Developing a Marketing Strategy from the Inside —> Out

When you’re attempting to develop a marketing strategy for your business, it’s VERY overwhelming. Squirrel brain, shiny object syndrome, feeling lost, feeling like you need to do all-the-things, not knowing WHAT to do: these are common sentiments heard from small business owners everywhere. A lot of folks start with what they are familiar with - social media, websites, flyers/brochures/business cards, maybe an email newsletter. Then, they get burnt out/jealous/mad from spending all their time/energy/money creating campaigns and not seeing results.

What happened? What went wrong? 

Answer: they created their marketing strategy from the outside → in, instead of from the inside → out. What do I mean when I say the outside vs the inside? See the diagram below. Creating your strategy by first focusing on getting your customer’s attention (attract) or pumping out content (educate) is a sure way to burn yourself out and see little results. But, if you create your strategy from the inside → out, you’ll always be working towards your goals and you’ll feel confident that all of your marketing efforts are working towards sales, growth, and customer retention.

HOW TO CREATE A MARKETING STRATEGY FROM THE INSIDE → OUT 

Step 1: Start with your offer.

What you’re ACTUALLY looking to offer to your potential customers (aka sell them) should be at the root of your strategy. Get really specific about what you’re offering - instead of “marketing services”, opt for a “personalized marketing strategy deck”. Instead of “coffee”, opt for “organic, fair trade, locally sourced, high caffeine coffee”. Getting super specific about WHAT you’re offering will make it that much easier to identify WHO your target audience is and WHAT they’re most interested in.

Step 2: How can you nurture your audience?

What would the people that would actually BUY your offer care about having? You’re going to have folks that are not at the buying phase of their journey yet - it’s just a fact of owning a small business. So how do you plan to keep in contact with them? What can you offer them for free or at a very low cost that will keep your business front of mind for them until they decide to buy? If you’re an online shop, maybe you can offer a version of one of your products for free. If you’re a coffee shop, maybe you can offer free stickers or free samples at an event. If you’re a nonprofit, maybe you can offer free social media graphics about your organizations’ mission. For all of the above businesses, email funnels might make sense as a touchpoint and a way to frequently show up on your audience’s phones/computers. Nurturing your audience and keeping them warmed up to who you are and what you offer will make your business top of their list when they are ready to buy. Be sure that how you nurture DIRECTLY ties back to your offer and makes it super easy for the customer to access what you’re selling.

Step 3: How can you show your audience YOUR value?

What would the people that would take advantage of your freebies/nurturing content NEED in order to be convinced that you’re legit? Here’s a dose of tough love: no one cares about your business until they know how it can help them solve their problem. Maybe that problem is that they’re tired and need some caffeine, maybe it’s that they feel unfulfilled and want to be a part of something greater than themselves, maybe it’s that they need help with marketing :). Your strategy’s job is to educate your customers on what you have to offer and why it’s of value to them. You do this through educational content and peeling back the curtain on the “secret sauce” of your offer. You make it so clearly evident to your customer that they are in the right place, you have all the answers to their problem, and they should stick around. 

Step 4: Attract them.

And now we get to what some people might consider “marketing” - high-level words and visuals meant to attract your audience to everything else mentioned above. Maybe that’s social media content, videos, billboards, paid ads; define a few platforms and post content that makes people interested in learning more. This will put people into your “funnel” aka steps 1-3. 

Do not develop your marketing strategy from the outside → in. Develop it from the inside → out. This way, you’ll always be working towards your goals, you won’t waste your time on things that don’t matter, and you’re always speaking directly to your audience.