How to develop a marketing strategy for a small business
If you’re a small business owner the idea of crafting a marketing strategy can feel a little daunting and you may be wondering where to even start!
As a one person business owner your marketing approach will look different to the big companies who have in-house marketing teams, the essence of your business lies not in its size, but in the unique value and personal touch you bring to your offerings.
This blog is going to walk you through some key steps to help you start developing your own thoughtful and mindful marketing strategy that can be tailored to your business.
Before we begin, I’ve written a blog that explains the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan, it may be useful to have a read of that here and then coming back to this blog to start developing your strategy.
1. Clarity of your purpose
The start of your strategy begins with your why and reason you started your business. This is where everything comes back to. Feeling really confident and knowing exactly why you started your business is so powerful in guiding your journey and direction of your strategy. This might come easily to you and you are super clear on your why, or it may take a little longer and that’s okay. Allow yourself to sit with your thoughts, give yourself space to get clarity around your why.
2. Your unique touch
This is often described as USP (unique selling point) or UVP (unique value proposition), but I like to think of this with a more human approach. Essentially the purpose of this is to understand why your audience would choose to work with you or buy from you over someone else. Again, if you’re not clear on what this is for you, spend some time thinking about what makes you/your business different? Is your client experience unmatched, do you offer a different approach, is it your background, do you work in a unique way, do you source products locally? Once you’ve defined this, start to think about how you can infuse this throughout your online presence.
3. Set intentional marketing goals
It’s important to know what you want to get out of your marketing strategy, because it doesn’t always have to be to make sales, you may want to use this season to focus your marketing strategy on brand awareness and extending your online presence. Or you may be launching a new collection and want your marketing strategy to heavily focus on making sales. Knowing what your goals are for this season will help you identify what actions and strategies to focus on to reach those goals. In this blog I breakdown how to set achievable business goals, have a read here.
4. Know your audience
Understanding your target audience is an important part of crafting your marketing strategy. As a mindful, small business owner, understanding the needs of your ideal clients/customers. What motivates them? What do they need help with? What outcome/solution are they seeking? Tailor your messaging and content to resonate with their values and desires.
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FREE WORKSHOP: Build Your Business With Intention
In this 30 minute workshop we look at the 4S’s within your business that impact how you show up and run your business. You will then identify which of these areas needs more support and clarity around what you want this to look like, then set out action steps for you to work on and implement after the workshop.
5. Identify your marketing
There are lots of different ways you can market your business such as content marketing, social media marketing, in-person marketing or PR. Working out how you’d like to market your business will depend on, what you enjoy doing as you’ll likely be doing the majority of your own marketing, and also considering where your audience is likely to find you. If you’re someone who really likes writing you may look at blog writing, sending emails, reaching out to articles to guest write. Or if you enjoy speaking you could think about either hosting a podcast or being a guest, speaking at events, these larger forms of content can then be broken down to be used as social media posts if you choose to utilise some social media platforms too. I go into more detail about deciding your marketing platforms in this blog here.
6. Consider offering incentives
Then start to think about ways to generate interest and incentivise your audience to take action, whether it’s through a free consultation call, a welcome discount, a valuable resource, what you can offer that aligns with what your audience needs and resonates with them. Also consider offering referrals at the other end of your customer journey, by rewarding loyal clients/customers to build long term relationships and advocacy.
7. Cultivate connections and community
Start getting out there and building your own community, research some online and offline networking events that align with you and your business. Building genuine connections with others in your industry and fellow business owners gives you that support network which is invaluable as a small business owner. When going to networking events it’s not just about promoting your business but getting to know people and build longer term relationships.
8. Measure and review
The last step in your marketing strategy is to check how things are going. Identify what metrics you need to track as you work towards your goals, this could be website traffic, conversion rates, podcast downloads, social media engagement, email sign ups. It’s okay if you need to adjust your strategy based on insights, continuing to refine your approach is important to help you to achieve your business goals.
In conclusion, crafting a mindful marketing strategy involves understanding your purpose and why, knowing your unique touch, creating genuine connections with your audience, and leveraging various channels to amplify your message. By focusing on building relationships, offering value, and staying true to your brand ethos, you can establish a strong presence and cultivate a loyal community that supports your business.
