Transcript 5 keys to a great marketing strategym

5 keys to a great
marketing strategy
By David Cohen
The Boomer Business Coach
The 5 Keys of Marketing Strategy
The 5 Keys of Marketing Strategy
Who is your narrowly defined target customer?
In which category does your business exist?
What is your unique benefit?
Who is your real competition?
How are you clearly different from your competitors?
Before you begin to develop your
marketing strategy…
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Have a plan
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Know what you’re goals are
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Focus your message and target customer
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Focus is almost always the difference between a business that grows
profitably and one that never seems to gain any momentum. You can continue
to hope that “next time that email is going to work better,” or you can
develop a clear focus and a realistic strategy.
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Do quality stuff
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Be consistent
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Don’t be a one trick pony –when it comes to your marketing tactics
Who is Your Target Customer?
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The first decision in any marketing strategy is to define your target customer.
“Who do you serve?” always needs to be answered clearly before you can
execute any tactic effectively. This means you have to say “no” to other
potential customers who might buy from you but who are clearly bad fits for
your narrow focus. This takes time to develop the discipline, but you can’t do
effective marketing without it.
Target your exact best customer
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If you are spending time and money on marketing but your efforts are not
driving enough sales, the problem is almost always that you haven’t narrowed
your target market definition enough to be effective. The narrower you
define your market so you can focus on those that you can best serve and
those that can best service you, the more effective your entire business will
be.
Who are they?
What is Your Category?
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Your category is simply the short description of what business you are in.
What few words would someone say to describe your business? Starbucks is
“high-quality coffee” Chipotle is “fresh Mexican burritos.” My friend’s tax
business is simply “tax accounting for physicians in Phoenix.”
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Most business owners can’t resist over-complicating their company
descriptions. This leaves people unsure of what you actually do, which
weakens your marketing effectiveness. Here’s a simple rule: If someone can’t
clearly remember your category description a month after you meet them,
they were never clear about what you do in the first place.
What is Your Unique Benefit?
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Your unique benefit should highlight the one (or two) main things your
product or service actually delivers (benefits) that your target customer really
wants, not a long list of all the things your product does (features).
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For example… “At Infusionsoft, we know our customers don’t just want our
software: They want to grow sales and save time. We don’t describe
everything our software does or the hundreds of benefits, we keep our focus
on those three key benefits in everything we do. And the simpler we describe
it, the better our marketing works.”
Who is Your Competition?

When someone is looking to buy a solution to a problem, they will quickly
make sense of the alternatives to compare against – your competition.
However, most entrepreneurs haven’t specifically defined who their real
competition is and don’t focus their messages to create clear differentiation
for their buyers. This frustrates the buying decision process and makes your
marketing efforts weaker.
Can you tell me the difference?
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What is the difference?
Why Are You Different and Better for Your
Target Customer?
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Once you have defined your competition, make a list of all the things you do
differently and better. Then rank each of them by how important these
factors are to your target customer. Pick the top one or two and put them on
your homepage and include them in your elevator pitch.
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Don’t overcomplicate this. People just want to know one or two things to
move their decision along. Is it cheaper? Do you have faster delivery? Best
personalized service?
What is your value proposition?
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What Does Your Value Proposition or Marketing Strategy Statement Look Like?
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When you put the five key decisions of marketing strategy in a sentence form,
it looks like this fill-In-the-blank statement:
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Who do you provide services and products for?
_______________________________________________________
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Who struggle with __________________________________________________
(insert their need or problems)
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We have developed __________________________________ (Insert what it is
you do to help your clients
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That helps them achieve what goal or positive
outcome__________________________ (insert the value the end results
Marketing assignment
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Working with one of your groups members…
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You own a lawn care business…it’s March and it’s time to get customers for
the spring (April) You are going to target 100 of the coolest homes and your
most ideal prospects in the area.
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You are going to launch a 2 part direct mailing campaign followed up by a
knock on the door to introduce yourself.
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You have $1500 to play with and must do the following to help your colleague:
The work
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Develop a catchy theme that you can use to promote your
lawn care business
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Identify some mailing ideas and products you might use to
help “break the ice”
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What would you write in the campaign letter? You need to
include a sales letter or brochure…what will you say or write?
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What is your goal and objective for a campaign like this?
What results do you want to achieve?
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Present your ideas
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Q and A
Contact me
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[email protected]
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www.theboomerbusinesscoach.com
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416-630-3527