The 7 Steps to Marketing Success - Staying Competitive

Written by Jane Gregory

Marketing can feel overwhelming when you’re starting out in business, or are a small business owner, because it’s just one of so many hats you have to wear.

Even when you find the time to think about your marketing it can be really tough to know where to start. Should you get active on social media? Spend time working on your brand? Or how about a website or paid advertising? SEO or influencers? Or should you look at ebay, Amazon or ETSY? Write a blog or post on Linkedin? Arrrgh!

With so much to think about it’s no wonder that many businesses struggle to market effectively and consistently, and that’s why we’ve put together this mini series to hopefully give you a clear track to run on. Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at the following 7 Steps to Marketing Success:

1). Know your target market

2). Create a strong brand that will appeal to them

3). Develop powerful key messages, copy and images

4). Develop a strategic marketing plan

5). Implement your plan

6). Maximise your existing customers

7). Staying competitive

Step 7: Staying Competitive

The world, your customers and your competitors are constantly moving and changing, so if you stand still sooner or later you will get left behind. It happens to the best of them – think how many former household names no longer exist, Woolworths, Wilkos, Friends Reunited. All gone because they failed to adapt and change.

So what can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen to you? Well I’d recommend at least once a quarter that you conduct a SWOT analysis on your business and your key competitors (for anyone not familiar with SWOT it stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) So you write down the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities facing your business, and do the same for your key competitors.

Ideally you’d involve someone else from inside or outside the business to help you at least occasionally, as it’s all too easy to develop tunnel vision when you eat sleep and breath it all day long. By doing this exercise regularly you can at least keep up with the market, or maybe even get one step ahead.

I’d also suggest you make use of things like Mintel, available for free (as is everything we do) through the BIPC in central library, and find out what influencers, movers and shakers in your sector are saying about the future. Keep an eye on the news. Is there anything coming down the tracks that might affect your industry? If there is best to be prepared.

Well today’s post was the last in our mini-series, The 7 Steps to Marketing Success, but don’t despair, keep watching as we’ll be posting lots more informative, useful, bite-sized pieces in the coming weeks and months.  

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