HOW TO DEVELOP MARKETING STRATEGY AND PLAN FOR BUSINESS
Before you start marketing your service-based business, it’s important to develop a marketing strategy and plan.
An actual strategy and plan will include your objectives or goals, the target market you want to attract, the service offerings you’re going to provide, and the marketing activities you’re going to an instrument to achieve your goals.
By taking a strategic approach to your marketing, you’ll also be more likely to achieve your goals rather and see a higher return on your marketing investment.
So, how do you develop a marketing strategy and plan?
Here’s a list of ten steps I recommend you follow to develop a marketing strategy and plan for your service-based business:
1. Select your market positioning
When it comes to developing a marketing strategy for your service-based business, the first step is to select your market positioning. This means, selecting a target market or place, choosing a specialist area, and tailoring your service plan, so that it’s better or different from your competitors.
Many small businesses fear to do this, as they believe it will reduce both the size of their available market and income opportunities. However, it’s proven to have the opposite effect.
A marketing message that speaks directly to your target market, will be more likely to vibrate and stand out to your ideal clients. When you specialize in an area of expertise, you’ll become known as an authority in something, which is a fantastic way to build credibility and trust with your ideal clients.
2. Conduct target market research
Conducting thorough market research is the key to attracting your target market and developing attractive service offerings. Market research provides examples of the language your ideal client uses when talking about your services.
The research will also give you visions into the struggles they face and the fears they have. This will enable you to design better solutions that overcome these factors.
Methods for conducting market research include:
Inviting past or potential clients for coffee or lunch and asking them questions
Searching Facebook groups for problems to find out what they’re struggling with
Reading relevant book reviews on Amazon.com to see what solutions they value
Sending out a survey to your email list which includes open-ended questions; and
Reading industry reports and case studies on services in your niche.
3. Build a great website
When you’re a service-based business, your perfect clients are likely to “visit” you via your website. As such, it’s essential to provide a great first impression. And, to ensure your website functions well and is easy to navigate. If you’re not confident with the technical side, then hire a website developer to help you.
Alternatively, spend money educating yourself on how to build, maintain, and manage your site. Another way to invest in your website is with high-quality photos. It can make all the difference! Also, if copywriting is not your strength, then employing a copywriting specialist could deliver better returns through higher conversion rates.
4. Design a strong brand
When it comes to branding your service-based business, develop a marketing strategy and plan that includes your:
Mission statement
Personal story
A brand style guide.
Your mission statement says to whom you want to help with your business and ‘why.’ It’s an integral part of your brand, as it’s a way to build a stronger connection with your target market. Sharing your personal story is another great way to build a connection with your audience.
It can be difficult to write and talk about yourself, so be sure to ask for help if you need another viewpoint. Include both your mission statement and a personal story on the ‘About’ page of your site.Your style guide is the final part of your branding, which includes your visual identity and values.
Design a professional logo and select the fonts, images, and color palette that you will use.Also, think of 4-5 words that you would use to describe your brand values.These values will guide your business’s tone and brand presence, as well as help you with creating and curating content.
5. Create offers and package your services
When you create a service package, it makes it easier for you to avoid trading your time for money. It enables you to ‘hide’ your hourly rate inside a package price and position your services based on value rather than on cost. It’s important to package your services because it’s the total price that you want your target market to focus on and determine value.
For example, if you had a high hourly rate but took less time to complete a task, then your total package price may be the same as a competitor’s who had a low hourly rate but took longer.
The marketing objective is to present your services on the total value you provide; as opposed to getting caught in a discussion around hourly rates which are comparable to your competitors. Designing and promoting a service offer is a great way to create urgency with your target market and build momentum.
6. Write a marketing plan including your objectives and targets
A marketing plan needs to have your objectives or what you want to achieve; the activities you are going to undertake to achieve your goals, and the targets you are going to set yourself so you can measure and track your performance. When you’re investing time and money in anything, the results or the outcome will be directly linked to what’s put into the process.
So, if you don’t see the results you want from your marketing efforts, take a step back and consider what you’re putting into it. When you have a plan that is measurable, it makes it a lot easier to track your performance. It provides you with an opportunity to review what’s working, and what’s not. And then make adjustments to improve your performance.
7. Build a content platform through writing or speaking
Content is a valuable marketing advantage for your business, whether it’s written, audio or visual. There are two types of content you can create – your core content and your promotional content.
Your core content builds a platform or a voice for you to showcase your skill and position by hand as an authority.
While promotional content helps you to build awareness with your followers or community. The format for your core content could include a blog, a video series, a podcast, live Facebook or LinkedIn video.
Promotional content includes social media posts that promote your core content and the services you sell. You may also create a range of promotional awareness content pieces such as inspirational quotes, questions, tips, and fun stories as examples.
8. Grow your community and email list
At any given time, there’s only going to be a certain number of people who are ready to buy from you. Additionally, it’s near difficult (or indeed very costly) to be able to identify these people specifically through your marketing.
It’s also not uncommon for people to take their time before making a decision to work with you.
Often, ideal clients may need to see or hear from your business many times before they trust you enough to give you their money.
That’s where growing your community and email list comes in. It will likely become an essential part of your marketing strategy and plan.
9. Seek out collaboration opportunities
If your business is new, you probably won’t have a large community or strong brand awareness. However, there will be others in your place who offer complementary services that you could cooperate with or partner with.
If they are an established business, they will have a list of clients who may need your services. And in time as your client base grows, you’ll be able to refer business back to your collaboration partners as well.
When looking for teamwork partners, take a strategic approach. Develop a marketing strategy that is focused on trying to build rarer, but more thoughtful and deeper business connections. For a collaboration to work well, there needs to be value in it for both partners.
10. Collect testimonials and ask for referrals
There’s a very high level of trust evidence required in a service-based sales transaction, as your client is making a purchasing decision based on what value they reason they’re going to receive.
Therefore, they’ll be looking for results from past clients to give them confidence that they are making the right decision.
Implementing a strategy for collecting client testimonials is essential for a service-based business.
