One Simple Thing That Will Make Growth Predictable

Set a marketing strategy before execution.

You want your business to grow faster. Let me explain, how to make it happen.

Building a business consists of two main parts:

• Create a Product.
• Find Customers.

There are many other pieces but these two are the most important, as without one there could not be the other. Also, these are the two people have the most problems with since it usually takes creativity to get ’em right.

As you’re here, I assume you’ve got a product with initial customers. It’s likely they found you via personal connections. Maybe you’ve also tested some marketing activities. But I guess they have not brought expected results.

Although the general belief is that marketing results are random then I don’t agree with this. In most cases, the problem lays in marketers who focus too much on the creative and not enough on the business. Worse, some play with every new idea they read online, without any plan.

For example, I recently heard of a company with a marketer who only focuses on generating videos. Why? Because she likes to make videos and believes it to bring long term branding benefits. Without analysis whether it’s actually effective.

This is not how marketing should be done!

For sure, there’s nothing predictable in it.

Moreover, it will probably bring small returns if any…

What should be done instead?

Marketing is about being there when the customer first feels a problem until they buy the solution. Therefore, to do it right, we need to understand the product. At least well enough to choose the initial channels that make sense for us to work with.

Some of the questions we’d need to ask for that are:

• Who’s it for?
• Why would they need it?
• Which alternatives are there?
• Why would they choose your product over others?
• How much are they willing to pay for it?
• What does the buying process look like?

Without those answers, everything we do further will be like driving blind. We may be able to steer the wheel and change gears but it’s impossible we’ll reach the destination.

However, knowing the product and the channels to use are not enough to do predictable marketing. Next step, is to ALWAYS set a marketing strategy.

What is a marketing strategy? In short, it’s a plan in which we have analysed the customer behaviour to know which channels to use to reach them best.

For example, a typical 40-year-old businessman may use Facebook. Yet it doesn’t mean he’d be receptive to marketing via this channel. Perhaps he only trusts word-of-mouth or makes his buying decisions at EXPOs. Thus we’re better off marketing to him at offline events.

And yet, understanding the customer is one part of it. A great marketing strategy analyses the following:

• What is our main goal? E.g. increase sales, build brand awareness, get leads, teach existing customers etc.
• Which channels are the best to reach the customer?
• Should we build a multi-channel campaign?
• How to use those channels the best? E.g. what type of creatives work best, what is the call-to-action, how big should the budget be etc.
• Should we handle them ourselves or hire an outside agency/freelancer?
• What type of data should we gather?
• Which metrics should we analyse?

Ideally, our strategy will have multiple hypotheses, such as 2–3 types of channels that could work. Because the next step is to put them to a test.

Typically, we’d take 1–3 months to see which of them performs better. But the more time we give ‘em, the more accurate decisions are we able to make later. Meanwhile, we’ll realise it after 1–4 weeks if something completely does not work and can kill it much faster.

Once tested, we will be able to decide how to go forward. Also, based on the first results, we can make predictions for the future. Knowing exactly what should happen if we do particular actions. While being able to react fast once something stops working as it should be.

Obviously, this isn’t the end. That’s because in time our goals will change and channels tend to get crowded and expensive. Likewise, we might develop new customer segments and new channels keep popping up which might be worth testing. Thus, we should continuously iterate the strategy.

However, it does not mean completely changing the course on a monthly basis. Instead, we ought to run individual expeditions every now and then, keeping the main direction more or less the same. And then make a full change once necessary.

It may feel like a lot of work. Yet in case we really want to grow the business, that’s what needs to be done.

If you loved any of this and want some more, then let me know what you’d like me to write about via my Newsletter, Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. Also, if you want my help with any of that then feel free to contact me.