Recently, I entered an interesting discussion on LinkedIn about expectations with marketing on behalf of clients.
A common thread was that some clients refuse to budge on things that damage their growth. This includes:
– Continuing to target the wrong customers who aren’t interested in buying their products or services.
– Writing their own copy because they believe they can do it themselves.
– Persisting with underperforming methods for Google Ads or paid advertising and getting low or no return for huge spend.
Part of this comes from limited knowledge of strategy and not digging into the who/where/why/when/how customers find you in the marketplace and online.
Putting a marketing process into place means you can pinpoint your business goals, develop strategies to reach more yachting and/or luxury customers and measure your results.
Here are 4 Steps That Lead To A Successful Marketing Process:
1. RESEARCH: If you don’t know where your prospective customers are in the first place you will never be able to grow your business. Do your research about the yachting industry and where customers look for your products/services.
2. STRATEGY: Put in place a documented strategy with defined responsibilities so you commit to marketing efforts. Who is in charge of social media posts and responding to comments? Who is managing PR? Who sends out newsletters?
3. ACTION: As part of your strategy, you should list all the actions and dates that move your marketing from an idea to execution.
4. MEASUREMENT: A key part of a successful marketing process is measurement. If you are not looking at your analytics and customer behaviour, then you can not adapt it, especially if something isn’t working well. Sadly, many businesses find this out the hard way and are usually out of pocket before they realise something is going pear shaped.
One of the best things about implementing a marketing strategy is that you have the ability to change your strategy – you can double down when something is working well, or ditch something that’s not working.
A clear marketing strategy can help you make informed decisions about where your company is heading, and most importantly give your customers a reason to engage, buy and stay with you.
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Lead photo: Mali Maeder – Pexels.
