopping center and was a Super Kmart so it was supposed to be special. When you walked through the store, however, it felt like you were the only one there. It felt like you might hear birds chirping up in the cavernous warehouse feel of the store and the isles were wide and spacious. It was easier to move your cart around for sure, but it didn't give a sense of urgency or make me feel like I should be buying stuff. You have competition. They have websites, google reviews, and maybe even a store. All you need to do is go to their website and see what they are doing. What are they offering? What do people like about them and what do they dislike? What do you notice they do well and what can you improve on? Do google searches about your industry and how you can offer the best service. Take your time to find out what successful companies do so you can do that too, but also look for ways to do even better. Or even offer something that isn’t being offered by your competitors. As they say, sometimes there are riches in niches. Every plumber probably knows how to clear a drain. What if you were to say “I am the plumber who wears shoe booties and overalls so you don’t get plumber’s tracks or cracks in your home!” That may be something people will remember. Even better if it pertains to searches people are already making in your community it will speak to them and capture their attention. Do not sit across town thinking your competitors are the enemy. Don’t take the word of one of their disgruntled customers who came to you after a bad experience. Look at all of their customer reviews and think bigger. They obviously do some things well or they wouldn’t be where they are. Learn from them, be like them where they are good and be better than them where they fall short. After this research, you may need to adjust your WHY to fit the market. This is step two in crafting a marketing strategy that converts. Know your keywords and your Competition. Once you have completed your analysis, it is time to move on to step 3. Tune in next week for…Choose your Channels and Set a Budget. Level Up Your Local Small Business Marketing Strategy in 5 Simple Steps (Recommendation Engine)6/10/2023 Running a small business is challenging by itself. Figuring out how to market that business on top of everything else you are doing can be rough! Should you do digital marketing, print marketing, TV, radio, billboards, or email? How about SEO and Pay Per Click? How do I build my brand and generate leads? Will my website convert? How much should I put into organic social media versus paid social media advertising or boosting? And then what are you going to do next month? Dadadadada… It is a complete mess. Many business owners I talk to say they hate it so they just, buy ads here and there, hire an SEO person who charges them monthly for techno babble stuff that they hope works, and have one of their employees post to social media every week. Does this sound familiar? In this article, I am going to take the mystery out of the whole process and give you the tools to make a plan and execute it simply and effectively. This simple 5-step strategic marketing plan will make your life easier and more efficient. First I want to share with you one of my favorite new things that we have now at Connection Media Group. What if you could use technology to find out what type of advertising your competitors and similar businesses to yours are using nationwide? Not only what they are buying but also what they continue to buy in renewals. Then it could analyze the costs of those types of ads and recommend where you could focus your ad spend most efficiently—would that type of information be useful to you? This technology exists. Right here at Connection Pub. In the last year, we’ve grown from a local magazine company to a full-service digital marketing company that helps businesses in Ogden, Layton, Brigham City, UT, and surrounding areas fulfill the multiple layers of marketing that are essential for getting noticed in today’s busy, noisy world. We also had an advertising technology company build us the exact program I was just talking about and it is called the Recommendation Engine. It is a powerful tool that we can use to understand where best to recommend our customers spend their marketing budget. We also have creative teams that will help you create messaging and imagery that will get your target audience’s attention. The whole point of marketing is to get and keep attention. Bring in more clients and money. This simple 5-step strategic marketing plan will give you the edge and make your life much easier. Do this once per year and you will be extremely happy with the results.
That is ok. If you are a business owner, I would prefer to see you make the best widget or provide the best service possible! That may mean you need to have someone else help you with marketing. This doesn’t mean you should hire someone and just forget about it. You should gain a basic understanding so that you can ask the right questions about what you are doing and if you are getting a return on investment for your marketing dollars and have your team handle the rest. This simple 5-step system for making a Strategic Marketing Plan is the best way for a small business to start and succeed in its marketing. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments or shoot me an email. Also please share this with someone you think would benefit from this plan. CategoriesWHY do your customers do business with you? Defining your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).6/2/2023 In last week's article, we talked about defining your WHO.. The ideal and most likely customer you work with. Once you know your WHO, it’s time to determine their WHY. Most business people know their personal WHY. That’s the “why” you got into the business you are in, or “why” you work for your company. That’s not what we are talking about when we talk about determining your customer’s WHY. Your WHO’s WHY will be the reasons they like doing business with you. A restaurant owner might say, we made an open, modern, inviting atmosphere at our restaurant, but your customers might say, I go there because the view at night is so perfect, and their rolls are my favorite. You might not know this unless you ask, but you need to know their WHY so you can market directly to them. I saw a Unique Selling Proposition yesterday at Walgreens. It read, “On The Corner of Healthy and Happy.” This is an excellent example of thinking about what people who shop at Walgreens value. Walgreens are always located on very busy and convenient corners. Walgreens is a store with a focus on health, which is why they put “Healthy” first in their statement. The more common language would be happy and healthy. By reversing it, they identify their primary focus while implying that by shopping there for your healthcare needs, you will also be happy. In the Roof Maxx dealership I own with my son, I recently asked him what percentage of homes he inspects are too worn out for a RoofMaxx treatment. He told me about 20% of the roofs he gets on are too far gone. We made the ad you see pictured here to speak directly to our audience. “8 out of 10 roofs can be saved!” This is why its a great ad. Our WHO are men, 55+ who are maintenance-minded. They also like keeping things nice for as long as possible. They enjoy classic cars and saving money. With that in mind, it’s likely this group might be thinking about their roofs after a recent wind storm, saying to themselves, I wonder how much longer I have with this roof? To pique their curiosity, we say 8 out of 10 roofs can be saved. The ad is meant to trigger the thought, “I wonder if my roof could be saved?” Then, we say, a Roof Maxx treatment is a fraction of the cost of a new roof. This drives the action to learn more and call us to see if it’s possible for their roof to be saved, and 80% of the time it is. When creating ads, you should think about your WHO, and then craft your message with their WHY in mind. To make this easier, we have put together a WHY worksheet. It gives you a framework for determining your customers’ WHY, and to help you write a successful Unique Selling Proposition (USP). You can find it here. |
AuthorRyan Spelts Archives
September 2023
Categories |