How to Create a Marketing Strategy for your business
Strategy Vs. Tactics
Marketing Strategy =/= Marketing Tactic, and while both are important, Strategy>Tactic.
A strategy is the framework within which you can implement different tactics as necessary or appropriate. Below you'll find an outline of our marketing strategy, and on each line you'll find one or two tactics that we use to fill out the framework. Each tactic could be used in multiple steps, and in fact, items that we generate for content are almost always used at different stages simultaneously.
Our Marketing Strategy - The Path to a warm lead.
- Cold Lead Generation - brand awareness ads on social media, ppc ads for events, the events themselves.
- A "warming pool” where we provide relevant, valuable information in our area of expertise to people who need the help - Email list, Facebook Page Followers, etc.)
- Content generation to keep the pool actually useful. We record the Gold Mine Podcast, and then extract relevant messages and clips from there. The whole point is to get the right people to add you to their mental rolodex under whatever it is that you offer. (i.e. when I think of heating and air, I think of Bonney, before I even go and look up anyone else.)
- A High Engagement Event, dropped in the warming pool, with a concrete offer attached to it. (Seminar, live event, etc.)
- Then comes the Sales System. While this can start happening before you actually talk to the prospect (via click funnels, sales brochures and pages), the heavy lifting on bigger ticket items generally happens in person. Though the more “warming” you do beforehand is going to have an effect on how easy it is to close.
So, how do you make a marketing system for your business?
Here’s a list of items that should help you get started. Pick out a couple items from each section that best apply to your business.
Lead Generation:
- Billboards
- Social Ads
- Search Engine Ads
- Word of Mouth/Authority Marketing (Need Relevance Here)
- SEO
- Social Media
- Google My Business
Warming Pool
- Brand Awareness Ads
- Email drip campaigns
- Facebook Group
- Social Media Page Followers
Warming Pool Maintenance
- Content creation that matches your expertise and service
- Videos
- Articles
- Updates
- Tips and tricks
- Offers
- Polls
Events
- Meetups
- Seminars
- Sales
- Expos
- Themed nights
- Training
- All with a Call to Action and a clear offer.
A Sales System
The marketing system is just the beginning, make sure you have someone to close the deal when you get a qualified lead from your marketing efforts!
Once you’ve selected from the above list, come up with a concrete plan to fill out the specifics. You should literally schedule in the time to achieve each task. For example, part of our “warming pool maintenance” is articles like this one, so I have a set time every couple days to work on creating and editing. If I don’t actually schedule in the time I’ll end up with 6 article outlines in a month, and then nothing will actually get finished because I’ll get caught up in something else. (Every Tuesday and Friday I have a two hour time slot dedicated to “Edit/Write Knowledge Content”.)