The most important thing in your business!

Running a business is hard.

There are a million and one things to do every day.

And, as the owner, it is your job to keep all of the plates spinning.

Not to mention trying to have family time, a social life, go to the gym, cook healthy and nutritious meals and keep your home from resembling a warzone.

So what are the priorities in your business?

What things do you absolutely have to do each day to keep things moving forward?

Number one on every to-do list should be marketing.

Without marketing, your business will not have as many customers.

Your business will not grow or progress.

You will not attract any NEW customers. 

You will have to rely on the sales coming from your existing customers.

And what if they move or decide to use someone else? There will not be any new customers to fill their place. 

Your customer base and sales numbers will start to go down.

Some entrepreneurs say that if your business is not GROWING, then it is DYING! It's a cheery thought, isn't it?

If you want your business to be a success, you must continue to GROW. 

And how do you do that?  MARKETING!

And you should be doing it EVERY DAY! Little and often.

A structured plan of consistent marketing will be far more effective than one killer advert every year. 

It will also create a predictable business with a steady stream of income that you can rely on. You will not see a massive spike in sales and then be disappointed by the figures going down again. You will start to see regular figures month after month, and you will be able to determine how much income you can afford to reinvest back into the business and your marketing.

I would say that, though, wouldn't I? As a marketing expert, of course I am going to wax lyrical about the virtues of marketing!

So let's unpack it a little and explain why I think it is so important.

Most customers of a business work their way through a funnel that they know nothing about. They follow a journey from initial awareness of a brand to, hopefully, becoming a raving fan and long term customer.

The first phase is:

1 -Brand awareness - Without marketing, the only new people that will see your brand are those that happen to walk or drive past your premises.

Marketing will increase the awareness of your brand so that you reach a wider audience.

The aim is to be the name/logo/company that someone thinks of first when they need to buy what you are selling.

If you make cakes, you want your business to be the first that comes to mind the next time they need a birthday cake.

This is brand awareness - to get into the mind of your customers so that they remember you when they need your services.  You don't want people to go straight to Google, where they could end up with a competitor instead of you.

Once you have your brand out there and seen by a wider audience, the next phase is:

2 -Consideration - Once a potential customer is aware of your brand, the next step is to move them along the journey to 'consider' buying from you. 

Whilst you are increasing your brand awareness, you have the opportunity to spread a particular message to your audience.

Perhaps you have an offer on a particular product. Promoting this offer and product through your marketing will move the audience from awareness into consideration as they decide if they want to buy.

Now, you will not sell to every person in your funnel as soon as they see your marketing. 

It takes several touchpoints with someone before they recognise your brand and feel they know and trust you. 

But each time you market to them, you increase those touchpoints and move them along the journey towards buying.

Consistency is essential with your marketing to get those touchpoint numbers up. 

If I only saw a post from you once every six months, and it takes 11 touchpoints on average to persuade someone to buy, it will take you years to convert me into a paying customer!

But if you posted something relevant every day, and I saw most of your posts, I would be buying from you in a matter of weeks.

Once you have converted that customer into a sale, you have to nurture the relationship to build a tribe of raving fans!

3 -Raving fans and recommendations - Finally, you are looking to build lasting relationships with your customers.

After progressing through the funnel, you have built a relationship with that customer, and you need to nurture it. A raving fan of you and your products can be the most powerful marketing tool that there is! 

Not only will you have that customer for life, but they will also tell other people about your business.

In general, if someone has come to you through a recommendation, they are already at the consideration stage of the funnel because they trust their friend's opinions.

The perfect scenario for any business is to have raving fans doing most of your marketing for you.

This is a simple, elementary sales funnel, starting with brand awareness and progressing through to consideration and purchasing. As with many things in marketing, it can often be over-complicated, but this shows how simple it is to convert someone from passing your branding on the street to becoming a customer. 

So, keep on top of your marketing and make sure that you are consistent!

It is vital in growing your business.

You can either set aside half an hour every day to do it little and often, or how I prefer to do it is batch and schedule all content for the whole month in one day. 

I block out a day at the end of the month and create, post and schedule all of the content for the month ahead!

I find that this keeps things consistent. It is all too easy for me to let one day slip, and then another, and before you know it, you have missed a whole week and are playing catch up.

Everyone works differently. You just need to find the process that works for you and stick to it. 

Keep your marketing consistent, and you will see the most impact for your business growth. 

If you would like to know more about setting up marketing funnels in your business, get in touch, I am happy to help!