This may seem like a simple one but to answer with: ‘to attract new business’, only scratches the surface.
As some of you may have heard me say ‘marketing is all encompassing’ and by asking the question why do we market doesn’t just mean – to advertise…
This article may serve as a reminder as to why we market or the benefits of doing so. It may simply be common sense. I’ll let you be the judge.
Consider the following:
We market to:
- Build a brand
You may not be in business forever. Your marketing strategy may be to build the business and then sell up and your brand will be one of your intangible assets. Other intangible assets include goodwill which is also saleable and co-exists with your brand. These can have a substantial impact on the value of your business.
Your brand can take a long time to build up and can be ruined or damaged over a very short period of time so it should be managed effectively.
- To interact with clients (customer service)
In our industry it would be fairly difficult to operate without any clients. Therefore engagement and retention are imperative to a marketing strategy. Customer engagement combined with properly implemented and communicated systems can prevent complaints or at the least help manage them effectively.
Often businesses don’t listen to the client’s complaint and they will instantly jump to their own defence. This can be counterproductive. The SWW provide template terms of business, complaints procedure and satisfaction surveys so that members have a system in place to help manage customer interaction. Regular (but not too regular) communication with clients is also a good way to let them know you’re still around. Your communication shouldn’t always be a sales post or sales related.
- Attracting new business
Attracting new business arguably falls under the heading of ‘advertising’. We can attract new business in a number of ways but it is suggested that a good reputation will impact positively on a company’s ability to gain new business (through referrals etc). Make sure that your staff know the business as well as you do and when advertising, position your company as the answer giving clients good reason to contact you.
- Place yourself as an authority on a subject
The previous point makes reference to positioning your company as the answer to your client’s question. Providing information on your website, blog, social media platforms, and other platforms shows your audience that you know what you are talking about.
Taking this into consideration with the ‘know, like and trust’ principle, your prospective clients will begin to understand who you are and what you do, thus making them more likely to engage with you.
- Build an audience
You can post as much content as you like but if you don’t have an audience it is pointless. On social media platforms you can build traffic organically and this can expand your weekly audience but the posts have a limited life. Blog posts can attract big traffic and have longer lifespans. With a blog post or article you can share a lot more information and use key words to increase the likelihood of your posts being found. These factors will all increase the number of people who will know about the services you provide.
Thomas Stansfield
Marketing and Communication
The Society of Will Writers
