Many SMEs are too busy with their day-to-day work to get involved in marketing, but today, marketing is becoming more important even for SMEs. There are even hundreds of marketing courses created by so called experts in respective social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok or Instagram.
So, when a small business practices marketing, it generally follows the following process.
1. Research and analysis
First, you need to do market research and understand where your company stands. Find out where your company stands by examining the needs of your customers and the products of your competitors in the market.
After that, we will identify the strengths and weaknesses of your company’s products and services, clarify the points that can be differentiated from competitors, and decide the direction of your marketing strategy.
2. Segmentation
Since there are various customers in the market, it is not realistic to approach all customers. Therefore, it is necessary to perform “segmentation” to classify customers existing in the market according to specific conditions. Segmentation can be classified by various conditions such as age, gender, interests, family structure, and personality.
3. Targeting
After segmentation is completed, “targeting” is performed to determine which segment the company will approach from among the identified segments. If the targeting is off and you don’t use correct free digital marketing tools, you will approach customers who do not want your products and services, and there is a possibility that sufficient results will not be achieved in terms of marketing man-hours, so it is important to select carefully is.
4. Positioning
Once targeting is done, it’s time to position. Positioning refers to establishing your position in the market by differentiating yourself from your competitors.
SMEs often do not have a high degree of recognition, so it can be said that the success of positioning is determined by whether or not you can convey the merits to customers by pushing out your uniqueness and superiority over other companies.
5. Marketing mix
After positioning is complete, we will carry out specific marketing activities. There are various methods of marketing, but one of the representative ways of thinking is the “marketing mix”.
In the marketing mix, it is necessary to comprehensively consider these four elements and decide on measures while looking back at “whether or not your company’s marketing strategy is attractive.”
Summary
In recent years, it can be said that the importance of marketing has increased even among small and medium-sized enterprises, but there are still a limited number of companies that recognize its importance. It is important to actively engage in marketing and promote the growth of your company while dealing with budget and personnel shortages.
In addition to the introduction of IT technology, there are marketing methods that can be started with a relatively low budget, such as improving skills and reviewing the organizational structure. We recommend that you start working on marketing little by little while identifying the effective method for your company.
