How to Develop a Marketing Strategy for your Business in 2017?

Let’s start with analyzing the time we’re living in. Today is the perfect time to start any kind of business. Time before us was very slow and future will be very fast. That’s why today is the perfect time to live in and to start working on anything. Really, anything.

When you start a business, you have to sell something, whether it is your product, your service, and even yourself. To be able to do that, you will need a middleman, someone to show the thing you are selling to people who are the most likely to buy it. Get where I’m going with this? Everybody needs Marketing.

And what is Marketing today? Marketing today is the 4th utility. Think about it. We have electricity, water, sewerage and communication! Marketing became bigger than any man, woman, agency or company.

If you look at the example with which I started this article, you’ll see that everybody needs Marketing. But not any Marketing! Marketing today must be able to find your ideal customer at the right place, in the right time, with a right mindset to buy. Sounds easy?

Not at all!

Marketing today is about Culture, Coding and Creativity. It’s a combination of these three. But above all, it’s personal. Very, very personal. No matter if you are in B2B or B2C business, you are targeting real people. Behind every page, behind every profile, behind every company are people.

When you are thinking about your Target Audience, you have to imagine a person, with emotions, feeling, interests, financial status, to know what that person likes/dislikes, where does that person go daily, what does the person do for living and so on. It’s a science, trust me.

But when you figure out all of that, you can easily find the right voice for your Brand, since you know who is the person you are selling to.

Now, when you know the basics, you can start writing down your Goals and your Strategy. You need to know how are you going to achieve goals you have set. Let’s go a bit deeper into this. Determing which Social Media you are going to use is very important.

You should have a presence on all important Social Media, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, but you have to choose carefully which channels will be the main for your business, depending on what you are selling.

But don’t make the most common mistake people are making — do not post the same Content on each platform. Each Social Media has a Community which is communicating in a certain way that separates it from other Social Media. Have that in mind!

Besides Social Media, linkbuilding is extremely important. Platforms like Quora and Reddit are bringing lots of traffic to websites, and, besides that, you are positioning yourself as the expert in topics which are important for your business. Sounds perfect, rights?

But besides all of it, you should focus on creating the everlasting content, which will be relevant today, in a year and 3 years from now.

Don’t try to be perfect. Today it’s more important to put out more content, quality content, but don’t try to make each piece of content perfect. It’s not possible. Try to follow your path with content daily — articles, videos, pictures, cinemagraphs, content from behind the scenes. Be diverse. People will appreciate your openness and your honesty.

Choose the right tune of voice for your brand while explaining your story

Let me tell you a story about what I just wrote. It’s a love story, but at the same time it isn’t. You decide.

When I was a kid, in the kinder garden, I met a girl. She was perfect, with ponytail, socks like Pippi Longstockings and a huge smile which was melting my heart on daily basis. Perfect. Instantly, I decided I’m gonna tell her that I like her. Immediately. Tomorrow. But, tomorrow happened to be her birthday.

When I came to kindergarten, there were all kids, there were her family — dad, mom, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, ount and there was her. She invites all of us, one by one, to give us a piece of her birthday cake. When she called my name, I stepped out.

This was the moment, I had to tell her how I feel.

“Hey, Nemanja, this is for you.”

“Thank you! Happy birthday! Btw, I like you a lot!”

Wow, you know how in movies everybody stop talking in these moments? Yup, that happened.

What do you think she did? Hm? Any thought?

Ok, let me tell you. She screamed and ran away with saying: ”I don’t like you!” No need to say that I was crushed. I was sad, lonely, but in a way, I was happy. Why? I tried, at least.

Soon, she moved away from the country with her parents. Years went by and it was the first day on my University. I was going to the fair with my friends to celebrate and they told me they are bringing a friend, a girl, who just came back to the country and enrolled in our University. It was her, yes. You guessed well. And she was just perfect! Oh boy!

I instantly arranged everything with my friends, and we were sitting together on ballerina. We catch up, she remembered me, and I had to tell her that I still like her. Damn! What do you think she told me? Any lucky guess?

She had a boyfriend. This sucks! Anyway, we were in the same group at the University and we became really good friends. Best friends even, if I can say so. She was telling me everything, and one day she told me that she broke up with her boyfriend. Imagine me jumping around in my thoughts and playing cool in from of her. 🙂

Our whole crew went to have fun near the river, we were riding in little boats for 2, and you know how it goes, I organized everything and we were together, alone, on the river, in a boat. Can it be better? Hardly. So what do you think I did?

I know this will disappoint you, but I did NOTHING. Why is that? I’ve been waiting for that moment for almost 20 years. 20 years! Thinking about it, creating perfect situations, but it took soooo much time. Imagine thinking about anything, really, anything for 20 years?

When the situation happened, I just felt like — what’s the point? It ain’t the same anymore. When I was a kid, I immediately took action. I didn’t think much, I rather listened to my instinct, my inner voice. When I got older, I started to think more. When you think more, you act less.

So, my advice to you is to keep your inner child, don’t let it be forgotten. There won’t be perfect time, there won’t be perfect place, there won’t be perfect content, but if you don’t try, you can make it. That sums it all.

At the end, last but not least important, is the Story. How will you tell the story of your business, about your product, your story? Which part of this article you remember? The story, right? Why?

Because it’s personal, it has a start and the end, I’m telling it from my perspective, and it triggers Emotions. There you go, the real example on what the perfect story needs to have.

Follow trends. Stay in the loop, but don’t always go with the flow. Best businesses never do, and that is precisely what made them best.

Now be clever. Be fast in your daily routine, but be patient with your long term goals and I truly hope we’ll see each other on the top.

If you need help on the way, I’m always eager to help. You can find me on LinkedIn.

Nemanja Zivkovic, General Manager at Luvo Omega Ltd.

Originally written here.

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