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.
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.
LinkedIn launched in 2003. Its mission is to "connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful"; and its vision is to "create economic opportunity for every professional".
In December 2016, Microsoft purchased LinkedIn. The companies share a common goal - empowering people and organisations to be more productive. By working together, there is the potential to create a technology platform that will foster office collaboration, sharing and productivity on a whole new scale.
There are many benefits to having a presence on LinkedIn. You can:
To get results from LinkedIn, you need to make the most of your LinkedIn profile. Once your profile is ready, can you start to connect and network.
As a business-to-business (B2B) platform, LinkedIn allows users to create connections and build up a professional network of contacts comprising 1st, 2nd and 3rd-degree connections:
Making and nurturing connections is very easy on LinkedIn. It's not fast-paced, so you can stay up-to-date with your network by checking in for just a few minutes each day.
A Company Page is a place for businesses to include information and post updates about their business. There are two key benefits to having a Company Page.
If you look at a Company Page, you can click to see all of their employees; this is the best way to dig out a contact name before approaching an organisation. Also, when employees link their profile to their employer's Company Page it allows you to find out more about the organisation.
A LinkedIn Company Page should also be a hub for content. Amplification by employees sharing their company's content to their own networks is going to the most effective way to get any messaging in front of clients and prospects.
LinkedIn is also a rich source of news and knowledge. By checking in and scrolling through your newsfeed you can learn more about the people in your network:
what jobs companies are advertising and what news they're sharing.
