Free Marketing Mini Audit

Target Marketing is the most effective way to strike a chord with your ideal customer. By understanding how you address the needs of each segment, you will be creating unique selling points specific to each group, and are more likely to receive sales as a result.

For example: we work with ‘Inspiring’ brands, but we split our audience into segments influenced by their industry type. We have five main segments; ‘Ethical Clients, ‘Creative Clients’, ‘Foodie Clients’, ‘Savvy Startups’, and ‘Not For Profits’. Our messaging is different for each group, because each group’s needs vary, and our service offering varies as a result.

This will be one of the most influential parts of your future marketing strategy. Make sure you are not differentiating your brand by using buzz phrases like professional, going above and beyond, excellent customer service etc. Too many people say these things, whether they are good at it or not. These words have come to mean very little to people when it comes to choosing a brand to work with. Of course, they are important parts of your service delivery, but they should not be your primary message.

You need to be saying something about why you are truly unique, or what makes you special. Ask yourself these questions: What would the difference be to the world around us, if my business were gone tomorrow? What would people be left with? This is a great way to brainstorm your point of difference.

Your website is like a salesperson, working 24/7. You need to make sure it’s clearly articulating:

1. What you do
2. Who you do it for
3. How you can help address their needs (an enticing product or service offering)
4. How they can access your products or services (call to action). You should be ensuring that your website talks specifically to your different audience segments. Make sure you have a plan for each audience type.

There are so many areas to consider when producing an effective website. But if these basics are not in place then you’ll be stumbling at the first hurdle. Make your website count. With over 90% of purchasing decisions being made online, you can’t afford not to.

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to sell your products or services and maintain customer loyalty. It ‘s a great way to share useful information, position yourself as an expert, engage your audience, and launch new products or services.

Make sure you’ve thought about how you can gather emails and what you’ll do with them once you have them. A well-planned email will make all the difference. Avoid selling at the beginning of your email. Your email should provide information of interest and value. The selling can come towards the end, and far less frequently than the useful content you provide.

To gather emails, consider implementing a static sign up form on your website (try and provide an incentive to gather emails e.g. free downloads, discount offers etc). Implement a pop-up sign up form (make sure you de-activate this for mobile phone viewing as Google will soon penalise brands with ‘annoying’ mobile pop-ups). Have a sign up call to action on your social media platforms, and make sure you gather emails at events and other networking opportunities where your target audience is present.

Social media is a daily part of our lives. Businesses can no longer sit on the sidelines. It’s too useful to ignore. But many brands invest time in too many different social media channels, meaning that they are not doing any of them well. Their efforts become diluted and often people loose sight as to why they are doing it in the first place.

Start by thinking about your audience segments and the social media channels they are most likely to be hanging out on. Pick one or two and focus on building these. It’s much better to be doing a few brilliantly, than doing a lot badly.