Make yourself stand out from the crown with a strong brand identity
A lot of efforts are poured in by the businesses to establish a strong corporate identity. Alex Barton, from leading creative solutions company, Ballywhoo Creative, offers his expert opinion on how to establish a strong corporate identity to stand out in a competitive market and grab share of voice.
The success of a business largely depends on the reputation of your company/firm in the market. Strong corporate image leads to more customers which results in increased sales. Therefore, it is pivotal to chalk out an effective marketing strategy consisting of clearly defined steps to be followed.
Step 1: Know your facts first
It is essential to understand your target market, the needs and aspirations of your target audience, marketing strategy adopted by your competitors, communication mediums used by your competitors to reach out to the target audience etc.
Do in-depth research about all the factors that could directly or indirectly affect your business. Go to the market places, talk to your customers and prospects, ask them about the experience of using your product or hiring your service etc.
Study maps, government reports, books and magazines, census information and anything that is related to your domain and could benefit your business in the long run.
Also, browse the internet to understand the marketing tactics adopted by your competitors.
Apart from this, you may also like to conduct surveys or interviews to know more about the current market trends and the requirements of your target audience.
Step 2: Segregate the most relevant facts
After gathering all the facts, the next step is to look out for the relevant facts that should be included in your marketing plan.
Ask some questions from yourself like: what communication mediums should I adopt? Am I exploiting all the resources available at my end? What attracts the customers towards my product/service? Is there a need to modify my product?
Step 3: Reaching out
Once you know all the relevant facts, now it’s the time to creatively plan out the methods of reaching out to your prospects. Group your target audience in terms of returns you can earn i.e. highly profitable and low value customers.
Think in terms of the maximum return you can earn - how many prospects are willing to purchase your product/service without much ado, how many prospects need an initial push to know more about your brand etc., are some of the key questions that should be kept in mind.
Step 4: Develop a short-term plan
Make short term plans at the beginning to test the efficiency of your overall marketing strategy. For example: you can set up a plan for 2 or 3 years to understand the strengths and weakness of your marketing strategy.
While doing so, you must also keep yourself abreast of the latest trends and the changing attitudes and aspirations of your target audience.
Besides this, you must have a backup plan to keep your company’s cash flow smooth. Don’t rely on a few affluent clients for recurring business; pitch the small and medium scale industries as well.
Step 5: Develop a long-term plan
You can have 2-3 short term plans in one long term plan which helps you detect all the flaws (if any) in your marketing approach and ensures that your long term strategy is an effective one.
These are some of the most significant steps that should be considered while drafting a marketing strategy for your business. Remember: make your strategy as simple as you can so that it becomes easier to achieve the desired results.