Marketing is often overlooked when it comes to business strategy coaching; it’s easy to focus on business growth and only focus on operations or sales. But, marketing is vital for business success otherwise how can you be visible to your potential customers? If your brand isn’t reaching your target audience, you can’t expect to grow and develop as an organisation as you’ll be relying on potluck.

In this Knowledge Hub article, we’ll be exploring what coaching can do for your marketing strategy. A business coach will have the expertise and experience, guiding you through any obstacles you face when it comes to effectively advertising your organisation.

What does business strategy coaching mean?

A business strategy coach will focus on all elements of your organisation, they’ll look to identify how they can help you transform and unlock the full potential of your company. This could mean you streamline existing processes or develop new lead opportunities. But, it could also mean building a new marketing strategy that sees your company propelled into the limelight – this strategy will depend on your brand’s goals and priorities.

However, even if your goals are not centred around business growth, developing a marketing strategy with your coach is still crucial to your continued success. Without a marketing plan, you can not expect to thrive in such a competitive market.

What does marketing comprise of?

Many business owners dread hearing the term ‘marketing’ – it’s often considered a waste of valuable time and money. And, it can be if you are utilising the right channels to reach your target audience. However, it is marketing is one of the most effective tools for a brand and should certainly be a priority. But, what does advertising actually comprise of in the 21st century?

There are a lot of different routes to go down with marketing; the right approach for you will be unique to your business but essentially, the focus should be on where your target audience is looking. This is the key to growing your business successfully, think: where do my buyers shop? If you are unsure, it’s time to do some research and find out.

There are two main categories for marketing, business strategy coaching may see you concentrate on just one or both. These are digital and traditional – as you can guess from the names, one draws upon modern techniques that are mainly thanks to technology advancements and the other utilises offline resources. So, what is digital marketing? Examples include:

• Email campaigns
• Social media
• Search engine optimisation
• Content marketing

In opposition, traditional examples include:

• Pop-up events
• Magazines
• Word-of-mouth
• Television

Anywhere you can promote or advertise your business will fall under one of these two categories, and the more awareness you can create via these tools, the more likely you are to attract your ideal buyer.

How does business strategy coaching work with marketing?

We know a business coach will work with you to develop a strategy to propel you towards your goals. The best coaches will have excellent expertise and experience to understand how to develop a company, and they’ll understand what marketing tools, therefore, could be most successful for you. Their focus will be on following the three main pillars of any marketing strategy to develop an effective plan:

#1 User-journey

The user journey is a customer’s encounter and interaction with your brand across all channels – you may also know them as touchpoints. They shape the emotions and perceptions of the prospective customer in regards to your business. This journey typically starts from the awareness stage and ends at the purchase or loyalty stage:

1. Awareness: The customer becomes aware of the brand.
2. Consideration: The customers needs to evaluate their decision and consider other brands before making their final choice, confirming their interest.
3. Purchase: The customer desires the service or product and is ready to make a purchase.
4. Loyalty: The customer refers the brand to others in their circle.

A customer typically interacts with your content across various channels before either visiting you in-store or searching for your website. The goal of your marketing is to encourage conversion, you want specific call-to-actions and multiple touchpoints to build a relationship with the user.

#2 Marketing channels

A marketing channel is a resource organisations utilise to communicate or deliver a specific message to a consumer. They act as avenues to conversion, providing potential customers with the information they need to make a decision such as what your business does and what it has to offer.

Before investing in a specific channel, it’s important you research what ROI it will provide you – this may be through online analytical services or readership statistics. You can then allocate your budget accordingly, ensuring you spend wisely. Sometimes, as part of your business strategy coaching, you may trial new routes to measure how effective these alternative approaches are. Coaches are there to challenge you and offer new suggestions – some may stick and some will prove to not be appropriate for you.

Remember, if you choose to use multiple channels, whether these be digital, traditional or a mixture of the two, you need to be consistent with your messaging and branding.

Using a mixture of marketing strategies is actually recommended; for example, you may launch a pop-up event, advertise this with a Facebook campaign, provide brochures when clients come to the event and collect emails to utilise after the show. The marketing channels you choose will be influenced by several factors including:

• Marketing objectives: Are your goals to increase brand awareness or encourage purchase?
• Marketing Budget: Do you have a sufficient budget to span your marketing campaigns across multiple digital channels?
• Manpower: Does your marketing team have the necessary knowledge and skills to manage multiple campaigns and digital agencies?
• Customers: Which platforms are your customers on? What are your customer touch points?

These are just a few of the factors you need to consider with your business coach, particularly if you are a start-up and limited on budget, you’ll want to spend your profits wisely. So, these key questions will help to put your mind at ease and ensure your marketing efforts will be most effective, directly focusing on the right buyer that most importantly, will convert.

Remember to prioritise your ideal customer first before trialling and reaching out to new markets; whilst there may be an opportunity to corner a new niche, it’s vital you have a stable and secure foundation before experimenting.

#3 Content

As you may have guessed, content is the visual graphics, text and videos that customers interact with. It evokes some kind of thought or feeling and promotes a reaction – i.e. a sale. This may come in the form of ad banners, blogs or articles or infographics to name just a few.

Again, the one you choose will be determined by your buyer persona and what they prefer to digest content-wise. But, this should align with your brand – a law firm is likely to not use bright, neon graphics to attract their desired client!

When working with a business coach, they’ll aid you with this decision by asking in-depth questions to understand your goals and what your brand actually is – identifying your USP and how you should be marketing this to your target audience. In addition, they’ll know the very best tool to measure and monitor what is working and what could be improved as you explore new tactics to take your business to the next level. Of course, you need to take the action and implement the changes yourself to create long-lasting results. But, you’ll learn what to look out for and have support and guidance behind you to make confident, successful decisions.

The key is to funnel your desired consumer down the path to a sale, your focus should always be ensuring your product or service is there when they are looking for it. Otherwise, you leave the door open for your competitors to swoop in and take away valuable business. Coaches have the expertise and experience you need to ensure this doesn’t happen – they’ll be able to identify areas you may have not even considered and will have the knowledge to implement new methods.

Are you looking for a business coach to help you with your marketing strategy? It’s crucial you work with an experienced coach that can ensure your organisation remains visible in the ever-changing and developing market, utilising proven methods alongside innovation. Contact me at graham@grahamgarman.com or complete this contact form, and reach your business’s full potential now through a new marketing strategy.