Turn Mediocre into Phenomenal: Image courtesy of Pixabay

When you’re looking to give your business a proverbial shot in the arm, one of the first places you should be focusing your attention on is your marketing activities.

Quite possibly, up until now, your marketing has been an organic process. Success has come through word-of-mouth, you’ve acquired a following through your social media activities and you have a solid set of return customers.

While you’ve built a solid foundation, the real challenge is yet to come and you’re faced with the recurring question of where to go from here. Do you think about expanding your team, expanding your capacity or focussing your attention on the internal practices of your business?

We’re going to suggest an inside out approach to growth and in this blog we’ll explore how levelling up your marketing is going to pay dividends.

Put It On Paper

If you have taken an ad hoc route to marketing previously, then now is the time to start formalising your approach. To do this you’ll need to start from scratch with a marketing plan that covers all the facets of your activities; from direct mail that can capture audiences attention with highly interactive sms to their mobile devices to surveys, social media and advertising.

Many entrepreneurs worry about starting up their own business because they worry that they won’t necessarily arrive with the right skillset but the great thing about running your own business is that you can learn as you go. This is usually a mix of trial and error and more traditional learning routes such as a course run by a recognised body.

If you think you will struggle to formalise your plan, then consider investing in a marketing consultant or agency to come on board and help you out. You may feel that marketing is going to become an integral part of your business and you would rather have someone in-house to work with. If that is the case, then you’re going to need to consider the recruitment option.

Create a list of tasks and objectives you’d like your marketing staff member to achieve and begin with the basics – identifying your customers. Your marketing professional should be able to help figure out exactly who your ideal customer is and where you might find them. You’ll be able to hone and target your social media activity to exactly reach your reader and launch your campaign from there.

Direct Marketing

The reason you get so any emails and text messages? Because it works. Direct marketing puts you in direct contact with the people you need to engage with in order to sell your product or service. All you then have to do is to convince them to convert that interest into a sale.

You can learn and use marketing as an art. Whether you take on the responsibility for your company or have someone else help you out. It can make all the difference between mediocre and phenomenal.