When you are a new or small business, the name of the game is growth. The question, though, is how to grow. With all of the expenses combined eating up your profit margin, spending any money that isn’t strictly necessary can seem like a fools’ errand. As such, it can often seem daunting to spend any of your companies hard-earned money on marketing.
This is, however, fundamentally flawed thinking. Instead of looking at marketing as an expense, it should be viewed as an investment: an opportunity for growth. Let’s look at some advertising strategies, both digital and traditional, that can help your company flourish.
Marketing Research
First things first, any good marketing campaign has to begin with research. The importance of this step can’t be overlooked. It is the foundation upon which your whole campaign will grow. One has to know their target audience. You have to understand their trends and the way they are going to be consuming media.
Study the types of people that are most likely to be in your client base. With this information, you can be sure that you are as visible as possible to those you want to see you. You can also be sure that you are delivering the message that you wish to provide.
Identify and Plan
Now that you have your target audience identified, it’s time to identify the most influential media campaigns. You will do this by breaking down information gathered from the habits of your target audience. What sites are they going to most? Maybe they visit one site slightly less but spend much more time there.
Whatever the case may be, it is at this point that we can begin to form a direct and targeted campaign. Both one that effectively utilizes the information gathered during the research phase to efficiently, and cost-effectively reach the most prominent portion possible of your target audience.
Streamline
At this point, your company has made great strides. You have researched and identified your target audience, studied their trends, and used them to diversify your marketing in a way that should reach the most significant amount of your target audience in the most effective ways.
These are all great steps, and the business has undoubtedly benefited, but let’s not forget that smaller businesses generally have a smaller revenue stream. Any money saved is good for the bottom line.
That being the case, now is the time to really optimize your media campaign. Study metrics such as email sign ups, time on site, and views. Use this information and info like how many individuals viewed/clicked your ads to see if you are spending money in places that aren’t paying off. Maybe that money can be better spent elsewhere.
Growing Into The Future
Generally speaking, a small business needs to grow to survive. Growth can be attributed to many things, like customer service and quality of goods, but there can be no doubt that if people don’t know about your goods or services, they can’t spend money on them.
The bottom line is that a small business, and even more extensive and established businesses, need to be present in the mind and eye of their consumers to be successful. With all of this apparent, it quickly becomes clear that marketing is a necessary expense.
Don’t worry, though, because it is an expense that will pay for itself by raising awareness and helping to grow your business. Because of this fact, it is best to think of marketing more as an opportunity for growth than an expense.
Yes, you may spend money initially in order to market your services efficiently, but the exposure can’t be oversold. With all of this in mind, marketing quickly becomes another word for opportunity.
