How to Market?
How You Can Serve as Your Very Own Marketing Department
By Brad Krause for RedPepper Mergers and GreenPepper Capital
If you’re an entrepreneur down under, you aren’t alone. Australia has a thriving small business community, with small enterprises making up a whopping 97.5% of the country’s 2.6 million businesses. If you’re one of these small business owners, you want to do all you can to ensure your business stands out from the competition. Marketing will differentiate your products and services from others on the market. That doesn’t mean you have to hire a pricey marketing team. Follow these steps to become your own DIY marketing department.
Commercial synopsis
Research your target audience
The first step in successful marketing is figuring out who you’re talking to-your so-called target market. This will help determine how you craft your marketing materials. For example, if you’re targeting Australian audiences, you want to use Australian English, not American English. Shopify has pointers for determining your target audience. They recommend creating buyer personas-fictional profiles of people your products or services are for. These personas should include demographic details like age and media consumption habits.
Craft your main marketing messages
Once you have an idea of who you’re targeting, you can craft your marketing messages accordingly. “Messaging” refers to the key points you want your ideal consumer to know about your company and its offering. Value-based messaging has grown in popularity in recent years.
This communication strategy emphasizes values your consumer audience shares with your business, such as sustainability or affordability. Based on these values, you can create marketing messages-short, snappy lines to use in your marketing materials.
Pick your marketing channels wisely
Your marketing messages will need to be adapted for the marketing channel. For example, if you’re writing for social media, you need to be short and catchy. If you’re writing for a blog, you have more words to work with. There are many possible marketing channels to choose from, including modern digital platforms like websites and social media and traditional options like billboards. Marketing Insider Group suggests considering your audience, budget, and goals when picking a channel.
Don’t neglect SEO marketing
One modern marketing channel you shouldn’t ignore is the internet. A website can serve as a good first point of information for potential customers. To give your website greater visibility, use search engine optimization, SEO. Crafting SEO-optimised content will help your website appear higher in search engine rankings. SEO content is about more than keywords. You need to consider details like meta tags, headings, internal links, and user intent. With an agency like PWD, it becomes even easier to drive organic traffic to your site.
Measure the impact of your marketing
You want to make sure that your marketing initiatives actually work. Toward this end, it’s important to establish key metrics to measure your marketing success. This is something you should address when first creating your marketing plan. This document will identify key goals of your marketing and set terms for how to measure whether you’re meeting those goals or not. Popular marketing success metrics include overall impressions, cost-per-lead, and return on investment.
Look for free resources to improve your marketing campaigns
Tackling your business’ marketing on your own can be daunting, especially if you’re new to it. Rest assured, there are many tools available to help. To boost your confidence in your marketing techniques, scope out educational resources that can teach you the ropes. For example, Google offers many marketing tutorials for free. That doesn’t mean you have to become a pro yourself. However, it can help you have greater confidence as you navigate the DIY marketing space.
Marketing can differentiate your business from competitors with a similar offering. The key to success is doing your research and planning in advance. There are also tools and experts that can help, from SEO pros to marketing plan templates.
Academic Resources
All articles are based on empirical evidence and factual sources. We welcome professional commentary.
Further Reading:
- Of the country’s 2.6 million businesses – https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/contribution-australian-business-numbers
- Has pointers for determining – https://www.shopify.com/au/blog/target-audience#5
- Has grown in popularity – https://www.copypress.com/kb/content-marketing/value-based-messaging/#:~:text=Value%2Dbased%20messaging%20(VBM),those%20values%20as%20a%20priority.
- Suggests considering your – https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/how-to-identify-the-right-digital-marketing-channels-for-your-business/
- With an agency like PWD – https://pwd.com.au/seo-perth/
- Measure your marketing success – https://www.zenbusiness.com/marketing-plan/
- Overall impressions, cost-per-lead, and return on investment – https://www.thehartford.com/business-insurance/strategy/marketing-roi/measuring-performance
- Many marketing tutorials for free – https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage-au/
- RedPepper Mergers – https://redpeppermergers.com/
- Picture – https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-working-on-laptop-while-woman-takes-notes-3153199/