Paulina Romero HYou have a medium-size company and the competition is huge. You don't have the same resources a large company has in order to invest in your business and be able to face that competition and avoid disappearing. What can you do?
We've always seen it, small family businesses that, if they don't boost the growth of their company, are crushed by larger companies. How to resist those giants?
Today more than ever, it's easier to face them. The resources that not so many years ago had to be invested in marketing (both economic and human as well as in time) were unaffordable for small and medium enterprises. Placing a TV ad or advertising on major avenues, for example, involved stratospheric investments that only large companies could make. What has changed then? How can you compete with these giants?
Digital marketing
Internet. Internet has changed everything. You can make use of exactly the same showcase that large companies use to promote their products and services: Mobile devices, cell phones, computers. You no longer have to pay high prices to produce TV commercials or design a billboard so it gets seen in at main avenues of the city. You now only need to appear on the personal screens of your potential customers and be their best option. Both large companies as well as medium-size companies have the same access to this technology. Now you can carry out a marketing strategy strong enough to face giants, without wasting your whole life and resources on it. Where to start? How is it done?
Digital Strategy
Every company must have a well defined marketing and sales strategy, focused on achievable and measurable goals. If you let your sales be handled by luck (hoping that someone who passes by, will buy something; wishing to be recommended a lot; hoping you get lucky enough that you are the only one in your area who offers your product and there is no one else thinking about competing against you; crossing your fingers so your salespeople have a good day...) you have no control or a true direction on the results that you expect to get from your company. And yes, you might get lucky, but you also might not.
Take control over your business and plan a strategy. Design achievable goals and a specific way or path to reach them. Inbound Marketing or Digital Marketing, is a whole marketing and sales strategy that helps you achieve the goals you've set for your company. It's not just "online advertising techniques", these techniques are just part of a whole Inbound Marketing strategy. That's why we start with the design of a strategy that will help you reach your customers or GamePlan.
Once this GamePlan is designed, the engines of all the digital techniques that are going to be used and that are suitable for your company and your customers, get started. Inbound Marketing works based on what customers need, since they are the ones who actively seek what you are selling. They are the ones who, when they turn their computer or cell phone on, will go to a search engine (like Google) to find answers to their problems, to look for solutions. And that's where you should (and can) appear. Just like big companies do.
Make sure that your strategy has the right analysis tools so that you can get all the data that you need in order to measure your campaign. It's only by measuring all your efforts that you can know what's working well and what isn't, so you can redirect your efforts based on information. Invest more on what is working well and stop investing on what isn't.
Start a Web Site
Once you've designed a GamePlan or strategy, you need to create a website to carry it out. Inbound Marketing is based on offering online information that the clients may be looking for in order to solve their problems. What a sales agent used to do, you now do it online from the very first time a client gets in touch with you by visiting your website: you now share information about you, about your product or service with them online. You anticipate yourself to any doubts that they may have and offer the answers they need to them.
Does this mean that the sales agent disappears? Of course not. Internet is just a first approach with the client, a relationship that is just beginning. Each client will take his own virtual tour according to his interests and, only after taking this tour (a whole process), the sale can be closed. And that's when the sales agent comes into action.
Customer Relationship Management or CRM
How do you know at what moment does a client go from the marketing stage to the sales stage? Based on the information given by a CRM. A CRM is a software that we use within a digital marketing in order to keep track of all the visitors that enter your site. Thanks to this CRM, you can monitor the relationship that you have with each one of your clients and at what stage of their shopping journey they're at. Based on this info, you can offer more content to them, which will help building a trusting relationship with them. You can also automate processes, such as sending emails to them with useful information, as well as many other tasks.
Don't be afraid and face those giants!
This is how a digital marketing strategy can bring you closer to your customers in the exact same way that it brings them closer to larger companies. This is how you have an accessible tool to grow your business and be able to resist the competition with giants. If you want to know more about this digital strategy and the ways in which your company can apply it, contact us. We will gladly answer your questions. DataBranding is an experienced Inbound Marketing company. We can support you in different ways, from consultancy services to working together throughout the development of your project. Learn more about what we do and decide what's best for your company and your specific needs.
