Marketing 101 for SMEs

What is marketing’s purpose in a company?

Fit your product into the changing ecosystem of everyday life, transforming how people live, work and play.

1. Provide an overarching differentiating theme with a competitive angle for the whole organisation.

2. Build a strategy on the theme that leads towards growth.

3. See to that every activity within the company is aligned with the strategy.

strategy - it is the journey that is important, not the goal

The purpose of the strategy is to mobilise your resources to preempt the differentiating idea.

Jack Trout

analysis | purpose & message | tools & channels

STEP#1Analysis

If you misidentify the problem, your proposed solution is unlikely to work.

Yousales trendsvisitors to/on the siteCAP, CLV

sales trends• How has customer behaviour changed over the last 2 years? • Is there growth, stagnation, or a smaller number of sales over time? • Is there a seasonality? Which times of the year are best for sales? • Which channels bring the most revenue? • Which products or services? • Is it a repeatable cycle? Do we have returning customers or have to make a

new acquisition every time? Can we up-sell / repeat sales?

sources of information:- sales records - e-commerce systems - Google Analytics - Kissmetrics, Hubspot etc.

visitors to / on website:• What is the conversion rate: how many visitors end up buying from us? • How many visits it takes to make first purchase? • Which channels bring the most lucrative customers? • How do users navigate the website? • What do they search for? • What percentage of customers abandons the shopping cart/sign-up

process? • Is it easy for them to find the information they need? • Do every function on the site work flawlessly?

sources of information:- Google Analytics - CrazyEgg - Olark

CPA & CLVCPA: Cost per Acquisition. How much does it cost for the business to get a new customer? In simple e-commerce sales situations, it can be as easy as having a look at the average cost of all ads that bring new sales in. However in complex sales situation the calculation is somewhat more complicated, having to include the time of the sales person, investment in sales materials, prototypes and demos or trade fair entrance fees.

CLV: Customer Lifetime Value. If once she becomes a customer, how much is she likely to spend with us on the whole? You need historical data to calculate this one, adding up all the purchases one customer makes over time thought educated guesses can be made if your service/product is subscription based.

These two numbers are irreplaceable when making decision about marketing investment and analysing ROI. Rule of thumb: CPA < CLV!

Target audiencewho are they & what do they want?

segmentation• Demographics: how old, which gender, what sort of income, where do they

live? • Lifestyle: job, education, entertainment, how do they get information? • Values, goals and beliefs

You may serve several smaller segments, in which case, it’s worth personalising your offers for each of them.

Empathy Map

personas

Competitorswhere do you stand on the market?

competitors:• companies addressing similar wants and needs • companies offering substitute products or services

gather information:• thorough observation of their products and services • conversations with suppliers and customers • basic public company information • website, blog, advertising (offline and online)

background & finances products & promotion tactics

message

competitors name

background (how long has been

operating, founders, team,

location, website, etc.)

main products

communication channels (including frequency,

engagement and follower numbers)

main message & positioning

things to learn from them weaknesses

where is your niche?

STEP#2Purpose & Message

In a global survey of consumers, 63% said they only buy products and services that appeal to their beliefs, values or ideals.

GFK, April 2015

37%

63%

PURPOSE, VALUES & MEANING ARE INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT FOR ANY CONTEMPORARY COMPANY

What are your values?

find your valuesTake 5 minutes to think about the values that are important to you. It may help if you first identify a few times in your life. When you were most fulfilled and satisfied? The happiest or the most proud? Use the list of words to choose your 5 values.

Diligence Discipline Discretion Diversity Dynamism Economy Effectiveness Efficiency Elegance Empathy Enjoyment Enthusiasm Equality Excellence Excitement Expertise Exploration Expressiveness Fairness Faith Family-orientedness Fidelity Fitness Fluency Focus Freedom Fun Generosity Goodness Grace Growth Happiness Hard Work Health Helping Society

Holiness Honesty Honor Humility Independence Ingenuity Inner Harmony Inquisitiveness Insightfulness Intelligence Intellectual Status Intuition Joy Justice Leadership Legacy Love Loyalty Making a difference Mastery Merit Obedience Openness Order Originality Patriotism Perfection Piety Positivity Practicality Preparedness Professionalism Prudence Quality-orientation Reliability

Resourcefulness Restraint Results-oriented Rigor Security Self-actualization Self-control Selflessness Self-reliance Sensitivity Serenity Service Shrewdness Simplicity Soundness Speed Spontaneity Stability Strategic Strength Structure Success Support Teamwork Temperance Thankfulness Thoroughness Thoughtfulness Timeliness Tolerance Traditionalism Trustworthiness Truth-seeking Understanding Uniqueness source

Accountability Accuracy Achievement Adventurousness Altruism Ambition Assertiveness Balance Being the best Belonging Boldness Calmness Carefulness Challenge Cheerfulness Clear-mindedness Commitment Community Compassion Competitiveness Consistency Contentment Continuous Improvement Contribution Control Cooperation Correctness Courtesy Creativity Curiosity Decisiveness Democraticness Dependability Determination Devoutness

Unity Usefulness Vision Vitality

to perceive a brand as meaningful, people look at

• What functional values the product brings? • Personal benefits - what exactly is the brand doing for me? • Collective benefits: what is the brand doing for the community, the

people that I care about?

HAVAS, Meaningful Brands, 2015

think different

functional value well designed tech devices that work better personal benefits beautiful objects, cool factor, great user experience collective benefits: “The people who are crazy enough to believe they can change the world are the ones who actually do.”

Crazy Ones ad

good coffee makes people happy

functional value great coffee on my doorstep with lovely client service personal benefits makes my mornings so much better, educates me about coffee, delivers a product that leaves me with a clear conscience, saves time collective benefits: sustainability, ethical trading, support of independent entrepreneurs

challenging the future of workfunctional value get cash back from our R&D development personal benefits I can spend my time building the business, no need to worry about the HMRC, great service with super friendly client management collective benefits: pioneering open cultures and flat organisations, helping startups through education

the golden circle

focus on one(!) thing to say

STEP#3Tools & Channels

PPC advertising• Google Adwords and Adsense technology • display and word based advertising from Google Search to Instagram • based on keywords, visits, searches or demographic • metrics to keep an eye on: CPA, CLV, conversion rates, ROI

content marketing & PR• SEO is increasingly about context and helpful content • link from relevant site, user spends time on arrival or browse more,

content is relevant for search/link content = better Google ranking • content helps you customers to

• find you • understand your offering and value • build trust

• build a soft sales funnel for each stage of the purchase cycle • find topics: keyword research, paying attention at sales and support,

follow internet forums: http://buzzsumo.com/, http://scribecontent.com/, https://www.quora.com/

• content travels well and valuable information is the best way to generate mentions and potentially mainstream PR

social media• so many of them out there - choose the right one for you

✴ what kid of content shows your value the most? ✴ where are your customers? ✴ what is interesting for them?

• trial and error is inevitable - measure engagement and traffic to site • two-way communication, customer support, research • often more brand building than a sales tool / works well combined with

PPC • entertain, delight, stay in touch

e-mail marketing• still one of the most effective methods • however G-mail tabs are hurting open rates • help connection:

✴ set the right expectations at sign-up ✴ the right frequency will depend on your industry ✴ use tools with good analytics system to understand timing, e-mail as

a channel and A/B test // MailChimp ✴ share valuable information

• rules of thumb: ✴ make it consumable - responsiveness ✴ connect to social, strengthen participation - not just one-way comms ✴ personalise ✴ let them tell you what and how they want

events• where appropriate, educative industry events instantly elevate profile and

add authority • a great way to attract and reconvert past customers • networking brings sales • expos - only if winning one or two new clients may cover your fee

visual consistency• picking the colours, patterns, photos and creating a consistent visual

image is possible even on a small budget • helps recognition and catching attention even in a over cluttered

environments • http://paletton.com, https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/, https://

unsplash.com/, http://www.vecteezy.com/,

plan in advance• setting up a marketing plan for the year will help your on the go efforts

enormously • weekly content plans save time vs. OMG, what should I post right now? • align with holidays or your industry’s seasonality • good habits facilitate growth

RememberKey Takeaways

it is impossible to come up with a good strategy without understanding the situation and it’s challenges find your niche and understand the audience well create one strong message use the channels with most ROI