Attracting new business while maintaining your loyal customer base can often be tricky but, as Intergage explains, going back to basics and implementing a sound marketing strategy is vital.
For manufacturers, market share is key. When When you execute a marketing strategy which truly market share is gained, businesses can grow, understands the needs of your customers, you’ll find that even during the most challenging trading they are far more willing to pay a premium price for your periods. However, those not willing to disrupt service. After all, who else understands them like you do? the market will find themselves disrupted or, even worse, completely displaced. Boosting market share comes down to one thing: winning more customers with a solid marketing strategy.
The Intergage Marketing In Manufacturing Survey recently revealed that 63% of manufacturing businesses consider marketing a high priority. That said, the CMI report discovered that only 41% of the same industry have a documented marketing strategy in place. This puts businesses with a marketing strategy at a huge competitive advantage.
Standing out from the crowd
In a saturated marketplace, being distinguishable from competitors is key to winning that all-important market share. Contrary to popular belief, being distinguishable has nothing to do with price. In fact, being the ‘cheapest’ is a very dangerous game. Reduced prices can lead to reduced profitability. Often, this is where businesses find themselves in the ‘red ocean’; just one of many businesses which all look the same, fishing in the same part of the market, using similar techniques to attract customers. It’s difficult and expensive to attract new business and it’s often a struggle to retain customer loyalty.
Businesses that use their marketing strategy as an opportunity to be different will find themselves in the tranquil ‘blue ocean’. Their marketing strategy helps them to know their target audience inside out, meaning their products and services can be moulded to the perfect fit.
When you execute a marketing strategy which truly understands the needs of your customers, you’ll find that they are far more willing to pay a premium price for your service. After all, who else understands them like you do?
Developing your strategy: back to basics
To develop a competitive strategy, manufacturers really need to focus on four pivotal points of their business, including:
- defining business goals;
- researching the landscape;
- understanding their audience; and
- knowing what makes them different.
When it comes to defining business goals, it’s best to go back to basics. That means understanding what your business stands for and where you want it to go. You also need to understand what success looks like to you. Most companies link success to business growth – but does that mean increasing profitability? Does it mean improving customer retention? How about increasing new business sales?
Understanding your landscape
Carrying out market research is one of the most crucial parts of a successful marketing strategy. You need to understand in detail how saturated the market is, and which external factors will have an effect on your ability to meet your all- important objectives.
You also need to have a handle on what the competitive landscape is like. On average, you will lose 22% of the sales opportunities you are currently working on to a competitor. The only thing worse than that is when you don’t pick up the opportunity in the first place – you’re losing 100% of those. You need to know where your competition is advertising, how you compare to them in search engines and where the opportunities lie.
Keep your friends close, but your customers closer
Without a thorough understanding of who your target customers are, the challenges they face and what their main buying triggers are you have no hope of creating a successful strategy. Getting this right is what will really allow you to demand a higher price for your products and services.
To succeed, you need to invest in detailed buyer personas so you know where you should be advertising, the content you need to create and how you should approach your target market.
Now you have defined business goals and fully understand your audience and the wider landscape, you should naturally be able to identify a differentiation. Without this, your target customers have no choice but to compare you to similar businesses on price – and we all know where that leads!
Between 50-90% of SMEs don’t have a marketing strategy or fail to execute the one they do have. By following these steps, industrial businesses will be able to overtake those that fall into the ‘no strategy’ category. There’s never been a better time to overtake the competition by investing in a competitive strategy. Now is the time to be brave, bold and seize that opportunity for boosted business growth.
For your FREE Digital Marketing Competitor Report (valid until 1 July 2021) please visit Intergage.
Images courtesy of Intergage
