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How to create a marketing plan for your small business - build a brand, target customers and set prices that will maximise sales.

The internet has transformed business marketing. No matter what you do, the internet is likely to be at the heart of your marketing strategy.

Social media is firmly established as a marketing tool. Having a presence opens up new lines of communication with existing and potential customers.

Good advertising puts the right marketing message in front of the right people at the right time, raising awareness of your business.

Customer care is at the heart of all successful companies. It can help you develop customer loyalty and improve relationships with your customers.

Sales bring in the money that enables your business to survive and grow. Your sales strategy will be driven by your sales objectives.

Market research exists to guide your business decisions by giving you insight into your market, competitors, products, marketing and your customers.

Exhibitions and events are valuable for businesses because they allow face-to-face communication and offer opportunities for networking.

What every beginner needs to know about database marketing

In order to personalise digital marketing and email marketing messages, many marketers use lists or databases of customer and prospect information, otherwise known as a marketing database.

With a good database marketing strategy, it should be possible for any small business to increase sales, determine priority accounts, and optimise marketing spend.

Simply having access to customer data isn't enough in this digital age. Have you ever opened an email from a company only to see your name spelt incorrectly or not present at all?

These kinds of marketing mistakes happen all the time, and they're often caused by marketing data that is incorrectly stored. It doesn't matter to the customer - they just see that the company doesn't value their business enough to get their name right.

In recent years, top marketers have become increasingly reliant on marketing data to guide their marketing decisions. By providing more value to buyers, marketers can increase sales.

Managing business databases

Business databases are used by companies who sell directly to other companies (B2B). Since there are usually only a few really pertinent data points in a business database, the amount of data tends to be smaller.

Typical B2B business databases include:

  • the name of the company
  • the names of company executives and their titles
  • the size of the company/number of employees
  • total revenue estimated
  • SIC and NAIC codes

The approach is particularly useful in account-based marketing (ABM), which uses a targeted approach to attract a limited number of valuable customers. An organisation may target just a small number of high-value prospects rather than spending the time and resources on casting a wider net and monitoring each potential customer through the sales cycle.

A database is an investment

To generate B2B sales, you'll need the right data to identify which accounts to pursue.

The best way for any marketer to find their most valuable prospects is by purchasing a database from a reputable provider. A reputable provider will be happy for you to check you are investing in the right database by providing small samples of the list first.

Create buyer personas

Who is your best existing customer? What are their main challenges and how has your businesses solved these issues for them in the past? How do you find more people like them?

The objective of database marketing is to identify a target audience, made up of individuals who are similar to your ideal customer and then target them directly.

Create buyer segments

Establish different "audiences" for your digital marketing strategy based on different demographics, preferences, and purchasing patterns. In this way, you can offer those on your customer database more of what they want and less of what won't interest them.

Capture attention

The key to brand awareness is to act quickly: as soon as you have the data organised and ready to run, you should begin generating leads.

Customer attention is limited. Using your data as a guide, marketing automation tools help group, target, and implement your marketing campaigns. It will be easier to launch and more likely to make an impact on the customer if the process is automated.

Get feedback

To create something people want, you must talk to them. Any successful brand has a tight communication loop with its customers. The information you have about your customers makes this easier to do since you can easily target surveys and chats to specific groups of people.

Purchasing a comprehensive, up-to-date and high-quality B2B list from a reputable company such as More Than Words can save you time and help you move forward more quickly.

Copyright 2023. Featured post made possible by More Than Words Marketing Limited.

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