Many small to medium businesses face marketing challenges, but mostly, the problem they face is understanding what marketing is and why it’s essential to their bottom line.
Small enterprises are often a one-person show, managing many, if not all aspects of their business.
Medium enterprises are slightly luckier, in that they have in-house or outsourced freelenacers to assist in their marketing efforts.
However, both small and medium face the same marketing challenges, namely, how to make the very most their time and increase sales to grow their companies.
Here are our top 5 most important marketing challenges and how to solve them.
Do we need a marketing plan?
The simply answer…well, we think if you’re reading this post, you know the answer.
Planning for seasons, holidays, back to school and other major dates in the consumers’ calendar is key to selling products and services at the most opportune time.
Knowing the intricacies of your business’ sales cycle is bread and butter, but the lack of a marketing plan can see those products you’ve bought or manufactured just sitting on a shelf.
Your marketing challenge is to identify the gaping hole in your business’ profile and plug it, quick smart.
Understanding the channels available to you and maximising their usage in a timely and decisive manner is a tough proposition, but professionals understand much (rarely all) of the process.
An in-house or even an outsourced team are invested in and have a dedicated approache to their work.
Marketing is a specialist area and while yes, you can get some of it done in bed, after work, with the TV blaring….would you really want to?
How’s your online profile?
Your online profile has a number of aspects – social media, website, blog, etc.
To identify a personal or business profile we look at the face representing the company, the person that best represents the benefits, attitudes and approach the business has to it’s customers.
Your business reputation simply must be positive. In the digital age, with review site, after review site, negative sentiment towards your company will sound your death knell.
Don’t expect your business’ reputation to grow overnight, but consistent, high-level customer service will stand you in good stead.
But it’s not all about smiles and “likes”, the appearance of a company can be the difference between hiring talented/dedicated/loyal colleagues or self-serving, temporary staff members.
How your business physically and digitally appears in imagery, behind-the-scenes work environments and more will drive customers to advocate for your company.
Where’s your Brand presence?
Every company has a brand presence or identity.
It needs to be unique.
When we talk about brand identity, it’s easy to imagine just imagery – a logo, but that’s not all it is.
Your brand’s digital presence is how customers identify you at a distance, from within the forest of like-wise businesses and notice your USP.
Think of a brand. Any brand. Whio is it? What’s their logo? What do they stand for?
Now think about your brand.
Is it identifiable at a glance?
Do customers see you standing-out from the crowd?
Are your USPs truly unique?
Know who you are, know where you want to be and make sure your customers know it too.
Are your marketing and sales departments aligned?
Sales and Marketing teams don’t have to sit net to each other, but they do have to recognise them in the canteen.
We’re being glib, but the alignment between the teams that sell and the teams that place the products in front of the customer should be agreed.
The sales people know the business, often, better that the marketing elements, simply because SMEs might see a need to outsource to professional marketers, who might not have expertise in your business sector.
To ensure that the Sales team sells and the Marketing team places the products in front of the right audience, a mutial understanding must be present.
In this global economy, the regular morning meetings have been somewhat upended, but the availability of Zoom and other video-chat programmes means alignment between these teams can be achieved and achieved well, and we avoid those pesky email chains.
Marketing isn’t really that important…is it?
Look, we’re marketers so of course we’re going to say it is, but you know what – IT IS!
Marketing isn’t everything for your business, it’s not where you started out,. it isn’t how most of you might have made your first sales (thanks Mum and Dad), but marketing is how and why you will scale in a social media and digital economy.
The need to market a product is timeless and essential in competitve sectors.
Investing your time, energies and monies in a marketing strategy can save you money in the long term and increase your revenue in the short to long term.
Sure, there will be teething problems.
Your strategy might not work the first time around, but that’s when you learn and tweak it until the sucesses you do enjoy initially become consistant and grow.
If you wish to have a conversation with a marketing professional, contact us at Wing Digital Marketing, TODAY.
