9

MARKETING

As your business has grown, your marketing may have evolved with it so an important next step will be taking control by conducting an audit and setting clear goals. To grow more, you will need to increase your revenue and attract new customers, attract returning customers and/or get existing customers to spend more. No matter on the size of your business, whether you do the marketing yourself, use an agency or hire in resource, then these top five steps will help your growing business: 1. Set or refresh goals - think where you want the business to be in five years’ time? For example, it could be to enter a new market, gain more repeat custom or have grown by X%. These goals then need to be drilled down into marketing objectives and tactics, such as the objective to develop more brand awareness and the tactic to achieve this could be to start

Google advertising.

2. Know your customers – who, what, where and when. Write down: who they are; if they fit into groups (segments); what do they buy from you and importantly what could they buy from you; where do they interact and purchase from you; when do they do this; and how often. This might entail doing more research into the type of customers you have or wish to have.

3. Review your ‘shop window’ – for many businesses this is now online, for example your website, social media, online reviews etc. Look at all the places online or offline that you are visible. Make sure these are aligned to how you want people to see your brand e.g. tone of voice on the website, imagery and logo. Ask contacts for opinions too as it is all about interpretation. Often, as soon as you sit back and do this exercise you spot a lot of opportunity to develop or change areas. Simply start by looking at your business through a search engine and the same can be conducted for the business leaders too for their ‘personal brands’.

4. Set out activity – once you know the direction you want to go in, you understand your customers, who you are targeting and have reviewed what needs work on your brand, then the next step is to join them all together in a manageable plan. A breakdown of monthly activity, such as refreshing the website or regular PR, will help you stay on track and establish costs that will be incurred too. At this point, you may be looking to get more support or training and a good place to start could be through your Local Enterprise Partnership’s resources, such as a Growth Hub.

5. Settings KPIs – now you have an activity plan you can get to work and set key performance indicators (KPI) to measure your progress. For example, if you did work to your website then your KPI may be to see website traffic increase by 30%. Again, reviewing these monthly will help inform what is working, what is not and help develop new ideas.

All these tips lend themselves to a marketing plan, with many formats freely available online. However, if you are short on time and resource, starting with getting these basics right will help you set out a path to grow. It is so important that people can find your business and the image (brand) you create stays current, so do revisit this cycle on a yearly basis.

EMMA SHORROCK

Marketing Manager 01242 680000 emma.shorrock@hazlewoods.co.uk