Whatever kind of consulting business you run, of course, you have to keep looking for ways to attract consumers, right? Well, in this case, the right online marketing strategy is the solution you need.
In this article, we will discuss what a marketing strategy is, its functions, benefits and steps for implementation.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s see more!
WHAT IS A MARKETING STRATEGY?
A marketing strategy is a series of plans that a consulting business builds to reach potential markets and convert them into clients. Generally, marketing plans are made to dominate the market and achieve long-term profits.
You can’t just market your services to everyone. Because you need the right marketing strategy to be able to attract as many potential customers as possible.
Apart from getting you to the right customers, marketing strategies can also facilitate your coordination with the team. Because team members can understand the direction of business marketing goals more easily.
There are many types of marketing strategies themselves, and what we will discuss in this article is an online marketing strategy.
WHAT ARE THE FUNCTIONS OF A MARKETING STRATEGY?
The basic functions of marketing strategy include:
- Accelerate company growth;
- Build a reputation;
- Increase brand awareness;
- Targeting the right market share;
- Ensuring the company maximizes its resources.
After knowing the functions of a marketing strategy, the next is to understand why you should use it. We will discuss this further in the next point.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A MARKETING STRATEGY?
In this digital era, an effective marketing strategy can help you reach your potential customers throughout the world. But the benefits of a marketing strategy are not only that, let’s take a look at some of the other benefits a consulting business can get if it implements the right marketing strategy:
1. Reach More customers
The number of people who have access to the internet is always increasing every year.
According to Napoleoncat.com, of the 140 million people, around 128 million people are connected to Facebook and 60 million people already have Instagram. You can reach hundreds of millions of people through online marketing strategies.
2. Easy to Practice
Maybe online marketing strategies are still foreign to some people. Even though it’s still foreign, it doesn’t mean you can ignore it. Because marketing strategies are easier than you think.
3. Can Target clients More Specifically
Does your consulting Business need wide coverage? You can expand your location coverage throughout the world. Does your business only need location coverage in certain cities or provinces? You can narrow the reach of ad locations so that your target audience is more specific.
You can also set ads to appear on any device. People access search engines through a variety of devices, from desktops to tablets to smartphones. You can set your ad to show on all three devices at once or select just a few of them.
In addition to setting the range of locations and devices, you can also set the time the ads appear. So you can set your ad to show on any day and for any specific period.
You can also set target audience specifications according to the needs of your consulting company.
4. Measurable Results
Another advantage of an online marketing strategy is that it is easy to measure.
For example, when placing ads on platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or Instagram Ads, you can get performance reports on the ads you post.
Starting from how many people you have reached, to how effective the ads you have posted. So you can evaluate your online marketing and improve it in the next strategy.
5. Relatively Minimal Cost
Implementing an online marketing strategy does not mean that it costs nothing at all. However, the costs you spend on online marketing strategies will generate greater revenue than conventional marketing strategies.
Moreover, some online marketing strategies even allow you to invest long-term in promotions. For example, through a blog, you can get stable traffic every month to your website.
The costs for advertising on platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads can also be adjusted according to your consultancy firm’s budget capabilities.
WHAT STEPS DO YOU NEED TO TAKE TO IMPLEMENT YOUR MARKETING STRATEGIES?
1. Perform Market Segmentation
As the name implies, market segmentation is an attempt to divide the market into smaller groups.
The division of this group is based on geographical, demographic, behavioral, and psychographic location.
Market segmentation based on geography is the easiest to do. You can determine market division based on cities and villages, provinces, to islands.
Demographics are related to population dynamics. Demographic segmentation includes gender, age, education level, and others. Segmentation is also relatively easy to do.
On the other hand, behavioral segmentation can be a bit tricky. Because you have to study people’s habits in hiring a consulting service.
The last is psychographic segmentation. This is the most complicated because it is more specific. This segmentation is a development of demographics and behavior. For example, someone who has a high level of income and frequently shops online will certainly like the service that can be hired through the website, even though the price is slightly more expensive.
2. Determine the Target Market (Market Targeting)
After dividing the market according to its segments, the next step in implementing the marketing strategy is to determine the target market.
The target market is a specific segment intended to sell a service.
By understanding the target market, it will be easier to determine the services to sell and the promotional steps to take. Different target markets require different promotional content and ways of communicating.
Not only that, but you can also find out the map of competition with your competitors. Thus, you can calculate whether it is profitable to penetrate certain target markets or not.
3. Market Positioning
Even in a specific target market, you may find stiff competition. This condition will certainly require you to engage in unfavorable price wars.
Therefore, you need to apply a third strategy, namely positioning.
In simple terms, market positioning is a marketing strategy to show that your services are different from the others. One way is to build brand awareness.
Brand awareness can provide several benefits, such as the ease of getting new customers to create loyal customer groups.
Now, after reading this article you may have gotten an idea about what marketing strategy is, its functions and steps to apply it in your consulting firm. So! What are you waiting for? Start implementing your online marketing strategies today to boost your sales.