HOW TO MAXIMIZE MARKETING AND REDUCING COSTS

As a start-up business, getting to the market seems very easy at first glance. However, as you have seen, accessing the market is not as easy as frying an egg and this often than not leads to business owner's being frustrated.  Consequently, their businesses end up taking a strain. In its prime, a business needs to close sales for its survival. In this article, we are looking at ways to increase business reach and establishing presence, direct and indirect marketing approach, high demand time to market as well as measures you can implement to reduce costs of marketing and maximizing profits.

INCREASING BUSINESS REACH AND ESTABLISHING PRESENCE

Most businesses that utilize social media platforms for marketing purposes often have little to no sales. The reason for this is not necessarily due to implementation of inadequate marketing but of utilizing wrong platforms to access the market. Social media platforms are juristic entities and as such, they put forth more of what generates revenue for them and care less whether  that affects your business. Hence, you can see as well the kind of content you see as soon as you open that App or online platform. Like any other business, they are more revenue oriented than equality oriented.

Social media platforms are however a perfect spot to establish presence and engage with your customers, if you are marketing on social media platforms for sales then you will receive little to no sales at all other than likes and comments. the core ethos of marketing on social media platforms is to alert the market of your existence, the type of product or service you offer, reaching more people outside of those that already know of your existence and giving them a platform of voice were they can engage with your business.

Therefore, investing a lot of capital in social media for marketing purposes is more of give and take only. What you can do as a business to maximize profits from marketing is to use social media platforms as an indirect marketing approach. Where you advertise everything that you have already advertised in your direct marketing approach. Meaning that you have an alternative platform or system of accessing the market in a way that generates the most sales. Maximizing profits from social media platforms can be generated through working with digital marketing agencies, this will help your business to access markets  outside those you already know.

DIRECT AND INDIRECT MARKETING APROACH

As a business, you need to  have multiple ways of accessing the market. The most obvious and popular is social media platforms, and then the question becomes, how do you know which is your effective way of accessing the market? The answer is simple, whichever way that generates revenue for your business. Once that has been identified, you would have established your direct/primary approach. The latter is essentially your best effective approach to the market that generates the most revenue and your direct approaches can be more than one (i would recommend finding one and focusing most of your marketing budget into).

As indirect marketing approach is already outline in subheading "INCREASING REACH AND ESTABLISHING PRESENCE", the whole purpose of utilizing social media platforms is to establish awareness for the existence of your business, this may still generate some sales but for most businesses it leads to no sales. In such case, then social media platforms fall under your indirect marketing approach. The indirect marketing approach is vast and its open to any comprehension as long as it fits its general scope and intent.

Indirect marketing in some instances can be used as a primary marketing approach for some businesses, especially business that offer products and/or services to other business (B2B business model). We will look at this aspect in coming publications of our articles.

HIGH DEMAND TIMES TO MARKET

As a business that has been engaging a lot in social media marketing, you have probably head a lot from social/digital marketing agencies offering you their packages. You probably overlooked and turned a blind eye on them as well. The beauty of utilizing social/digital marketing agency comes in handy in this regard through that they have access to a broad scope of the market. 

I will reference this aspect to my business (TEK Digital Marketing Agency), so not to speak ill about other marketing companies. upon utilizing our services, we reach out further by posting your design in other markets as well. This will  increase your reach, presence, reduce costs, and contribute to your profit margins due to no  extra costs incurred by your business. With the vast market within our reach, we know exactly the best times to post certain marketing information therefore, you working with us can increase your sales even long-term. In this regard, i will give you pointers to assist your business to effectively allocate funds for  best possible returns.

Unless offering goods or services to B2B, high demand times to the market are solely identified through ICP study (Ideal Customer Profile). You need to understand the geographical,  behavioral, psychographic and demographic information of your target market. If you look at all established businesses, their marketing intensifies during the times of their target market payday. That is 4-5 days before their target customers get paid, they then group them according to the times most sales are made. This enables them to know how much resources they need to allocate to reach them effectively. 

it is thus important to understand and compile your ICP studies and look at when do your customers have disposable income, spend a lot on your product or service, type of product they spend etc. and arrange your marketing strategy accordingly. this will reduce your costs in that you wont be throwing funds into marketing without a plan. Hence it is of paramount importance that i emphasize this, no marketing comes at no cost and there is no such thing as free dinner. Over the years, we have worked with countless small businesses and they tend to find themselves in marketing myopia which leads to their businesses not performing effectively. However, there is no business that can operate in isolation, do you agree with this?

REDUCE COSTS AND MAXIMIZE PROFITS

many businesses are in a volatile market and as such, managing cashflow plays a pivotal role in the success of the business. The best way to minimize costs in marketing is delegating just enough budget after a market study and this includes understanding your market segment. In practice, it is highly recommended that a business structures, invests and  focus on its target market. This reduces costs significantly and allows it to maximize profit margins. lets look at Shoprite for example:

Shoprite has a target segment of lower income class and is located across many provinces, as such its global marketing approach is justified but it does not conduct commercial advertisements randomly. Its advertisements are structured, during the month they advertise standard essentials for daily living and as month end approaches, they conduct intensive marketing, promotions, sales and they have a system of getting primary marketing information through their reward card. In turn this allows them to reduce costs by not marketing what the customers don't need and prioritize what customers buy the most and thus, focus their marketing on those products.

In business information is power, only if you know how to use that information to increase revenue. Part of  their market penetration and communication includes paper advertisements (those that are always delivered in mail boxes), email and SMS, internet etc. Which form part of their direct marketing approach. Have you been in areas such as houghton and saw a ShopRite paper being delivered in a mail  box? the answer is  due to the fact that they know that their target market does not live in those areas and consequently, it reduces costs for them in that they do not have to pay for printouts to be delivered in those areas as well.

SME's need to understand that they cannot conduct their businesses successfully in isolation, and the success of their  businesses lies in how much they invest in their marketing. Many have also started creating their own flyers, pamphlets etc. (not a bad thing) which in most cases does not create leads, sales or engagement. Utilizing marketing agencies in this regard is not a loss for businesses due to, for example, TEK Digital Marketing Agency also conducts free marketing for its clients and thus monitor how  consumers respond to that product. A professional overlay that is structurally and carefully designed entice customers is not something any business owner can achieve.

CONCLUSION

Running a business efficiently is the most important determinant of the success of any business. Having a small leak has the potential to sink the entire sheep. As result, Understanding your segment and reducing your costs by strategically focusing on your target market can increase your revenue drastically. It is thus of paramount importance that SME's invest in marketing in order to position themselves, communicate their products or services and influence customers to buy effectively and clearly as possible. As a business, doing everything all by yourself can be cumbersome and mostly costly. Hence I would advice, after considering all your business finances, to outsource certain services that would not jeopardize your business. As i have already outlined, no business can exist and succeed in isolation.

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