Despite the fact that marketing is one of the most important fundamental processes of any business, many business managers fly by the seat of their pants with their marketing strategy. Developing a professional services marketing strategy is like designing a blueprint for a house - the blueprint lays out how the house will be built, taking into account considerations like the needs of the future inhabitants and the environment in which the house will be built.
A good place to start in developing your marketing strategy is the 4 P's of marketing, first developed by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960: Product (or service), Price, Promotion and Place. Although much has changed since 1960, a marketing strategy built around the 4 Ps complemented by SMART goals and marketing analytics is a good way to formalize your marketing strategy. So here are some tips on how to nail your marketing strategy basics.
Even if you have an established business with a mature product or service, it's always a good idea to formalize your product/service strategy. For your business to be successful, there has to be a need for your product or service in which a sufficient number of customers are willing to pay a price for it that allows you to be profitable.
Ask yourself questions like:
I'm a strong advocate of focusing on niches based on industry, company size or geography, particularly for SMB companies. I recommend developing your product/service strategy with a specific target market in my mind.
It's critically important to get your pricing strategy right - you need to find a price that customers are willing to pay that produces sufficient profit for your business to keep moving forward. Price too high and you won't get any customers; price too low and you will go out of business.
Here are some things to think about when developing your pricing strategy:
In implementing your pricing strategy, you can fine-tune things as you gather more data. For new businesses, don't underprice your services to get business - this will almost surely lead to problems down the road.
This part of your strategy nails down the different ways you will sell your products. I'm a strong advocate of an integrated marketing strategy - in other words, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Here are some thoughts to consider when deciding which marketing strategies you will pursue:
Promotion, or how you will present your products and services to your target market, is the last basic to nail down for your marketing strategy. You can think of promotion as how you will maximize results in your marketing channels. Here are some things to consider in your promotion strategy:
Keep in mind that this is a basic discussion of a very complicated process. But it should give you a platform to begin developing a formal marketing strategy for your business that will keep everybody pulling in the same direction. By setting SMART goals and measuring progress against them, you can continually iterate your marketing strategy in a process of continual improvement. Need some help developing your strategy? Schedule a free consultation.