Winter is nearly over. The Olympics has ended and we’re heading towards 2025 as fast as Tom Cruise left Paris with the IOC flag.
No doubt there’s a lot going on for your business right now. The economy remains uncertain, and there are many unresolved challenges for small business owners.
It is important, however, not to underestimate the critical value of planning ahead. After all, having a clearly defined plan with an achievable marketing strategy is a lot like a road map; it gives you a carefully considered path that leads towards your ultimate business goal, whatever that might happen to be.
Perhaps you’re looking to establish or refresh your brand positioning? Determine the true value your business offers? Or better understand your market, competitors and customers? These are some of the most essential pieces of successful business planning. Yet they’re also some of the most overlooked.
Separating today from tomorrow
When you’re so entwined in the everyday running of your business and managing the inevitable spot fires, it can be hugely difficult to see the way forward. In fact, when things get busy it can be a struggle to even see the way to the next working day! But it really is essential to be thinking ahead.
Doing so requires taking a step back from the day-to-day operations of your business. Or, perhaps more realistically, finding someone else who can do it on your behalf. Engaging a trusted third party can be a highly effective way to drive successful marketing outcomes as it typically ensures greater impartiality, less emotional attachment and a far wider experience base drawn from many different businesses, brands and industries over many years.
Specialist marketing expertise to drive your business forward
Just as you engage specialist professional services for other aspects of your business, independent marketing expertise can be critical to your success – especially if you don’t have the resources in house.
Having a strong and clear strategic direction can help you generate greater brand visibility, drive sales, identify new customers and retain the team you need to enjoy a sustainable future. Trouble is, due to financial constraints many small business owners opt to take on marketing and strategy tasks themselves. Whilst this makes sense in theory, the reality is usually very different. In addition to stretching their already scarce time resources to breaking point, it can significantly slow – and even undermine – the success of their marketing initiatives. These challenges are magnified even further if marketing isn’t your core area of expertise in the first place, a common problem for many business leaders.
So, what are your alternatives?
If your budget allows, it’s worth considering employing a dedicated and full-time marketing manager who is always on-hand to lead your marketing strategy and the implementation of your programs. If that’s not realistic, an increasingly popular option is to engage part-time senior marketing professionals to bring expertise in-house.
The advantages of this approach are three-fold. Firstly, you only pay for what you need when you need it. Secondly, an external marketing professional could provide you with access to a breadth of marketing expertise, as well as a proven network of suppliers and their collective experiences. Finally, working with an external partner who has all the right credentials can help you get things done quickly, instead of them staying in your ‘too hard’ or ‘not enough time’ baskets.
In short, it’s a simpler and smarter way to execute the key marketing strategies and initiatives you need to flourish as a business, when you simply don’t have the time, resources, or skillsets to manage them effectively in-house.
If you haven’t started planning for 2025 yet and have some critical business challenges to solve, we’d be happy to discuss it over a coffee. Who knows what the future might hold with the right marketing partner by your side?
Written by SBAA Member and Clan Chief of The Marketing Clan, Jamie McAinsh
