This week I have discovered that there is definitely something about the North Sea air that really clears your thoughts. I assume it’s the cold wind that hangs around even on a lovely sunny day. I am sat writing this during our summer holiday to the Scottish Island of Islay, a very peaceful and beautiful place indeed. We have just had a picnic and as you can see from the picture, I am ready for the Scottish summer. This means that my family can run around and enjoy the rock pools whilst I stay warm enough.
This brings me to the point of the Blog today which is all about diversifying and working with the conditions you are faced with. We all have a favourite marketing strategy which we tend to believe works for us. For some people it’s e-mail marketing, for others it’s Blogging and for quite a number of SME owners it’s repeat business and referrals. Fundamentally, there is nothing wrong with this. If you have been in business for sometime you must be doing something right.
Having said that, I believe you need to consider two important elements besides whatever it is that you think is working for you:
- Market circumstances do change and being able to foresee this in advance can help you prepare and diversify to ensure you are ready for the new situation.
- Measuring your results is very important as there is often a big difference between what you think a tactic is generating and what you actually get.
Just in case you haven’t considered the above before, here are a few things you can do going forward:
- Changes to the market: None of us have a crystal ball but we can still react to change and create a plan B using a variety of tools such as:
- Developing possible scenarios and analysing how they might affect both growth and business retention
- Identifying some low-hanging fruit which are relatively straight forward opportunities you can capitalise on
- Considering new products or services
- Considering new markets to tap into
- Increasing your reach in your existing market
- Measuring your results: This is never an exact science but its is important nonetheless. Here are a few things you might want to consider:
- Get to know how to use Google Analytics better
- Learn how to use digital analytic tools for your Social Media activity
- Make sure you and your team are using a CRM system to record any sales activity
- Run some surveys with existing clients
- Ensure you always ask new people where they heard of you
These are very broad ideas and I am sure that you and your team can come out with much more specific strategies. When you have, we will be very happy to support you in taking your new ideas to market. Click here to get in touch.