Patrick McFadden’s Post

Marketing Channels Depend on What You’re Selling and Who You’re Selling To All business ideas fit into one of five different markets—each requiring a specific marketing approach to reach customers. 🔴Mass Market: You’re selling to one large customer base with similar needs—you need to appeal to and engage as many people as possible. For example, Colgate benefits from advertising in the mainstream media because toothpaste is an essential, widely used personal care product that everyone needs. 🔴Niche Market: You’re selling to a small customer base with unique requirements—you need to target these specialized needs. For example, Lush targets customers who care about vegetarian products and eco-friendly practices, so its social media strategy focuses on engaging “green” customers. 🔴Subdivided Market: You offer slightly different products and services, so you need to employ different approaches to reach different customers. For example, a real estate broker’s customers each have different budgets. The broker may spend more time and resources attracting and developing relationships with wealthy clients looking to buy and delegate management of lower-income renters to employees. 🔴Diversified Market: You offer distinctly different products and services to unrelated customer groups, so you have to employ separate customer-targeting strategies. For example, Johnson & Johnson provides healthcare products to customers as well as medical devices and equipment for hospitals—they need to reach both groups separately. 🔴Multi-Sided Market: You serve interdependent customer groups so your approach needs to appeal equally to both parties. For example, online marketplaces need to appeal to and accommodate both buyers and sellers to operate efficiently—they can’t serve one group without the other group’s active participation. They need to reach and appeal to two different groups with one marketing message. If you already have a product or service that you intend to sell, consider which of these five markets your offer falls into and how you can align your marketing strategy to reach as many people as possible. Or, if you’re looking for a business idea, choose a market based on which strategy most appeals to you. Then, focus your research on products and services that fall into your chosen market. #marketingstrategy #marketing

What does our total customer experience look and feel like? It seems like most businesses focus their attention on all the elements that get the phone to ring but spend very little time diagramming exactly what happens during the sales process, the product or service delivery process, or anything that might happen down the road that would stimulate repeat sales and referral introductions. By mapping out the entire process of marketing touchpoints, all the places where your company does or should come into contact with customers and prospects, you can design a total brand positive experience – the kind that gets people talking about how you’re different. Stop and ask how you could be easier to do business with. How you could do something that not only wows, but also inspires. What could you do that would make your customers smile? How could you surprise them? #marketing #smallbusiness #smallbusinessmarketing #customerexperience

You know those 4 and 5-star reviews we all know and love? The profile of these reviewers has become a crucial part of identifying strategic relationships that can double your access to ideal prospects (if you know where and how to look). In this newsletter edition, I provide practical insights, actionable tips, and real-world examples that will empower you to find strategic partnerships that increase your pool of prospects. #marketingstrategy #marketingsuccess #reviewsmatter #marketingtips #smallbusinessmarketingtips #marketingplan

🚀 Investing Wisely: Maximizing Your Marketing Budget 📈 One of the most common questions I encounter revolves around the allocation of marketing budgets. It's a pivotal decision that can significantly impact growth and brand visibility. Recently, during a conversation, a question arose: "If I have a company and we're doing $100,000 a month in sales, is there a rule as to what I should be spending percentage-wise in marketing?" The truth is, there isn't a steadfast rule etched in stone. However, you are certainly going to have trouble growing past that $100,000 if you're not investing in marketing. So, there are guiding principles to consider. Allocating around 10% of your revenue towards marketing initiatives is a prudent starting point. Viewing marketing expenditures as investments rather than mere costs is paramount. Why the emphasis on viewing marketing as an investment? Because, at its core, effective marketing is about strategically positioning your brand in front of your target audience to drive growth and revenue. Every dollar spent on ads, SEO, content, email marketing, campaigns, or promotions should be seen as an investment toward amplifying brand visibility, retaining and acquiring new customers. Yet, the journey doesn't end with allocating a budget. It begins with strategy. (Read more about strategy here: https://buff.ly/3Oo88IL) Without a clear, customer-driven strategy, marketing efforts risk becoming aimless expenditures rather than purposeful investments. Strategy acts as a compass, guiding us toward channels, messages, and audiences that yield the highest return on investment. In essence, it's not merely about how much you spend, but how wisely you invest those funds. The goal is to maximize the impact of every marketing dollar, leveraging insights, analytics, and customer feedback to refine and optimize campaigns. As entrepreneurs and business leaders, we must adopt a strategic mindset towards marketing investment. It's not just about spending—it's about strategically investing in our brand's future growth and success. So, the next time you ponder your marketing budget, remember: it's not just an expense, it's an investment in the trajectory of your business. #MarketingStrategy #BusinessGrowth #marketinginsights #BrandBuilding #smallbusinessmarketing #marketingtips

NEW VIRGINIA: SCALING4GROWTH - Now Accepting Applications! Have you dreamt of taking yourself from business owner to CEO? Ready to pump up your revenue and create job opportunities? Well, I've got exciting news that's tailor-made for you! The Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity has hit the play button for applications for COHORT 15 of NEW VIRGINIA: Scaling4Growth. This isn't your ordinary program, folks – This epic opportunity is exclusively for Virginia-based businesses that check off those minimum requirements. NEW VIRGINIA: Scaling4Growth is a game-changer. If you're hungry to scale your business, fine-tune your business model, and ace the art of human resources, finance, marketing, procurement, and even bank talk, then this program's your golden ticket. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eQ_ny2vM Embrace the opportunity to level up, learn, and scale like a true business boss! #scaling4growth #SBSD #richmondva #Virginia #S4G #VDSBSD #VirginiaDepartmentofSmallBusinessandSupplierDiversity #hamptonroadsva #lynchburgva #centralva #northernvirginia

Study finds Rank is Not the Primary Decision Factor for Consumers in Many Industries The study is focusing on how factors like Proximity, Price, Life impact, and Reputation are considered by the consumer in their decision-making process. 📊 What is striking about the study is how different consumer behavior was across the four business verticals they have focused on to date: 📦💰In the Storage Industry, price and proximity were the most important factors to consumers who took part in this study. High ratings were not a deciding factor, but low ratings could exclude a business. 👩⚕️👨⚕️People looking for Physicians didn’t click on the paid ads and navigated to the local finder for more options in order to pick the best doctor for them. While reputation was the #1 factor, searchers tended to favor doctors of the same sex, color, and/or ethnicity as themselves. ⚖️🔍In searches for Legal Services, consumers preferred local sites in organic search results over directories, looking to title tags and meta descriptions in the SERP for businesses that spoke to their needs. 🍽️⭐ Consumers searching for a Restaurant primarily focused on star rating, then wanted to see the menu. Why This Matters Marketers tend to be so focused on rank they lose sight of what is most important to consumers. A high search ranking is no guarantee of conversion. Understanding the customer journey and the top consideration factors within your industry is the key to increasing visibility and driving more leads. #localseo #smallbusiness #seo #smallbusinessmarketing

🤔 Living in the marketing strategy world, it’s easy to forget that many CEOs and owners still don’t know how to focus their marketing message on solving problems rather than solutions.🤔 Frequently I speak to successful business owners on refocusing their message on problems, not solutions and it's always a great reminder that this mindset is still a source of frustration for many businesses. Read more to check out this example of problem solving in messaging: https://buff.ly/3J3Syjy #marketing #marketingmessage #problemsolving #marketingstrategy #smallbusinessowner

🚀 There can be a lot of motives when it comes to marketing.🚀 Some campaigns are created to increase brand awareness. Some are created to generate leads. And some are created to generate direct sales. Despite the original motive of the marketing campaign, in the long run, there is only one end game — more conversions. No matter what each business classes as a conversion, that conversion is the reason why millions are spent on marketing each and every week across the globe. But what marketing actually works? #1: Engagement Everywhere we look there’s marketing, much of which we won’t notice. All of this marketing that goes unnoticed is either not very good or is poorly targeted. The first step of any good marketing campaign is engagement. If you don’t get the right things in front of the right people then how can you ever expect them to convert? #2: User experience Having managed to get the initial engagement it’s then crucial to provide a high-quality user experience. If the marketing channel (no matter what it is) proves a challenge for the user then anybody who initially engages will soon lose interest, which is a potential opportunity lost. #3: The Conversion As mentioned, the user experience is key. But it’s also important that businesses don’t forget the initial reasoning behind their marketing campaigns — the conversion. Getting the conversion from a marketing campaign links in heavily with the user experience. A good marketer will be able to plan a user experience and journey that leaves the conversion an inevitability. For the best in the business, leaving things to chance is not an option. Whether it’s a marketing campaign that begins with putting flyers through doors or a highly specific remarketing campaign online there are certain things that can be done to boost conversion rates across the board. One of the major things that can lead to high conversion rates is ensuring that your marketing targets the right people. Learn how: https://buff.ly/3sBFHAs #conversion #leadconversion #smallbusinessmarketing #marketing #marketingstrategy

👉 The first step to creating a successful marketing system is to identify the problem that you solve for your clients. 👉 It’s important to find a problem that is not only relevant to your target market but one that you can solve in an effective and efficient manner. Once you have identified the problem, you can then develop a strategy to solve it. Or even better, you already know the problem you solve. If you know this, you need to focus on promoting it in your messaging. Don’t promote your own brand or strategy. Instead, focus on promoting how you solve are solving your customers' unique problems in your unique way. Potential clients will also gravitate towards you over your competitors because you see what problem they are trying to solve. They will see that you get their problem, you get their business, and you get them. #problemsolving #strategicmarketing #marketing #marketingmessage

Chances are that today, you’re committing this strategy mistake of trying to be “everything to everyone”. We've all been there. If I'm a dentist, anybody with teeth is my ideal patient, right? Or if I'm a kitchen remodeler, anybody with a kitchen is my ideal homeowner, right? Or if I'm a chiropractor, anybody with a back is my ideal customer, right? But this approach, while maybe attracting clients, fails to identify your most profitable, ideal, and best customers. Without understanding this, how can you effectively attract more of them? Focus on being the right thing to the right people. Don’t guess who your ideal client is. It is possible to have multiple ideal clients, just make sure that you develop targeted marketing messaging and tactics for each. Basing your work on specific buyer profiles/personas prevents you from sitting in your office just making stuff up, which is the cause of most ineffective marketing. Discover how to really refine your marketing strategy: https://buff.ly/3xpj97L #marketinstrategy #idealclient #targetmarket #marketingtactics #smallbusinessowner