Why You Need A Marketing Strategy To Get Tactics On Track

As a small business marketing consultant, I meet numerous CEOs and business owners who are all set to take their companies to new heights. However, I’ve also noticed a consistent pattern of confusion about what effective marketing truly entails.

Just the other day I was chatting with a CEO (something I do a lot.)

One of the questions I like to pose when I have these chats is – “What’s your biggest marketing concern right now?”

He went on to say – I mean, I’m getting leads and customers, but my head is exploding with so many new ways to market online. I feel like I’m just trying to be everywhere and don’t feel confident that any of it's done right or strategically.

Oh, and that very morning he had received a call from Google, only it wasn’t really Google, trying to sell him some sort of SEO-related service. (But that’s another story.)

Many CEOs and owners develop this stress and frustration from the belief that marketing begins with tactics:

• google my business optimization

• email campaigns

• website design

• content creation

• search engine optimization

• reviews

• social media publishing

• promotions

Truth be told, most marketers do the same thing. But today, I want to affirm that marketing doesn’t start with tactics, it begins with strategy.

When you don’t have a strategy to dictate your tactical marketing efforts, then you’re just going to hope, guess, spray, and pray about what things you should be implementing as part of your marketing.

Today, we’re going to look at the strategy steps you need so that you can dictate your tactic steps.

1. Define and Understand Your Ideal Client

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.

2. Discover Your Marketing Message

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.

Home Service Example For Focusing on Solving Problems

Let’s say you own a tree service business. Your potential customers will automatically assume that you know how to take down trees. But that doesn’t really address the problem the potential customer has.

For many homeowners, the primary issue with a home service contractor extends beyond the fundamental service the business offers. Waiting around for the service window is a major frustration for homeowners. Additionally, when they hire professionals for tasks like tree removal, they often find tire or wheel marks and leftover stump grindings scattered across their yard, which they understandably dislike.

These are the real problems your clients have. So your marketing message is not, “We know how to remove trees” — of course you do! Instead, it’s “We show up on time, every time.” Or, “We never damage your yard and always clean up when we’re done.”

This marketing message should be:

• featured on the homepage of your website

• featured on the profile cover image of social media profiles

• integrated into form submissions

• put in email signatures

• highlighted as a core section in newsletters

• used to avoid competing on price

• used to distinguish how you're different or unique

• developed into a service delivery process

• used to attract other strategic partners that deliver similar value

It’s a key element of strategy because it is how you differentiate your business in a way that your clients value and want.

3. Make Content a Relationship-Building Workhorse

Customers don’t need a description of your solutions or service initially. Sure, once their experience with your business deepens and they begin considering their purchasing options, they’ll want to know the details. But for now, they want to see how they can build a relationship with your business or firm.

Back to the tree service example: If the prospect is looking to get a tree removed, they may not have decided if that’s the best option for them. They may initially just be looking for advice and expertise, thinking there is a workaround that they could choose.

The tree service business, then, wants to establish themselves as that local source of expert advice. This is where educational blogs and web pages come in. The tree service business will publish “The Ultimate Think Before You Chop Guide: Alternatives To Cutting Down Trees In Your Yard” — a webpage page that consolidates all of their content around alternatives to cutting down trees into one place.

Now, you become their go-to source for guidance on tree cutting. The educational content pages are a way to draw people in who might not even be looking to make a purchase or become a customer.

But then, your expertise is what builds a relationship, trust and eventually convinces them that they do need the solution you offer.

4. Guiding People Through the Customer Journey

Customers have buying questions and objectives, and these will change along the various stages of their journey with your business. It’s your job to guide customers through the journey, taking them through the logical steps of getting to become aware of your business, educated about your business, sampling your business expertise, purchasing your business services and referring your business.

To make sure you’re providing customers with what they need at each stage, start by asking questions.

In the awareness phase, the essential question for a business owner to answer is, “If someone didn’t know about us, where would they go to find a business like ours?” For most businesses, the primary answer to that question is Google.

But in the tree service example, you also might have prospects that ask a neighbor for a referral, or see your truck around the community or your signs on people’s property.

Once you’ve done that for the awareness phase, you move on to the other four stages of the journey. Once they find your website, what do they see when they get there? Do they see other people trust you?

How does someone sample what your business is offering? If you’re the tree service business, that might be getting a quote. But how exactly do they go about getting that quote? Is it a form on your website, or do they need to call or email you? How quickly do you respond? Is the response personalized, or does it feel like a boilerplate offer? These elements all become a part of the customer’s experience and journey with your business.

The purchase, and refer stages are more internal. How do you onboard a new customer? What are your team’s checks to ensure that customers are getting the results that they want from your business? What makes a great experience that will bring them back for another purchase or encourage them to refer a friend? This is where you want to get into the buyer’s head to determine what they’ll expect out of you.

Once you understand what a customer wants from you at each stage in the journey, you need to make sure that your online assets address those needs.

You’ve now identified the ideal customer, you know the marketing message, you know how content becomes a relationship-workhorse, and you know how your customers want to buy.

Now, you can fill in the gaps to meet customers wherever they are. That is the core of a strategy for your marketing.

5. Now You Choose Your Tactics

Tactics are what allow us to fill in those gaps to meet customers where they are.

If your ideal customer finds businesses by searching the web, you need to create core content pages so you rank in those search engines. You need testimonials or cases studies on your website to build trust. You need to be in prominent directories so that you have information in lots of places that prove your legitimacy as a business. You need symbols and badges of trust like client logos or service awards. These are the tactics that align with the larger strategy.

Need Help Developing or Updating Your Marketing Strategy?

We have an engagement called "Diagnosis Before Prescription" Marketing Strategy, where we do this entire process for our clients.

Imagine how great it would feel to know for certain that the time, money, and effort you’ve invested in your marketing is heading you in the right direction.

We would love to dive in and be that resource for you!

As a part of this engagement, we interview your existing customers and analyze your competitors. We build ideal client personas and establish a marketing message that will speak to them. We map out your editorial calendar and determine how to make content a relationship-workhorse. And we go through the customer journey exercise and identify the gaps in your current marketing approach. This gives you a firm foundation on which to build your tactics and move your marketing forward based on a solid strategy.