Your Marketing Strategy Questions, Answered

Your marketing strategy should start with what you want to achieve in your business. That might be more enquiries for a particular service, more bookings or attracting a different type of client.

From there, you need to get clear on who you want to reach, what matters to them and why they should choose your business. Your positioning, offers and messaging should support that direction.

Then you need to connect the activity. Your website, content, lead generation and email follow-up should work together to help potential customers take the next step.

For example, when I work with an accommodation business, I want our marketing discussions to include occupancy. Where do they need to fill beds? What promotions and campaigns will support that? The marketing plan should reflect what the business needs.

A practical strategy gives your team and any external partners a shared direction. Everyone should understand what the marketing is working towards and what to prioritise.

One sign is that you’re putting time and money into marketing but you’re not getting a consistent flow of the right enquiries.

You might be publishing regularly, have good visibility and be working with a team or agency, yet still struggle to connect that activity to sales.

Another sign is that the business wants to grow but is still relying heavily on referrals and existing relationships. Those relationships are valuable. A strategy helps you build on them while developing a clear way to reach new potential customers.

It’s also worth reviewing your strategy when your offer, target customer or business ambitions have changed. Your marketing needs to communicate the business you are building now.

I would start by reviewing your positioning, ideal customer, core offer and customer journey. Then I would turn those decisions into a practical plan with clear priorities.

Content includes the words on your website, your blog articles, emails, podcast interviews, webinars and keynote presentations, as well as your social media posts.

Each is an opportunity to communicate your expertise, explain your approach and help people understand why your business is right for them.

The starting point is understanding your audience and the message you want to communicate. What problems are they trying to solve? What do they need to understand? What experience or advice can you share that would help them?

That thinking should carry across every place someone encounters your business. A potential client might hear you on a podcast, visit your website and then join your email list. Those experiences should give them a consistent understanding of who you help, the value you offer and how to take the next step.

Other businesses may offer similar services to yours. What they won’t have is exactly the same experience, perspective and story.

I encourage people to look at the questions they answer, the advice they give, the work they do with clients and the experiences that have shaped how they think.

These are useful sources of content because they show how you approach a problem and what it would be like to work with you.

Your origin story can also help people understand what you stand for and why you do what you do. The relevant parts of that story can give potential customers a reason to connect with and remember your business.

For a business with a leadership team and experienced staff, there is knowledge within that team to draw on. Bringing it into your marketing helps you communicate what makes the business worth choosing.

When you deliver a presentation or take part in an interview, you’ve already done a lot of the thinking. You’ve explained your ideas, shared your experience and answered questions.

A recording or transcript gives you material you can develop further. A question you answered might become a blog article. A story might become an email. An explanation of your approach might help improve a section of your website.

You can also create video clips and social media posts from relevant parts of the discussion.

Choose the ideas that matter to your audience and develop them for where they will be used. Keep your own voice, examples and experience in the content.

Where relevant, connect that content to an offer or a clear next step so interested people can find out more.

I would start by reviewing the foundations. Who are you trying to attract? What are you offering them? Is the value clear? Why should they choose your business?

Then I would look at the journey from first contact to becoming a customer. How do people find you? What encourages them to enquire? What happens after they express an interest?

You may have good content, but an unclear offer. You may be attracting interest, but have no follow-up in place. You need to understand where people are getting stuck.

I would also check whether your website, content, lead generation and emails are working together and supporting the same business goals.

From there, agree the priorities and put a practical 90-day plan in place. That gives the business a clear focus and a way to review progress.