As an
entrepreneur, having a
strategy is a major part of your business. This might come off as a big deal if you are a newbie, but this piece will attempt to simplify the process for you and your business.
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A strategy is not a goal neither is it an objective or aim. It is a plan of action designed to achieve long term or overall aim – Oxford Dictionary.
Having a strategy helps you develop direction, that guides you through a set of actions, towards a goal.
However, you need to understand a few things while building one. Let’s talk about them:
Imagine you have a map, in case you can’t match where you are to where you’re willing to go, you get lost. It happens the same way in business.
To build a formidable strategy, you need to check out what works and what doesn’t, what you would need help with, and what you would need to change.
It could be a
customer service problem, a delivery issue, a visibility crisis or even sales. Whatever the case might be, outline them so you can tell which crosses to pick up and which to drop.
Aside from that, it gives you clarity, you can arrange the order of those issues by priority and pick them one after the other.
When you almost can’t tell where you are, it’s mostly because there were no set goals in the past. Don’t just stop at evaluating, write down what you want, don’t let impostor syndrome scare you, write them down somewhere.
In this case, SMART means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. If your goals can tick off everything here, then you’re definitely on your way to the moon.
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Establish Who Your Ideal Clients Are
You can’t sell to everyone. Ok let’s rephrase, you can sell to anyone but you can’t target everyone.
Aside from the fact that not everyone needs your product, we are different people in different aspects of life, walking in different paths and embarking on different journeys. We all have different problems, interests and abilities.
If you’re into a business that has to do with everyone, for instance, food, groceries, clothing. It’s really important to note that not everyone has the same buying power and influence.
It’s best you outline a group of people that aligns with your product or service in a way that brings the odds in your favour as the business owner.
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Position Your Business In The Mix
This process is quite calculative as you will need to figure out the best platforms to reach these ideal clients, the key performance indexes to track success, the kind of message to grab their attention, the pain points they typically have, and so much more.
Positioning your business is a strategy in itself. It is important to know the touchpoints where you come into the life of your ideal client as it informs your approach towards them.
From positioning, you get more ideas as to how your strategy will look like and it brings more clarity to you and your business.
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Leverage Online Marketing
Almost everybody is online now. If your audience is online, what is stopping your business from coming online too.
Leverage social media platforms that can help boost engagement. Learn about online marketing and build a presence on social media. Explore other platforms like emails, websites etc.
At the end of the day, having a marketing strategy is not all there is to build a business but it’s definitely major if you would love to see significant growth and increased profit.
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