Sponsored by Kikka Capital:
We’re at the last stretch of 2016, and if you’re as competitive as your competitors, you should already be thinking of ways to gain even more capital for your business and improve all areas to create a strong start for 2017.
The best way to start the year off right is to gather your sales and marketing team for a planning assembly to get everyone aligned and headed in the same direction. Follow the steps below to learn from your past, dream bigger, and create a sensible plan for achieving your goals next year.
Creating your 2017 Sales and Marketing Strategy
Budget and Build Your Capital
Allocating enough resources (money and people) to accomplish your businesses’ goal is essential for the next year. Your marketing budget will depend on how much you have available for investing and how fast you want to see results. If you want to upgrade facilities but don’t have enough finances, you should get capital for your business through banks, or if that isn’t possible, from alternative lenders.
Say you have caviar dreams but only a tuna fish budget; chances are you’ll be disappointed by your lack of results, and your team will feel frustrated by their failure to meet your expectations.
Evaluate and Update Your Ideal Client Profile and Personas
Assess your previous clients and identify the characteristics that make them enjoyable and profitable to work with. Ensure that your ideal client profile and buyer personas are accurate and if not, update them as required to reflect the types of customers who will help you reach your goals.
Document the Buyer’s Journey
After updating your personas, begin documenting each persona’s journey towards becoming a customer. Contacts take a lot of tiny steps along the way to becoming a buyer. Plot out all interaction points your personas will have with your company or content.
Confirm Your Unique Selling Point/s
What makes you different from your competitors? Do you offer extra service or give out freebies? Do you provide great after-sales service? Are your products or services above and beyond your competitors? Talk to some of your clients and find out why they prefer buying from you and what would make them switch to buying from your competitors instead.
Organize Your Marketing Collateral
Ensure that your printed or digital marketing materials are well designed, written to attract your potential clients, and communicate your company’s unique qualities, brands, and services to prospects and current clients. Verify that your copyright dates are updated, that your style guidelines are followed to the letter, and that everyone on the sales team is using the right version.
Update Your Website and Online Marketing
Evaluate your website and social media channels to ensure that they’re properly designed to educate and attract your personas. See if your branding and messaging is consistent and if you’re engaging with the right target audience. Is your content educational and compelling? Utilize paid ads and apps when necessary.
Upgrade Your Facility
You are only as good as the business tools you use. If you have old or inefficient pieces of office machinery, then it may be time to upgrade. Purchase new computers, printers, tables, routers, etc. Even office upholstery can improve work efficiency and lead to more profit for your business!
End Note
There’s a lot of work to do here, and it can be hard to achieve some of this without enough capital for your business. The good thing is that you’re not limited to banks because alternative lenders can give you customized business loans that you can afford. Check them out!
