You know you have to do marketing for your business, and you’ve probably done marketing in the past, but if it feels like your marketing isn’t delivering results, it’s probably because the marketing isn’t fitting your needs. Like enVisioning Success podcast co-hosts Laura and Julia discuss in their episode, The Long Game: Strategic Marketing for Sustained Growth, marketing can be doomed to failure without the ability to think long-term and invest in strategic marketing. Today, we’ll review three signs that your current marketing lacks the high-level planning that is holding your business back.
1: You Don’t Know What Demographic to Market To
Two questions: who do you sell to, and are those customers giving you the best ROI for the time, expertise, and money needed for the marketing and sales cycle? You need to learn more about their customers and gather information on their demographics, as discussed in our blog, The Information Needed to Find and Target Your Business’ Customers. You can use this information to build Ideal Client Profiles or Customer Avatars and then turn that information into better ways to market to these customers, whether they represent your current customer base or a new, untapped source of leads.
2: You Don’t Know Where to Do Your Marketing
After you find the “who,” it’s time to find the “where.” This is where many marketing initiatives fail: they are marketing on the wrong platforms in an attempt to reach the right customers. Many businesses will pick the largest platform(s) or chase trends, but both can be a waste of resources if the demographics don’t line up with your market. If you’re a B2B business, you need to know which social media platforms to pick; if you’re a restaurant, you need to know which reputation sites you need to manage. And you need to know what needs to be on your website, especially when it comes to mobile responsiveness because one of the “wheres” is “on a mobile device.”
3: You Don’t Know How Often to Do Marketing
The last major failing point is sticking with marketing once you start. We all want instant results, but marketing rarely delivers that outside of paid ads, and even those require refinement over weeks and months to consistently drive leads. Making marketing plans and sticking to regular posting schedules on social media, content generation like blogs and infographics, and active outreach on things like PR or podcasts are critical for the marketing to work.
Strategic marketing requires a long-term plan and consistent marketing, with both the targeting of customers and marketing platforms for the most success. Are you ready for a strategic partnership to reach this marketing?
About the enVisioning Success Podcast
This article is based on topics discussed in enVisioning Success, our weekly podcast hosted by Vision CEO Laura DiBenedetto and COO Julia Becker Collins. In it, they discuss all things business and marketing, from lead generation to leadership. Find us on PodBean to download from your platform of choice, or subscribe to our mailing list to get new episodes and other news delivered directly to your inbox. Interested in working with Vision? Learn more about our services and contact us today.
