How to develop an effective marketing strategy for your SME
Systematic planning and strategic orientation are part of being able to assert oneself in today's market. Anyone who has just founded a company or wants to expand their company further - perhaps internationally - has one key task above all: An effective marketing strategy is required to win new customers and retain existing customers (see also Act! blog article "Five simple Customer retention measures ”).
If you want to be successful, you simply cannot avoid a clearly defined marketing strategy. It is not only important to achieve short-term goals, but also to always keep an eye on long-term goals. You need to monitor your competition and their actions, and most importantly, do targeted marketing.
In order to juggle all of this, you must first have a plan . Important business decisions cannot be based on your intuition, but must be prepared step by step after careful consideration.
You need a marketing strategy for that! Once this has been implemented, the successful implementation of your marketing measures can be systematically calculated. Marketing teams that have a documented strategy are 313% more likely to report successes.
First step to a successful marketing strategy: define your goals
You need to determine your company's overarching goals before you can identify specific revenue generation or revenue growth actions. This includes both short-term and long-term goals.
Answer questions like: Where do you see your company in five years? How many new customers do you need to acquire over the next month and by what percentage do you need to increase your customer retention rate to ensure your sales exceed a certain threshold?
In order to make it easier for young companies to get started with an effective marketing strategy, it is recommended to use the so-called SMART criteria for formulating your goals. This means that your marketing goals should:
- S - Specific: Formulate your goals as concretely and precisely as possible. They must be clearly understandable for everyone.
- M - Measurable: You must be able to measure your progress towards a goal, i.e. there must be methods by which you can analyze your actions.
- A - Acceptable: Your goals must be accepted by your target group.
- R – Realistic: Only set goals that you can actually implement.
- T - Deadline-based: Your goals must be achieved by a specific deadline.
The SMART Formula: A small business example
A beautician also sells its services over the Internet and wants to further expand its online sales. First, he defines his marketing goals. Instead of "I want to generate more sales," he formulates: "I want to increase sales by 45 percent by the end of the third quarter by selling my make-up specials in the online shop."
This marketing objective is specific, measurable, and time-based. It is also accepted by potential customers. However, whether a sales increase of 45 percent is really realistic must be assessed in advance. If there really are so many makeup specials being sold, can the beautician even keep up with this huge customer demand without having to hire additional staff? The realistic feasibility test is essential in advance.
To make it easier for you to define marketing goals, simply remember that your goal formulation contains the answers to the five W questions Who? What? When? How? Why? must include.
Second step: Who is your target group?
Once you have defined your marketing goals and know what you want to achieve, you can determine exactly which target market you need to address in order to be able to successfully implement your goals.
What do you know about your potential customers? How old are you? Where do you work? And where do they live? What is the best way to get their attention? Via posters, email or social media? By identifying your target market, you can conduct targeted marketing efforts that will increase your chances of conversion.
Third step: What is your competitive advantage?
To get significant market share, you need a unique selling proposition (USP). Something that sets you apart from the competition. This can be lower prices, superior quality, fast delivery, sustainable production and environmental friendliness, a special discount offer or outstanding customer service. Identify your USP and focus on it while crafting your marketing campaigns.
In this phase, the competition must not be lost sight of. What do their campaigns look like and how can you counteract them creatively? The aim should be that you react less than actively set the tone. Think outside the box on how to draw attention to yourself and your products. Are you planning to open a branch in a new city? Combine this event with a big party for your customers. Get creative, there are countless marketing ideas !
Fourth step: Establish a sales funnel
In order to bring a certain systematic approach to the various phases of the purchasing process, an established sales pipeline can be used to identify where your leads are at what point in the customer journey . These insights are of great advantage in the context of formulating your marketing strategy and the measures to be derived from it.
A classic sales funnel consists of the following phases:
- Target group definition, marketing measures
- Telephone acquisition, appointment scheduling
- First customer visit, needs analysis, needs analysis, customer evaluation, presentation
- offer, negotiation
- Mission, Collaboration, Cooperation
Fifth step: Define your measures
Once you have done this preliminary work and defined a marketing strategy, you are aware of any problem areas, what your competitors are doing and what your customers expect. You can now define your marketing activities based on the information collected.
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Define in advance certain customer groups that have similar personas. How often should which groups be contacted? For example, when do you want to start your seasonal sales promotion and send out corresponding discount offers?
Conclusion: With strategy to the goal
It is obvious that the preparatory work in the form of market, customer and competition analysis is worthwhile in order to be able to formulate a marketing strategy tailored to your specific objectives and customer needs. Invest time and, if possible, a certain budget to define them effectively and based on the criteria and steps above. In this way you can ensure a successful implementation of your marketing activities.