marketing strategy Archives - OpenBusinessCouncil Directory https://www.footballthink.com/tag/marketing-strategy/ Openbusinesscouncil Mon, 22 Aug 2022 21:26:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.6 https://www.footballthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/faviopen-63x63.png marketing strategy Archives - OpenBusinessCouncil Directory https://www.footballthink.com/tag/marketing-strategy/ 32 32 Tips for Developing a Marketing Strategy https://www.footballthink.com/tips-for-developing-a-marketing-strategy/ Fri, 24 Jun 2022 22:22:30 +0000 https://www.openbusinesscouncil.org/?p=20902 It doesn’t matter if you’re beginning the process of starting a new business, or if you’re already well established, having a strong online presence is incredibly important. Today, consumers tend to learn about local businesses online even if you have a physical brick-and-mortar presence. They want to know what you have, is it in stock […]

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It doesn’t matter if you’re beginning the process of starting a new business, or if you’re already well established, having a strong online presence is incredibly important. Today, consumers tend to learn about local businesses online even if you have a physical brick-and-mortar presence. They want to know what you have, is it in stock and how much it is. If your website isn’t telling them all that, or they can’t easily find you online, you are missing out.

But how do you know where to spend your marketing dollars? How do you know what works and what doesn’t

Small business owners who are looking for a way to keep track of their return on investment (ROI) and/or brand awareness need digital marketing. Today, there’s specific marketing for almost every industry – from law firm marketing for attorneys to ecommerce marketing for stores. Digital marketing isn’t only a need when it comes to promoting services and products, but it’s also critical for optimizing online assets so the business can be successful.

Let’s take a look at a few tips on how to develop your strategy.

Market Research

This is a critical aspect of developing your strategy for marketing. It has to do with collecting information that will provide you with an insight into how your customers or clients think, their buying patterns, and their location. Additionally, it can assist you with your initial sales forecast, monitor trends in the market, and help you keep track of your competition.

Profile Target Markets

Attempting to promote your service or product to everyone can be both ineffective and costly. 

Segmenting or grouping your potential customers (target market) based on a variety of characteristics can assist with focusing your efforts. Typically, this segmentation is based on things like where they’re located geographically, their gender, age, income, behavior, values, and lifestyle. 

Identify Your USP

Your USP, or unique selling proposition, is a unique reason for your customers to purchase from you as opposed to your competitors. It’s essentially what makes you stand out. It’s critical that you define what it is that you do differently as well as for you to convey that information to potential customers. Most of the time, this will reflect any unique skills or knowledge you have. 

Marketing Avenues

There are quite a few avenues available when it comes to marketing, and you need to consider your target market and which ones they might be exposed to the most. Some of your options include things like:

  • Business website
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Blogging
  • Networking events
  • Word of mouth
  • Letter drops
  • Social media
  • Flyers and brochures
  • Print advertising
  • Cold calling

Budget and Goals

Marketing goals are a must or you’ll just be treading water when it comes to your results. These goals need to be SMART – Specific in terms, Measurable in outcome, Attainable and realistic, Relevant, and Time-based. If you miss any of these criteria you’ll be back to square one and won’t know where your money is going.

And speaking of money, you’ll need to give your marketing activities a budget. This spending plan needs to include the following elements:

  • Website maintenance and development
  • Branding design
  • Advertising
  • Employment of staff to accomplish marketing activities
  • Strategy for search engine optimization
  • Printing of a variety of promotional material
  • Sponsorships and donations

Start Marketing the Business Today – You Can’t Wait

You more than likely have quite a long road ahead of you if you haven’t already established a presence online. However, any steps you can take will have a massive impact on your overall business. Some of the steps, such as blogging, will definitely take at least a few months to begin kicking in and attracting traffic, but things like pay-per-click ads and social media posts can have near-immediate effects. If you still aren’t sure which direction is ideal for you, brainstorm your ideas with a focus group or marketing team to see which ones might be the way to go.

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]]> 7 Tips for Creating an Omnipresent Marketing Strategy https://www.footballthink.com/7-tips-for-creating-an-omnipresent-marketing-strategy/ Wed, 18 Aug 2021 19:50:51 +0000 https://www.openbusinesscouncil.org/?p=16227 Can your brand make a strong relationship with customers if they don’t see it every other day? In most cases, the answer is no. This is why leading companies follow the phrase out of sight, out of mind religiously. Looking at Coca-Cola’s annual revenue ($37 Billion in 2019), a layman would say they don’t need […]

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In most cases, the answer is no. This is why leading companies follow the phrase out of sight, out of mind religiously.

Looking at Coca-Cola’s annual revenue ($37 Billion in 2019), a layman would say they don’t need to advertise anymore. But, this is where most people are wrong. Coca-Cola sells because its marketing is omnipresent, and consumers see it everywhere every day.

This is what all big companies do, and this is what you as an aspiring marketer or a brand owner should try to replicate.

If you are about to devise a marketing strategy with a touch of omnipresence, here are some helpful tips.

Go to your audience.

Omnipresence is about being everywhere, and this is exactly what you should do. Go wherever your customers are.

If they read the newspaper, make sure your brand has fixed newspaper space. If they read a blog, build one. Do they watch TV ads? Get your brand some airtime! Leverage anything that your customer might use.

Needless to say, you have to be present on every social media platform because as a budding business, you can’t risk losing even a single potential lead. If you are not confident with your social media or digital marketing skills, take a marketing course with Monarch.

Build an interactive website.

With the advent of social media, consumer behavior has changed a lot. The way people interact, consume news and entertainment, and shop has drastically changed.

Besides word of mouth, people now trust whatever information is available online. This makes it obligatory for every business to have an official website that is aesthetically pleasing, easy to navigate, and has reliable information with detailed FAQs.

Oh, and it should also have links to all your social profiles so consumers can know which ones are real.

Ensure consistent communication through all mediums.

Adopting an omnipresent marketing approach means that your brand will interact with the customer through various channels. While it’s useful to be present on all mediums, ensuring that the customer gets a consistent experience everywhere is even more important.

If you are a retail brand, it’s obvious that your customers would get top-notch service at the outlet. However, what’s more important is that no matter where the communication occurs, the customer should get the same level of service they would receive in a retail environment.

Whether it’s an email, an online support chat, or a simple phone call, your brand’s communication should be consistent, and the message should be coherent.

Uniformity in customer interaction is super-important for omnipresence.

Collaborate with non-competing brands.

Making your brand omnipresent is about communicating with your customers, but intelligent companies do it with their contemporaries too.

We are not telling you to forget about the competition and let your competitors get a share of your audience. Instead, we suggest wise collaborations with other brands that complement yours, yield beneficial results, and help you improve your marketing strategy.

A lot of big names have done such collaborations in the past and reaped excellent results.

Turn social media trends into traffic.

A great strategy to get your brand widespread attention is catching social media trends and curating content by incorporating your brand’s name.

Social media trends drive new visitors to your website and potential leads to your business. We all saw what happened last month when Cristiano Ronaldo removed a Coca-Cola bottle in his press conference.

While Coca-Cola’s stock value suffered, several brands made the right move and cashed on the marketing opportunity. Here are a few examples.

So make sure your marketing team keeps their eyes on all social trends and jumps in on the right one.

Work with Influencers.

Influencer marketing is a great strategy to get your brand some extra eyeballs.

Kids and adults, boys and girls, all follow celebrities and social media personalities they take influence from.

These Influencers and celebrities have built strong, trust-centered relationships with their audience. You can easily leverage an influencer’s audience to make your brand’s voice reach more people through someone they’re familiar with.

Depending on your budget and niche, find a macro or micro-influencer and collaborate with them for some posts or shout-outs. This is a great way to connect with a wider market.

Get involved and engage with your audience.

To be omnipresent as a brand, you have to be easily accessible and available all over the internet.

Be active on social media and engage with your audience. Reply to their comments and messages, do Instagram/Facebook Lives with an industry expert in your niche, and be vocal about your brand, its story, and any offers you might have for the customers.

You can also try commenting on industry-related threads or offer to write guest blog posts on a popular site. This will help you diversify the audience that sees and hears about your brand, ultimately getting it the awareness it needs.

While thinking about these ideas, remember that omnipresence is not a goal or destination. It’s a journey, and you need to be consistent with your efforts.

Take each day as an opportunity to do more about it!

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]]> In 7 Steps: How To Boost Your B2B Sales Like A Superstar https://www.footballthink.com/7-steps-how-to-boost-your-b2b-sales-like-a-superstar/ Thu, 22 Jul 2021 11:44:58 +0000 https://www.openbusinesscouncil.org/?p=15856 B2B sales is a craft art that is increasingly critical in our digital enabled business world. Ironically, although all our sales are moving to the metaverse digital realm there is very little digital knowledge from business leaders and their team. B2B is about putting people and relationships first. And the importance of the digital to […]

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]]> B2B sales is a craft art that is increasingly critical in our digital enabled business world. Ironically, although all our sales are moving to the metaverse digital realm there is very little digital knowledge from business leaders and their team. B2B is about putting people and relationships first. And the importance of the digital to any business leader cannot be understated, it is there to build and enable relationships above all else. Sales are about building a solid network of value creation and is where you find your peers, your clients, your sales.

B2B. B2B sales, Sales tips, Business to Business, Startups
In 7 Steps: How To Boost Your B2B Sales Like A Superstar

Boosting B2B sales is all about focusing on solving a specific problem to a very concrete and measured audience. In our digital economic days, this implies a strong digital research and a bold profile for your company, organisation or team. This is both on web, mobile, social media and concrete niche B2B networks. Even the way you appear on zoom or other video calls.

Once you have a tailored capacity and a clear understanding about what you want to sell is only when the sales process can start. This implies a bull persistence of focus. Focus on clear business segmentation. Focus on understanding your target audience and be obsessive about them. Do all the research and know everything about their product(s), companies, their long tail segmentation. Intelligence about your audience and your clients is the number one golden B2B sales rule.

After this critical intelligence and research work, you have to find a clear critical solution and problem solving ways. Only when prepared for this very specific subject and their ecosystem will you be ready to start your process and boost your B2B sales like a bull.

B2B Sales Is All About People First

B2B is about people first. Their businesses come after. Once you take on that journey of understanding your B2B segment you can concentrate all your narrative and your digital outreach -whether on web, mobile, app or social media- to reach their ecosystem, their influencers and especially the thought leaders and decision makers. This implies precision, persistence and a scientific approach down to earth data driven preparation.

Once ready, work on serious messaging and content, explaining how your solution solves their B2B problem. Your solution needs to be simple and efficient and focused on solving concrete problems. Don’t try to solve all their problems. Solve one at a time.

B2B Buying Journey. Source: Gartner

How do you do this?

Make sure you have a credible and solid digital presence and an outreach tailored to their segmentation. Your digital presence will be the first key to open any closed door to your audience. Your digital presence, content, narrative and team are critical.

Build the messaging, competence and outreach to the ecosystem creating engagement with them. And repeat. After your first sale, continue with a simple to buy and clear call to action similar to a subscribe solution.

7 Sales Strategies To Become A B2B Sales Superstar

Last but not least, I propose here the 7 best sales strategies to become a B2B sales superstar that will increase conversions and, therefore, revenue:

1. Smart research-driven outreach. Before you start the sales process and to dial, or send an email, do your research and obsess about knowing your audience, clients and make sure to use solutions-driven narrative and buying intent through sales knowledge and data to reach out to the right people – titles, decision makers and intel about the company and their team.

2. Cold calls work, but you need to use all the channels. You have to cold call and persist in multiple channels – can’t just be emailing. You need to cold call and can’t just dial. You have to be proactive, do it all together and repeat with the right target messaging.

3. Include as many strong calls as possible to action titles, images or video. When you send an email, a tweet or a linkedin message, make sure that the message is strong by featuring an appealing headline and is related to the person you are targeting. Using a strong title, image or video in an email, LinkedIn message or through any other digital channel creates engagement. The focus on the person being targeted and the personalisation will pay off. Doing this your B2B target person will feel like you want to talk to them specifically instead of sending a mass message.

4. Reach out with serious knowledge and intent – don’t waste time with your target audience. Get your homework done on sales-based research intelligence from the company you are targeting. Check the profile of the person you are targeting, make it count. Build a relationship.

5. Create value – connect seriously. Go to your target audience and prospect’s LinkedIn profile, website and find concrete things about their problem and something to reference in your email or connection request. This shows that you want to create value, want to talk to that person, and people find it irresistible to receive a message that is personalized to them if this communication tries to solve a specific problem in their industry. Even if they don’t reply the first time, you’ll find a connection there and from a practical standpoint, it will show up in their feed if they accept the request. Over time, they’ll feel like they know you (as long as you post often). That makes it easier for you to start the B2B sales cycle and will make it likely for them to accept the call when you make a necessary follow-up cold call.

6. Social media intelligence and engagement. Check that person’s B2B business or team multiple accounts and engage. Make sure you know them, that you really care and want to get into their network. Don’t just send a connection request to every single person at that company on LinkedIn, engage and know about them and their multiple social profiles (of course in a wise and respectful way). This will give you a faster -and smarter- shot at finding your way in by creating engagement value.

7. Find the right path and rhythm. Understand where your B2B prospect is in the sales cycle and make sure you know if the targeted person and business is possibly interested in what you are selling or not. The worst thing for a salesperson is to sell a product that does not make sense for a prospect.

Being a sales superstar means being prepared and doing your homework. Boosting sales is about having the passion, dedication, intelligence and persistence to build relationships. It is about being obsessive about solving problems and CREATE VALUE for them and for you. And we need to say this in capital letters.

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]]> Boosting Sales in a Quiet Period https://www.footballthink.com/boosting-sales-quiet-period/ https://www.footballthink.com/boosting-sales-quiet-period/#respond Sun, 09 Dec 2018 00:35:49 +0000 https://www.openbusinesscouncil.org/?p=6269 Most businesses are currently well into their busiest time of the year. People are in the middle of their Christmas shopping, trying to get everything sorted before the big day. Many shops have late night opening days, online stores are offering quick and free delivery, and business is thriving. But, for many stores, this is […]

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Boosting Sales in a Quiet Period

Most businesses are currently well into their busiest time of the year. People are in the middle of their Christmas shopping, trying to get everything sorted before the big day. Many shops have late night opening days, online stores are offering quick and free delivery, and business is thriving. But, for many stores, this is soon to come to an abrupt halt. Once Christmas is out of the way, sales can slow, and many businesses find that their quieter period stretches out until the spring.

For a big business, this can be damaging. But for a smaller firm, it can be much worse. A quiet period that stretches to a few months can be difficult to recover from. You can find yourself forgotten, struggling to reassert yourself and facing severe financial issues going forward. Here are some ways to boost your sales during your quiet period in the New Year.

Reward Loyalty

January sales aren’t quite what they used to be. Now that so many shops and online retailers make the most of a Black Friday event, the January sales have somewhat lost their Sparkle. Not as many consumers rush out to find a New Year bargain now that most stores have been in a sale of some kind since early November.

But, this can give you another opportunity. Before Christmas, we buy for other people. In January, we shop for ourselves. So, reward your loyal customers with special offers and deals, as well as a little extra attention. Make the most of the quieter times to get to know your customers and build loyal relationships.

Focus on Your Website

Online shopping is massive. From big shops like Amazon right down to small ecommerce stores and people selling on platforms like Etsy, online sales grow every year. In January, when it’s cold and wet outdoors, people would much rather shop online that brave the high-street. So, spend some time focusing on your website. Look at your amazon seo, find ways to reach a new audience and offer online-only deals.

Celebrate Another Holiday

People like to celebrate. Especially in the early months of the year when we’re all feeling a little blue. So, find something to celebrate and make a bit of a fuss. This can be anything from your anniversary to national spaghetti day. Create even a small celebratory atmosphere, and people will be drawn in.

Look at Your Marketing Strategy

January is the perfect time to look at your marketing strategy, both in the short and long term. Look at what went well last year, and try to find ways to improve upon it. Find new places to advertise your business and think hard about where you might find your target audience. You can even make the most of a quieter period to assess your Christmas performance and start making plans for next year.

Get Outdoors

If you run a brick and mortar shop, and you are struggling to get people inside, why not go out to them? Set up a table outside, or go for a walk handing out promotional materials, badges, balloons and even hot drinks to warm them up in the cold weather. Work with a local coffee shop or another local business that is struggling to help each other if you can.

 

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]]> https://www.footballthink.com/boosting-sales-quiet-period/feed/ 0 Give Your Small Business A Big Voice: Crafting Your Brand Identity https://www.footballthink.com/give-your-small-business-a-big-voice-crafting-your-brand-identity/ https://www.footballthink.com/give-your-small-business-a-big-voice-crafting-your-brand-identity/#respond Sat, 10 Nov 2018 16:45:44 +0000 https://www.openbusinesscouncil.org/?p=5725 When you’ve found your strength in your products or services in your startup; it’s time to hit the ground running regarding your impact on the market. Competition is fierce, and you’ll need to expect that another company is doing what you do already. Therefore, you need to have a more appealing brand identity and travel […]

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Give Your Small Business A Big Voice: Crafting Your Brand Identity

When you’ve found your strength in your products or services in your startup; it’s time to hit the ground running regarding your impact on the market. Competition is fierce, and you’ll need to expect that another company is doing what you do already. Therefore, you need to have a more appealing brand identity and travel down every avenue that will help you tempt your target audience to your website. A few social media updates and a business logo is not enough to gain consumer traffic; people have plenty of options to choose from, so be the one that looks the best. The following are the areas of your business that you’ll need to put your effort into in order to get as many people to notice you when you launch your fledgling company.

Creating Your Identity

This is where strategy and planning are the most crucial; you need to begin working out everything from your brand’s aesthetics, to how you’re going to engage with potential consumers. Work out your company’s value, ethics, and beliefs, and how each can be represented through your brand clearly. Having a strong character and personality in your business will ensure that people are tempted to invest in you because of more than what you sell or offer.

Carefully consider your colour choices, the shapes and texture you use within your branding, and any taglines; these are the first point of contact for your potential customers. They have to reflect what they can expect from your business. It’s worth looking towards your competitor’s branding and design, but don’t stare. Think about your branding on an array of marketing platforms; it needs to make an impact on everything from Infinity Cards to digital pop-ups. Seeing what has worked successfully in the past will give you an idea of what the market responds to and expects. However, you don’t want to risk copying anyone, as you’ll only end up looking like a watered down version of your predecessors and few people will take note.

Being Seen

Once your branding and identity are firmly in place and ready to portray your business; it’s time to plan your marketing strategy and ensure that all the right people are seeing your presence. You should be planning your marketing and official launch throughout the process of fine-tuning your design elements. Know how you’re going to hit the market with force, so that your launch can go as seamlessly as possible and have the desired effect. Begin by remembering that only a select portion of the market are going to be interested in your business; so it’s crucial that as many of them see your brand as possible. It’s no use a plethora of consumers seeing your company if they’re not going to click through and invest, so targeting the right place should be your focus.

Take into considering the size of your market and where they’ll be; think about their age, location, income, and how they identify to help steer you in the right direction with your marketing strategy. Again, this is another point where you should be looking towards your competitors and those that have already succeeded; you’ll be able to gather some valuable data and knowledge which will assist in your set-up. Think about how to speak best, engage, and communicate with your desired audience, and then be consistent with everything to give to them.

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