Are you maximising the biggest leverage point in your business?

If you want to grow your business, you need to start paying attention to the activities that give you the biggest return.
A small increase in the success of your marketing can have an exponential effect on your turnover. Marketing, therefore, is the lynchpin for business growth.

My favourite definition of marketing is:

“Marketing is the strategy you use to get your prospects to know you, like you and trust you enough to become customers.”

Nothing more, nothing less.

The tricky part, however, is working out what you need to do to achieve this goal.

Do you really need a marketing strategy?

Just because you’ve launched a new website or introduced a new product or service, don’t fall into the trap of thinking your business will just magically grow.

It doesn’t work that way.

The ‘overnight success’ is often years in the making and there’s a lot of graft that goes on in the background to ensure such successes are achieved.

So you need a plan, a marketing strategy to achieve your goals.

A marketing strategy consists of the tactics you will need to employ to move towards success. These include PR, content marketing, Google Ads, SEO, advertising, corporate identity, social media, etc.

It is the careful planning and implementation of these specific tactics that will make or break your company’s ambitions in the marketplace.

Creating a simple, workable marketing plan

In my book, a marketing plan needs to be kept short and simple.

Don’t get me wrong, a huge amount of thought needs to go into producing it. The document itself, however, needs to be quick and easy to understand and implement.

If it isn’t, you’re limiting its chances of success from the outset.

Here’s a clear and easy to use template for creating a workable marketing plan:

Stage One – Laying the foundation

1. Who do you want to reach? – Who are your ideal target markets?
2. What information/help are they looking for? – What are your key messages?
3. How can you best reach them? – What platforms will you use to spread the word?

Stage Two – Casting the Net

1. How are you going to attract prospects? – How will you build your sales funnel?
2. What will you do to nurture leads? – How can you progress them down the funnel?
3. What can you do to get them to buy? – How are you going to prove your worth?

Stage Three – Building Loyalty

1. How will you build loyalty? – What can you do to keep customers returning?
2. How can you maximise lifetime value? – What measures can you take to stop ‘drift’ to competitors?
3. How can you turn customers into raving fans? – What system will you put in place to get referrals?

Can’t see the wood for the trees? Help is on hand…

When you’re dealing with the day-to-day pressures of business it can be hard finding time to think through the process of developing a marketing plan for your business.

Often, you are so close to your business that it is almost impossible for you to have a realistic view of what you have to offer, what the market wants and how to communicate this to your prospects.

At Leapfrog Marketing, we have gained over 30 years’ experience in helping hundreds of clients develop an effective marketing strategy for their business.

We’d love to meet you and discuss how our team can help take the weight off your shoulders and create a powerful marketing strategy for your business.

If that’s something that resonates with you, it would be great to hear from you – call Alan Myers on 0116 278 7788 or email: ideas@leapfrog.uk.com and let us help you get 2020 off to a flying start.