A Crash Course In Marketing Strategy For Small Businesses Tired Of Wasting Time & Money On Marketing That Doesn’t Work
TikTok is not a marketing strategy.
In fact, no single channel is. But that doesn’t stop most small businesses from blindly throwing money at the wrong marketing options.
I’ve been a marketer since 1996. I’ve also been a franchise owner of a business I operated in my local area. In the early part of my career I wasted both time and money…
- Targeting the wrong audience
- Using the wrong channels to advertise
- Trusting the advice of marketing “experts” whose knowledge was limited to the few tactics they knew
But if I knew then what I understand and practice today, I would have started each marketing decision with strategy in mind.
A Simple Strategic Framework
Here’s the simple framework I learned from Chris McGoff’s “The Primes” that I use to think about the overarching strategy before making any tactical decisions.
- As Is — Define the current situation and status of the business
- Environment — Determine the internal (staff capabilities, capacity. etc.) and external (competition, market, etc.) influences which can affect the business.
- Stake — Agree on what’s at stake if the business doesn’t make any changes.
- To Be — Clearly define where we want the business to be as a result of the efforts we invest in.
- Strategy — Determine the “big picture” path from “as is” to “to be.”
Selecting The Tactics
Only after investing in the strategic exercise above does it make any sense to consider which tactics to use.
Starting with strategy will help inform which media to use to reach our target audience… which messaging to put in front of them… how to structure the offer we make… and even how to price it.
Starting with strategy defines the boundaries of how and where we market — saving time and money, and drastically reducing poor decisions.
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