Marketing is an essential part of meeting your professional goals and should always be covered in your business plan. It doesn’t need to involve big spending on billboards or glossy magazine ads if that’s not what’s right for you. There are affordable and highly effective methods that you can pursue to ensure that your business receives the attention that it deserves.
1. Listening to understand
It’s one thing to ask a question and another to listen to the answer. By actively listening to what your customers or clients are saying you can tailor your marketing strategy to suit the exact needs of your business. Ask customers after you’ve completed a sale or service for feedback, email out a friendly message with a short survey to your existing clients, and run a poll on your social channels. Gather data from a variety of sources, and thoroughly assess the responses. Carefully listening to what people have to say will give you the best insight into how you can improve your business and meet your goals. It will also drive engagement and help remind your customers what they like so much about you.
2. A sound SEO strategy
When pursuing a digital marketing strategy search engine optimisation (SEO) is key. Optimising your presence will help drive traffic to your website from people already seeking your services. Whether this means a slight tweak in your current process or a complete overhaul, utilising SEO is a worthwhile and profitable pursuit that will help you discover new opportunities for your business. Consider a new website, posting regular blog updates, and updating your written content to contain frequent search terms to make sure that you are clearly visible to anyone browsing the internet for your services.
3. Be inquisitive
Feedback is a vital part of improving your services and customer experience. When a client needs or wants something, it is important to ask why they’ve made that request. Where appropriate, this might involve enquiring with the client themselves, or discussing it internally. Taking a genuine interest in what they want and the motivation behind it will give you the information you need to adapt and improve your business. This curiosity should extend to your own processes as well. It may seem obvious, but it is surprising how many business owners are unaware of the day-to-day goings-on in some parts of their organisation. While not everything will require your utmost attention at all times, checking in regularly will ensure that you can make changes when necessary to integrate the results of your feedback.
4. Take an analytical approach
The key to successful marketing is being able quickly identify what is working and what is not. It is not an element of your business that can be left unattended, nor can it be provided as a one-size-fits-all approach. Think carefully about what you want from your marketing when it comes to your business goals. Do you need more new enquiries? More engagement online? More repeat customers? Examine carefully which methods are genuinely delivering these results and prioritise them, rather than those that are straightforward, cheap, or enjoyable to pursue.
5. Be ready to adapt
Marketing is a fast-changing landscape and quick responses to new information and feedback are absolutely critical. With a strong understanding of your business and clients, you will be ideally positioned to change course where necessary to continue running the business at its best. You may find that you need to reduce or increase the spend on a certain element of your marketing strategy based on its efficacy, push a certain product or service, or encourage retention for repeat customers. Whatever you learn from your marketing strategy, remain agile enough to implement it.
As your business adapts and changes with the times, make sure that your finances are in order. Omer & Company are a team of London accountants diligently delivering a full range of services to make sure your business thrives. If you are looking for an approachable and knowledgeable account, get in touch today by calling 020 8850 0700 or sending an email to info@omeraccountants.co.uk.
