An opportunity came up recently for me to write a chapter in a business manual about marketing strategy – particularly how it relates to formal business plans. It was a great opportunity, and I was honored to be considered. As I started to look into it, I realized that the way we often represent marketing in a business plan is not exactly how I think about it. After all my time working with business owners on a budget, I have come to appreciate what my niche is and what it isn’t. Let’s talk today about quantitative marketing vs. relationship marketing – and how the difference may matter to you.
Business plans tend to look at the big picture. This format intends to show things like how many people are in your target market, what percentage of those people you need to reach to have a viable business model, etc. Then you talk about what marketing tactics – what platforms, tools, or methods – you will use to reach the needed volume of those people. Business plans are meant to show numerical viability, and they are tools often used when applying for funding to prove that the business can succeed.
It’s not that I disagree with the quantitative approach. I think it is incredibly important to know your numbers for your business. I am just not sure it is important to know THESE numbers.
I don’t just want to know that my client’s business can succeed. I want to know how it will. Clients that come to me only thinking at the high-level of their business plan usually don’t have enough information to figure out how to execute it.
I don't just want to know that my client's business can succeed. I want to know how it will. #marketing #businessplan #marketingstrategy #strategy #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #biztips #entrepreneur
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I am a believer in relationship marketing. I have seen that one lead if reached only one time may not produce a sale. Even one lead if reached ten times may not produce a sale. Sometimes one lead reached twenty times comes back to you a year later ready to buy. Read here for my tip on The Profit Is in the Follow Up. Not everyone you meet is destined to become your customer. However, many of your future customers will need to hear from you multiple times and build trust with you before they lock in. Also, many of your future customers will need intangible, unquantifiable validation before they finally close the deal through your own brand awareness, other people’s referrals, or reviews from strangers, to name a few sources.
So, to me, the most important thing to develop in a marketing plan is how you will stay in front of your leads, and you can often do that quantitatively. In my opinion, the metrics that are most important to track are the numbers from step to step of your marketing plan. How many people took this call to action or that? How many people followed through at each phase of the customer journey?
The most important thing to develop in a marketing plan is how you will stay in front of your leads, and you can often do that quantitatively. #businessplan #marketing #marketingstrategy #strategy #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz…
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The numbers do matter to me, but it is all of those action-oriented numbers that tell me how my client is doing to close a sale. Tracking the relationship quantitatively is more relevant to me than tracking the market quantitatively. I don’t just want to know that you can reach 10,000 people. I want to know that you have a plan for nurturing the five people you met yesterday.
A bank needs to see that there is a functional, potential market for your business to make a loan, for example. They are going to look at those big metrics in a business plan. So will investors and other funders. But is the fact that the market exists the only indicator they need to know that you will be effective in building YOUR customer base?
Most microbusinesses I work with don’t have the luxury of wasting their resources. Time or money spent to reach new contacts matters. They have to be efficient with their leads, which may or may not equate to reaching a volume of leads.
When it comes to marketing, there isn’t a right or wrong way, but there are marketers that take different approaches. A business owner who takes both the quantitative marketing and the relationship marketing philosophies into account may have a leg up on the field.
It was an honor to be asked to write a chapter about marketing, and we will see if the conversation evolves. However, I was grateful for the opportunity to be able to assess my own strengths as a marketer and articulate what my belief system truly is. May this reflection also give you insight on how you think as a marketer of your own business!
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