🚀 Your business may have grown by word of mouth, but now you’re ready to go to the next level. Do you need marketing to get there?

Mid-sized companies often reach a point where they get stuck trying to reach the next phase of their growth. The business may have started with little or no budget and expanded to its current state by networking and referrals.

But, now you’re a so-called “real business” with employees, contracts, and production facilities. And you’re going to need more than handshakes to keep that moving forward.

Expand Your Business Reach

At this stage, marketing is going to be critical to your overall reach. Talking to individuals is only going to get you so far. But a business that can successfully market itself is going to see growth no matter the industry.

Fortunately, you’re also at the stage where you can invest the money to do it right and expect a measurable return. And with the myriad ways to market your business today, there’s no reason to put it off any longer. From mobile search, which as of 2019 “generated about half of all website traffic globally”, to pay-per-click advertising, to YouTube videos, there are a ton of tools to help you reach a much larger audience.

Grow Your Customer Base

Getting new customers is what it’s all about. And an effective marketing strategy allows you to reach those customers in ways you never could before.

Think about it this way. When one of your customers refers you to someone else, how much more effective will that referral be if they’ve already seen you on social media, billboards, YouTube, etc. And what’s the first thing they’re going to do? Check out your website and Google reviews to check your credibility.

Marketing transforms that one person’s opinion into a viable opportunity to win that business. But, more than that, it reaches out to thousands of people you’ve never had any previous connection with. It turns referral networking into one of the multiple components that work together to grow your customer base.

Some different ways to promote your business to new and current customers include:

Promote Your Products & Services

You may be well-versed in everything there is to know about the products and services you offer. But, the public is not.

And, to be frank, they don’t give a @#$%.

It’s up to you to give potential customers a reason to care. To show them how what you do can benefit their lives. This is why you need marketing.

Effective marketing communicates the benefits of your products and services to potential customers. It reaches them where they live, finds the thing in their life that needs to be fixed, and shows how you can take away that pain point.

This is Marketing 101. Yet, it’s amazing to me how many businesses don’t do this. How many times have you looked at a company’s website and said, “I have no idea what the @#$% they do”? Would an honest look at your own website have the same result?

Get Rid of Lookie-Loos

Clearly defining your core offerings has another key function at this stage in the game. It weeds out people who aren’t a good fit.

You may think that sounds absurd. Why wouldn’t you want anyone looking at your company to call? Every phone call, email, or inquiry takes time away from your sales team. If someone is clearly not a fit for what you have, it’s better to figure that out before you’ve wasted their time and yours.

BTW, this is the biggest mistake most people make with Google and Facebook ads. Shooting for a high click volume instead of quality leads will eat up your ad budget in no time flat.

The ultimate goal of business promotion is to communicate your business to your intended audience!

Increase Sales

This seems like a no-brainer. Of course, marketing is supposed to increase sales! But one thing many people forget is how your marketing efforts can assist your sales team.

A well-designed website, downloadable brochures, and landing pages are valuable resources your sales team can send to potential customers. This is especially effective for establishing credibility with warm leads.

But, let’s take that up a notch. Combining your marketing elements with automation tools like Hubspot or Sharpspring will help you increase that reach exponentially.

Marketing automation tools send emails, marketing materials, ads, and other sales messages based on specific actions by your prospective customer. They also allow your salesperson to manage the entire customer relationship with alerts, follow-up tasks, and lead-scoring.

In other words, you’ve just given your sales team the knowledge and ability to reach 10x as many customers with everything they need to close the deal.

Business Marketing Challenge

Creating and maintaining a marketing strategy will help you achieve goals, win new customers, and increase your sales. But only if it’s effective marketing that clearly communicates your benefit to your customer base in the world they already live in.

Take stock of your current marketing strategy and outline a few areas that you might improve on in the next six months.

Need help with your marketing strategy?

Escape Plan specializes in marketing privately-held manufacturers, regional service providers, and B2B professional services. Let’s talk about a plan to grow your business today.

Escape Plan Marketing