Marketing is easy, right? It’s just about having a great logo, a website and facebook page, writing a few blogs now and then, and watching the leads come in through the door!
Well, yes… and no.
Marketing isn’t rocket science, but just like anything else, having a strategy and a plan in place is important if you don’t want to be blindly spending money with no real understanding as to what’s working and what’s not.
There are several situations that call for a Marketing Consultant. They include:
No real (or updated) strategy
Many businesses start their businesses with a website, a couple of social media channels and hope that leads will come to them. Whilst this can work, you need to have a good sense of your target audience, the problem you solve for them and why your product or service is better than any others on the market. Once a business has a strategy defined, it has a blueprint against which they can measure all marketing activity.
A lack of new enquiries
This is something that often ebbs and flows, particularly for small businesses, if you are juggling actually delivering services or products at the same time as trying to generate leads. It’s important to continue working on lead generation as a constant activity.
You don’t understand your target audience
Who is your target audience? Now if you are not sure or you think the answer is “everyone”, then you need a marketing consultant now! Being able to target people / businesses that need or would benefit from your product or service is crucial. There’s no point going with a big bang approach as this is usually a costly exercise with limited return.
You don’t know what’s working and what isn’t.
Marketing is a rapidly changing beast, with changes to algorithms in social media, different approaches to Customer Experience (CX) and new channels to market. A marketing consultant can review what’s working and suggest changes based on data and experience.
A lack of focus. Business owners that are entrepreneurial in spirit can have a tendency to be distracted by future opportunities and run the risk of not focusing on what is needed to be done now. Remember that marketing is a long term game that needs focus. If you are jumping from one initiative to the next, then you may not be giving enough time and effort for it to yield results.
One of the key skills a marketing consultant needs is to be able to extract the necessary information from your business. They are committed to helping their clients to succeed and grow but also bring with them independence and a ‘left field’ viewpoint. Often the first step will be to carry out a marketing audit and listen to you intently so that they fully understand your business, your values and your goals.
It might be that they simply provide you with an outsider’s perspective on things! You may find that you can get some quick wins based on some simple changes and then focus on longer term strategies to put into place. An outsider’s clarity and lack of emotional attachment to the business can really put things into perspective.
If some of these situations resonate with you, then think about looking into your marketing now, not waiting until things get worse. If you’re in Victoria – now’s the time! Review your marketing strategy and put those activities into action now; it will stand you in good stead when we come out of lockdown and can start operating ‘covid-normal’.
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash