There are always lots of surprises that pop up when you are running a small business. From surprise expenses that balloon your budget to problems that slow your timeline (just to name a few), having unexpected things fall into your lap when you're least expecting them is just kind of the name of the game. And, if we had to make an educated guess, the moment you found out you needed something called a "marketing strategy" was a pretty major surprise—one that made you have all the questions about how to actually get it done. So today, we wanted to take the edge off of this important to-do by answering your questions about how to create a marketing strategy for your small business. Read on to learn what one is, what goes into one, and how to bring one to life.

First off, what is a marketing strategy?

Just because you found out you need a marketing strategy doesn't mean you know what one even is—and that's okay! Because we know you started your small business because you have a special skill or product you wanted to share with people—not because you were jazzed about setting business strategies and running operations. But don't be intimidated by the word "strategy," a marketing strategy is simply a documented plan that outlines what you're going to do in order to put your business in front of customers and work toward achieving your goals (which is probably to make a bunch of money!).

A marketing strategy is an essential part of your business planning because it helps you make sure that the time and money you allocate to marketing is going to do something for you (read: not just be wasted). Because you can think about your marketing strategy as being the rules to an experiment, and even though you are experimenting to figure out what works best, blindly throwing your resources away is not an effective way to go about it.

What goes into a marketing strategy?

A marketing strategy is made up of a few main pieces—goals, objectives, information about your customers, and what channels you plan to use for marketing. Let's break each one down a little more:

Goals: These are the overall goals you have for your business that are influenced by marketing—think things like increasing sales or becoming more recognizable in your market or industry.

Objectives: These are the more direct, tangible or measurable goals you have that let you know whether you're on track with your goals or not. An example is something like increasing website traffic by 25% in the next 6 months.

Information about your customers: Knowing who you're targeting (or talking to) with your marketing is key to creating a successful strategy. This includes gathering information on demographics, the problems your ideal customers or clients tend to have as well as the solution you have to get them what they need.

Marketing channels: Where do you plan on marketing your business to reach your customers? These can range from social media platforms like Instagram to email marketing or things like advertising and merchandising.

How do you create a marketing strategy?

Now that we've taken a lot of the surprise out of things, let's talk about how to create a marketing strategy! Because this is where people get tripped up, and whether that's because they're overthinking things or don't know where to start, it's not nearly as complicated as some people may make you think. Here are the straightforward steps we like to take and know you are totally capable of too!

1. Sit down and think about your business. Start by defining your goals and objectives since these are what will help you make future decisions about what to do and not.
2. Think about who the people are that are your ideal customers and clients (read: the easiest to sell to and best to work with). This is an important step because you should be building a brand that connects with them, offering services that are what they need, creating content that speaks to them, and marketing your business in the places they "hangout" and ways they find fun.
3. Pick your marketing channels and set a realistic pace for how often you can be active on each one. Our recommendation is to pick 1-3 marketing channels since that is about what most small business owners have the time for.
4. Document your plan—because doing things on the fly is not a strategy! The best way to make sure you're staying on top of your marketing tasks and spending your time on things that aren't a waste is to have them written down and an organized somewhere you can refer back to at any time. Lucky for you, that's exactly what we do here at Enji! You can have a marketing strategy that is customized to your business in minutes when you start a free trial and complete a simple questionnaire—we've got you from there!
5. Test and evaluate your strategy. We did talk about how marketing is an experiment at the start! Once you put your marketing strategy into action and you should start tracking KPIs (key performance indicators) so you can see how your effort is impacting your sales. Document these metrics at the end of every month, and at the end of the year, you'll be able to make smart adjustments to your strategy. (Did you know Enji makes it easy (and dare we say"fun") to track your KPIs?)
6. Keep going: As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and consistency is key! So, commit to your marketing tasks and we pretty much promise it'll pay off!

How do you know your marketing strategy is a good one?

If after creating your marketing strategy you want to avoid the biggest surprise (the one where you've not ended up with a good one), here is our advice to help you have confidence in yours. First off, a good marketing strategy doesn't feel overwhelming to you. In fact, it feels just the opposite—it feels like a realistic plan and not like a ton of extra work. Second, you can definitely feel great about your marketing strategy when you see sales go up after committing to executing it. Another way you know you have a solid strategy? The quality of your customers and clients is great (read: people who don't take a ton of convincing to make a sale, are a pleasure to work with, and become repeat customers). And lastly, you have a good marketing strategy if it is helping you make progress towards your goals.

Excited about what having a marketing strategy can do for you? Start your free trial of Enji's marketing strategy tools for small businesses, and you can have yours in minutes!

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