Do you want to find clarity in your marketing?  Many people find marketing a challenge and confusing and like its some kind of magic dark art. I’ve had loads of people say that to me in the past, but sometimes you just need to see the wood for the trees and get a bit of clarity with what you are doing.  So, I’m going to give a few little tips today that might help you get some clarity and some pointers of what you can do in your marketing going forward.

Tip 1:  What do you actually do?

The first thing you need to think about is what do you actually do?  What is the business or service that you provide?

I’m a Marketing Consultant, so I wouldn’t just say “I’m a Marketing Consultant.” I’m an outsourced marketing manager where I can effectively manage a client’s marketing while they can concentrate on running their business.  They can forget about their marketing and do what they do best, while I look after their marketing.

So, you need to think about what is it that you actually do for people and how do you solve their problems?

Tip 2: Who is your ideal customer?

Next, you need to think about the target customer.  This is so important because you could do so much marketing, but if you’re not targeting the right people, then you’re marketing is not going to work.

So, really think about who is your target market?  What type of people are they?  What kind of age range do they fit into?  What do they do for a job?  What are their hobbies?  What are their interests?

And one of the most important things to think about, as well, is if you were your target customer, where do they receive marketing?  So, what social media channels are they on?  What newspapers do they read?  What books do they read?  What magazines do they read?  What TV programmes do they watch?  Where do they hang out?  Where do they socialise?  How can you get in front of those people as well?

So, you really need to think about your target customer and target audience.

Tip3: What is your marketing message?

The next thing that you need to think about is your message.  What do you want to tell those people?

I could easily say “I do marketing, I help people with social media, I help with marketing strategies and writing content and creating websites and things.”  But what I actually do for people is give them the peace of mind to know that their marketing is in safe hands to know that they don’t have to worry about their marketing anymore and that things are going to get done.  When they want it to be done that somebody is just ‘on it’.  So, that’s the message that I try and give out to people.

So, think about what you do and how you help people.  What are those key things that you really want to shout about in your business that can help people?

Focusing your message

We all get overwhelmed with all these different things you can do with marketing, but where do you even start to help you find clarity in your marketing messages?

I want you to pick three things that you are going to focus on.  Write down what you do, who your target customer is, what are your key messages, and think about three things that you are specifically going to do to target that customer.

There’s so much you could do.  PR, social media, events, networking, partnerships, sponsorship, awards; there’s just so much stuff you can do in marketing, which is why people get so overwhelmed.

Pick three things that you can focus on in the next six months to a year or whatever and really focus on those things.  Think about those things in terms of will my target customer see them?  Am I telling them what I actually do?  Am I telling them what service I provide and how it’s going to answer their problems or benefit them?  Am I telling them this kind of stuff?  And am I doing it in the right way?  And will they see it?  Will my target market actually see this piece of work that I’m doing?

Your three aims could be reaching out to new customers; it could be doing more on social media or even learning the basics of social media.  It could be increasing your audience, or it could be “I’m going to focus on Facebook adverts.”  “I’m going to look at trying to get more stories in the paper.”  “I’m going to maybe develop some video content or free content for my clients and customers or potential customers.”

But don’t feel bogged down and overwhelmed by all the different marketing tasks you can do.  If you pick three things and do them to the best of your ability, and do them really, really well; that is going to pay dividends, and that is going to make a difference to your marketing.

So, my biggest point here is, please don’t overwhelm yourself with marketing.  Think a bit more strategically to find the clarity in your marketing.  Write down what you do, who your target customer is and what you want to tell them, and then how you are going to do it.  Just pick three things that you feel comfortable with that you want to develop.  And honestly, you will see better results from focusing on a couple of things than trying to spread yourself too thin.

Hopefully you’ll now feel like you have a bit more clarity in your marketing.