You Need a Marketing Plan

Very few businesses can succeed (and remain successful) on word of mouth alone, which is why marketing is so important. For small businesses, it is especially important to use your marketing to raise brand awareness and to help you compete against other companies offering similar services. Marketing is essential to growing your business. But where do you begin?

While marketing may seem like a huge—and expensive—task, once you have a plan in place, it becomes much more manageable. A marketing plan is the key to marketing success, and it all starts with establishing a budget.

The key to marketing success is making a plan and sticking with it!

If you want to see growth in your business, you should plan on budgeting at least 10% of your annual sales on marketing. Some businesses will set aside up to 20% of the annual sales for marketing, but 10% is a good amount when you’re just getting started. Once you have a budget in place, you can start setting goals and dates.

In marketing, timing is everything. Early spring is very effective because homeowners make purchasing decisions based on their income flow and cash availability. In the early spring, many homeowners will be getting tax returns back, which frees them up to spend a little extra on things like outdoor lighting.

Deciding what types of marketing you want to pursue is also important.

Although we now live in an age of technology, direct mail is still one of the most effective tools for B2C marketing. According to the Data and Marketing Association, from 2015 to 2016, direct mail customer response rates increased by 43% and customer response rates increased 190%.

Incorporating social media into your marketing is another way to reach thousands of potential customers simply and effectively. One of the reasons social media is such a popular way to market is the ease in which you can interact directly with your customers and target potential new clients.

Video is another effective tool to use on your social media platforms, emails, and website. In a survey of consumers by Animoto, 56% of those surveyed said that if a company has a website, it should have a video. And, in fact, if a company did not have a video, a quarter of those surveyed said they lost interest. Visual content, especially video, should not be overlooked when considering how best to market your services to your customers.

Finally, and this may be the most important thing yet, stick with it. I’ve seen so many lighting professionals start marketing their company and then drop it when they get busy. If you want to see your marketing pay off, don’t stop just because other things pull your attention away. Marketing is too important for you to put it off or quit.

Jim Heim – General Manager