And, before we even get on to that…

(What actually is a marketing strategy anyway?)

I mean, really. What is it?

There are so many complicated definitions for marketing strategy. They tell you all about products, goals, focus, customers, services, markets, positioning and profit potentials – and could have you cradling your head in your hands in despair in the first sentence.

The trouble is, they’re all correct.

They can just be a bit hard to decode into something you can do. That’s what this post is for – to help you actually crack on with writing your own strategy.

So first, here’s my most basic, plain English definition of what a marketing strategy is.

Working out which new customers you will do a really good job for.

A better job than someone else will.

And working out why.

And whilst we’re on the topic, there can be some serious confusion about the difference between your marketing strategy and your marketing plan.

So my simplest way to explain a marketing plan is…

How you will find those new customers who will be very pleased to have done business with you.

Because you did a really good job for them.

Better than anyone else would have.

It’s worth adding here that I think there is a strong connection between the length and happiness of your customer relationships and the appropriateness (is there a shorter word for that?) of your marketing strategy.

As a slight aside, and while we’re on the plain English thing….

Marketing explained in three steps.

1. Find out what your perfect customers want and need with a spot of customer research.
2. Set yourself up to be as good as possible at that.
3. Find and tell those customers that’s what you do.

Note – These are all purely my own views.

Lots of other knowledgeable folk – and well-reviewed books; and clever professors; and venerable marketing gurus; and fine, upstanding individuals – have very different ways of explaining it, and that’s all jolly fine by me.

These people usually call this approach something like customer centricity. (So I’ve read.)

So, how to write a simple marketing strategy

Breaking a marketing strategy up into manageable chunks makes it an awful lot easier to tackle and create.

So let’s do that.

Here I’ll explain each chunk I think you need, and a few useful ideas on how to structure them.

I’ve matched them with their marketing jargon so you can cross reference them against any other reading or resources you are using to get your head around this.

(And, to be fair, so you can cross reference them against any of my other posts. Despite my attitude to plain English in this post, I do actually use some marketing language too…. hypocrisy!)

The six things that make up your marketing strategy

Only six things, I hear you ask?

I’ve tried to make them as easy to read as possible, but inevitably some of it won’t make sense if you’re on a steep learning curve and building a marketing strategy is new for you. (Call me and I shall explain. For two jaffa cakes and a cup of tea, I’ll even come to your offices and explain in person.)

ONE: Who you can do a really good job for

Work out who those firms are. Identify them. Look to your existing customers for inspiration. The happiest and most profitable ones, with whom you have the longest relationship. Those are the ones you want more of because these are the ones you clearly do the best job for.

(Either that or they’ve turned to stone, are too disorganised to leave and too scared to complain).

Commonly known as target audience or ideal customers.

• Given this post is for the SMEs out there, now identify a more specific and narrowly defined group of people or firms you can do a really, really (really) good job for.
• These are a target audience segment. You could have more than one of these, but don’t go bonkers.

TWO: Why what you do is a really good job (and not just a job)

This is actually the value you bring to your customers. Also known as your value proposition. Can be easier to think of it slightly obliquely as the problems you’re really good at solving for your customers.

This can be very hard to define, so here’s an example.

Software company selling accounts payable automation software.

A good client for them is dealing with 10,000 invoices per year, partly manual, partly on a SAGE type finance system. They do most of their stuff on paper, pay duplicate invoices by mistake, payments are slow to be authorised so suppliers don’t give good rates and invoices can’t be found or checked easily.

If you automate your accounts payable processes, it works much better. Invoices are paid accurately and on time. Mistakes are rare. Suppliers give fast payment discounts. The accounts payable team are happy bunnies.

So the value this product brings is financial (suppliers charge less, lower headcount reflecting reduced workload), cultural (happier suppliers, happier finance team) and business related (accurate, real-time financial information).

THREE: Why you do a better job of it than anyone else

Ideally you are the one who does the best possible job.

This is your USP – your Unique Selling Point. Otherwise known as differentiation – why you are different from other suppliers (in a good way).

If in doubt, ask your customers.

If they and you can’t articulate it, you probably aren’t different enough.

Work on that. It will be worth it.

In the example above, the software company is a small, independent, family-run firm with a very admirable company culture and set of values/ethics. These values run through every dealing it has with its own employees and also – critically – with its customers.

So it only takes on customers it knows it can do a really (really) good job for. And then it looks after them as if they were royalty. Lovely.

It specialises in accounts payable software because it can spend time, money and energy in getting that completely right, rather than chasing new markets willy-nilly purely because there are ‘huge opportunities for growth’.

They’ve become an absolute master of their trade – from both a product and a knowledge perspective.

They also have a culture that is reflected in their superb customer service at each and every contact point with a customer. 

It is the combination of these two things that differentiates them from other suppliers.

FOUR: Why you do what you do

Your mission. Connected to: vision, values, culture, ethics.

This is probably the most difficult to pin down.

If you haven’t got a mission, think a bit about why not. Some underlying passion or love for what you do – or the way you do it – is usually needed. Tip: many businesses don’t have a real mission, and really struggle with this part of their strategy.

By itself – not having a mission is not necessarily a problem.

Many businesses are happy. They provides goods and services, look after their customers and salaries and bills get paid. But without a real mission, most firms will remain average and fail to grow if and when they want to. Or they’ll fade slowly into obscurity instead of selling themselves for a tidy sum after 20 years building a great business.

How to crack it?

Some (rare) people just have a inbuilt mission to do something specific with their passion, which turns into a business. For the rest of us more normal folk – it can be easier to think of it as a mission around the way you do business.

This does put the emphasis slightly more on your values than on your mission. I’m learning that looking more closely at your values you hold can lead you towards uncovering an unexpected mission.

Have a think about it and see where you get to. (Call 07827 297569 if you get stuck).

FIVE: How you explain yourself to your customers

Better known as messaging by the folks that know their onions. (Farmers?)

Pretty icky name for it, messaging.

Now, this isn’t about the copywriting thing. Or your strapline, tagline, slogan or whatever. Or the specific headlines on your website.

It’s better imagined as the main things you need people to really understand, think and believe about you. And then tell others about. Not the itty bitty details of your services. And not necessarily just the benefits.

And – critically – not what you think about yourself.

For an interesting exercise to help you arrive at the right messaging for you – have a read of my LinkedIn post on the topic.

SIX: Tone of voice

Speaks for itself, really.

It’s how you sound to others. It’s how you get the personality of your business across to others. Business works best when you do business with people you have something in common with. So let them get to know you – the real you.

Be brave and be yourself.  It will be worth it.

If you’re worried about coming across as the type of business you really are, you may have more deeper seated problems than a good marketing strategy can fix. Grab a business coach instead.

‘Nuff said.

Action for you

If you’ve found this post useful, interesting, actionable – or all three – please share it with your community or contacts so they can have a read of it.

Hopefully they’ll appreciate it. (I certainly will…)

And finally (at last). If you think you need help from a sales and marketing consultant working this out alongside you, and you’re based in Hampshire or a nearby county, then why not think about hiring me?

The post How to write a marketing strategy – the simple way. appeared first on Evolve Lite (Beam).

Others are confident they’ve defined a clear mission with heaps of personality. But still feel that they haven’t quite got there with their positioning.

And the danger is, if you’re not clear on both, your prospects won’t be confident that you’re the right fit for them. So they won’t buy from you.

Here’s a bit more on why that is, and what to do about it.

Misuse of language warning

I have to admit to being lazy here.

I am lumping together mission, vision and values on the one side (the HR folk are going to hate me for this, especially my mate Sally B…). And bundling up niche, focus and positioning on the other.

Naughty perhaps, but useful to get my point across. Apologies to all marketing purists.

So that’s two sides to consider. Get them both right, and good stuff happens. Here’s why.

Your prospects need to understand you to buy you

I believe that for your customers and clients to consider you as their next supplier, they need to understand you – and understand what you’re best at. That’s your positioning. 

But to actually choose you (and sign that lovely contract), then need to connect with you – and connect with what you care about. That’s your mission.

When you get the two sides working together – Mission + Positioning – your clients get the full story, and you get the right client

Get your mission and positioning sorted

I’ve written a fair bit on positioning, so won’t repeat it here. If you’re new to it then get to grips with the basics in this post before carrying on.

So, on to your mission. Your why.

The difference between mission and positioning

I’m going to use myself as an example.

My positioning is that I am a new business consultant. I work with small B2B firms to help them acquire more of the right new clients. I work with firms in Hampshire and bordering counties.

So far so good.

My mission is that I’m here to help people – that were in the position that I was in 11 and 3/4 years ago – to get more of the right new clients.

The position I was in (11 and 3/4 years ago) was of having responsibility for new business, but not knowing where to start with actually getting a regular stream of real, suitable new clients in through the door.

And that was despite already having a solid background in (and I thought, a reasonable grasp of) marketing. Worrying, eh?

So, I carry out my mission to help these people by writing articles and giving workshops that freely share the knowledge and experience I’ve acquired. I try and give them those ‘Aah!’ moments, when things click and you feel that bit more empowered with the knowledge or tools to get your job done.

I do it because I remember how useful this type of bite-sized information could have been to me, in my situation. I can empathise, understand and help people to get better at it.

I then do paid consultancy work and training in order to earn the living that supports me to keep on helping those people. Importantly – if I didn’t need to work financially, I would still want to be doing what I do.

My values and beliefs support my mission.

Knowing my values and beliefs means that I can look for more of those clients that fit with them, and so fit with me.

The better the fit, the stronger and more valuable the relationship – from both sides.

Here are my values.

1. My new business philosophy is one of helping, not selling.
2. I believe that if you offer support and give value to others, good things will happen in business (as well as in life). So I work with firms that are interested in, open to, or feel comfortable with this approach.
3. I believe that not all clients are the right clients, so you should only aim to work with the ones that are. Then you can pass on the ones that don’t fit to other people whom you know could help them better than you can. Then everyone’s happy.
4. I like to help firms that are determined to improve, keen to learn, have an open mind, and are already prepared to put in the time and effort to make the changes needed.

You know something?

It’s taken me over a year to be able to write that down as clearly as that (hope it was clear to you). I certainly didn’t have a mission when I began.

Which leads me nicely on to my next point.

When to start with your mission

Some people say you have to get your mission sorted, right from the start. I don’t – and didn’t.

I believe that for most businesses, trying to articulate a mission is a really difficult task and can leave them struggling in vain to move forward rather than getting on with what they do best – looking after their customers.

Some companies are born of a vision, or a mission – so it’s easier for them to pin it down, because that is how they got into business in the first place.

For B2C, think Lush Handmade Cosmetics or The Body Shop (way back when). Think Innocent Smoothies.

For B2B, I think of Win Without Pitching. The founder Blair Enns, trained me back in 2004, so I am a little biased. He started with a mission over 15 years ago to help creative agencies (branding, graphic design, comms & marketing etc.) win their work without having to pitch – because he believes pitching is a fundamentally unsound way for a creative business to secure a new client. (So do I, for that matter).

Another more local and smaller-scale favourite of mine is Ann Stebbing. She photographs dogs and their people, because she loves dogs and cameras. Perfect – positioning and mission in one. (Oh, and if you’ve got a dog and want it truthfully and beautifully photographed, don’t go anywhere else. I think her work is superb.)

How to create your mission

Most businesses do not have a mission from the start.

Or even if they did, it’s maybe not one that still fits with who they are now – 42 years after their mum, dad or Uncle Harold started the firm in 1984.

And therein lies the challenge. Because it is quite possible that you do what you do for a whole bunch of reasons that are unrelated to the missiony thing. Maybe:

• You fell into it after school / college / University and never left
• It’s what you know and you’ve always done it
• It just pays the bills
• You don’t know what else you would do
• Uncle Harold would be really cross (or even worse, disappointed) if you left the family business

I can’t solve your mission for you – at least not in a short(ish) article like this. (Although you could always hire me to help.)

But I can get you started.

Nine questions to get you thinking about your mission

1. If you had a very famous client, what would you want them to say (unprompted) about your company on national television?
2. Which clients have you had the best ever relationship with, and why?
3. Where and how have you made the most difference to a client, supplier or business contact?
4. What makes you really excited and talkative when you are working or talking about work? (Could just be me that gets like that).
5. When do you forget that you are working (but you still are) and get completely into a state of flow?
6. Which part of your work, or your firm’s work, would you do 100% of the time, if you could? Why is that?
7. Why aren’t you working for your closest competitor instead of running your own business or bringing in clients for your current firm?
8. If you had all the money you needed, what work would you do to keep your brain engaged?
9. Why aren’t you doing a different job?

If these questions aren’t helping, then another great starting point is to think about mission from the perspective of starting with your why. Why do you do what you do? Why are you in business?

Well-known TED contributor Simon Sinek can get you started far better than I can on this topic. His TED talk is brilliant and will help you with finding your why.

Mission – or career change?

If none of these questions were any help, and Simon’s TED talk left you cold, it’s worth considering that you could be in the wrong line of work and your own mission is perhaps to be found elsewhere.

So, to stick with my values of trying to be helpful, here’s a link to a lovely career coach that I know (Felicity Dwyer at Heart of Work), based in Hampshire. She’s particularly interested in people considering career changes around those middle of life years. (Remember those?).

The post Why your mission, vision and values count for so much in sales appeared first on Evolve Lite (Beam).