The marketing strategy must start with the consumer problem. A successful product or service business manages to solve the problems of its customers. Do market research to find out what your potential customers want. Use the research results to determine the product that can meet their needs. Then, you can create a marketing strategy to attract consumers to the product. With this strategy, you can create brand awareness, create new leads, and ultimately sell your product or service.
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Part 1 of 2: Developing a Product or Service Business
Step 1. Determine the ideal customer for your business
Think of consumers who frequently buy your products or consumers with problems that the products or services you sell can solve. Classify ideal consumers by age, gender, or income level.
- Determining the ideal consumer will determine the marketing strategy that must be done for your product. To maximize your marketing budget, determine the ideal customers for your business.
- You can determine the ideal customer through client data on product sales. You can also conduct surveys on clients or analyze research done by your competitors.
- For example, if you sell outdoor tech tools, your ideal customer might be a man or woman who is between the ages of 25-50. This is because people in this age category are more active than the elderly and have higher incomes than teenagers.
- In addition, also consider the area where consumers live. The ideal consumers for outdoor technology tools are people who spend a lot of time outdoors and have high incomes because the price of these products is relatively expensive.
Step 2. Solve consumer problems
Consumers have problems they want to solve. If you work with clients in a particular industry, use information about your customers to look for problems you can solve.
- Do some research on product ideas. Many businesses develop great products that are linked to other successful products. Think about the reasons why consumers use the products you sell. That way, you might be able to solve another, slightly different problem.
- For example, your customers need a cell phone charger that is strong and resistant to drops or extreme weather.
- To solve this problem, you can make a charger that is resistant to weather and vibration. After that, mountain climbers and cyclists can try and like the product.
Step 3. Apply marketing concepts to your ideal product and customer
Once you've identified your ideal customer and solved the problem with your product, you can start thinking about the marketing component. Think about the various aspects needed to market your product.
- You must determine the price for the product. Pricing depends on consumer demand for products and competitors in the industry. If the level of competition is not too high and your product has a high demand, you can sell it at a higher price. However, remember that consumers can be very sensitive to the price of a product.
- Think about the packaging concept for the product and how it will fit into your company's brand image. For example, you can create the packaging using the colors and company logos you use for your other products. This consistent use of brand image will help clients remember your company brand.
- Consider how consumers contact your company, order products for sale and receive their ordered products. The whole process must be carried out efficiently. You must have a customer service department that is responsive and able to handle any problems that consumers may experience.
Part 2 of 2: Creating a Marketing Strategy
Step 1. Define a clear primary marketing objective
Before starting to create a marketing strategy, determine the target you want. Once you've identified it, you can develop a plan to make it happen.
- Your primary goal could be to increase brand awareness, increase product sales, or expand into a new market segment. For example, if you sell hiking and biking equipment, you could expand it by selling mountaineering equipment products.
- Any goals set should be compared to your product's industry indicators. For example, assume that the level of competition in the hiking and bicycle equipment market is very high. No single company controls more than 5% of total sales in that market. If your goal is to increase product sales, you can set 5% as the end goal. Goals must be adapted to market conditions.
- If your goal is to increase brand awareness, potential buyers should know your company if they need a charger when they go hiking or biking.
- After setting a goal, you can consider effective marketing tactics. Marketing tactics are specific actions taken to market your product. Marketing tactics can be direct email (to consumers), mass email and telemarketing.
- For example, you might decide that content marketing is a tactic to use to build brand awareness. You can do this tactic by regularly uploading useful blogs and articles to your company website.
- After knowing your company brand, make it interesting for potential customers to find out more information about your products. This can be done by uploading ads or making the company website as attractive as possible. That way, these people can become new sales prospects.
- Keep in touch until some of these potential customers become your customers. This can be done by sending an email or newsletter. Other potential customers may read blogs and articles about outdoor sports on your company's website and be interested in buying the cell phone charger you sell.
Step 2. Develop a marketing effort
To increase sales, you may have to adopt some new marketing tactics. The more ways you can market your product, the more your company's brand awareness will increase.
- All companies must have a website. Many companies also write and upload blog content. To increase your company's popularity in the marketplace, consider creating a podcast and advertising products for sale at specific events. If your competitors don't use this strategy, you will have a chance to shine.
- Establish a formal system for asking clients for recommendations. Give consumers who recommend gifts in a certain form. These prizes can be in the form of product bonuses or discounts. This system has a high probability of turning prospects into clients.
- To enhance your image as an expert, consider speaking at your market seminar or webinar. This is because people will seek expert help when they have to solve a problem.
Step 3. Create a marketing plan and budget to implement it
Writing a formal marketing plan is very important. To make the plan a reality, you'll need to create a detailed budget for each marketing tactic.
- The plan should include the type of target consumers. Target consumers are created based on the characteristics of your ideal consumer.
- The plan should indicate the schedule and timeframe for each task. For example, if you email your monthly newsletters, include on your schedule that each newsletter should be sent on the 5th of each month.
- Delegate each marketing task to a specific employee so you can always keep track of their progress. For example, a copywriter could be assigned the responsibility of producing a newsletter. Each employee can then inform the status of his particular task to the entire team.
