Sustainability should be a key priority for every business. Outstanding growth can only occur when businesses plan, develop and manage their operations strategically. Utilizing the 5 Disciplines of Exponential Growth ensures predictability – essential in achieving sustainability goals.”

This discipline of Business Development focuses on marketing, sales, and customer service to create processes that lead to predictability. Here we will talk about marketing. 

Marketing is getting the right message to the right people via the right media and methods. It makes reaching your customer predictable. Marketing consists of two principal activities: education and communication. Marketing tells our customers why we’re different, and why we’re worth their time. 

A company’s marketing plan outlines who the core customer is, why you are different from the competition, and how often you will get your message in front of our core customers. Everyone in the company, not just the marketing team, should be able to understand your message and repeat it. 

Here are the success factors for a great marketing plan: 

• It’s documented.
• It shows a return on investment, or ROI, for the dollars spent.
• It describes the core customers in detail.
• It explains how the company solves the core customer’s needs, answering, “Why us?”
• It outlines how the company will get its message in front of the core customer.
• It’s action-oriented.
• It includes a timeline of action.
• It highlights why the company differs from the competition.
• It includes measurable outcomes for gauging success.
• And it contains budgets for all activities.

You may already describe your core customer using dry demographic facts such as age, marital status, gender, race, ethnic origin, education, household size, and occupation. But we think you should also focus on psychographics. Psychographics is information such as buying behaviors, hobbies, spending habits, and values. 

Demographics explain who your buyer is. 

Psychographics explains why they buy.

So, what makes your company special? You have to choose and define how you are different from everyone else. You must define the promises that you’re making to the customer. Those promises must be different than what your competitors promise. Some call this a brand promise, while others call it a unique selling proposition. It must be unique to you AND it must add benefit to the customer. 

When you are clear on your marketing behaviors and understand your customer’s buying behaviors, you create marketing predictability. If you knew every time you spent $1,000 that you’d win three customers who would spend at least $1,000 , you would likely put all of your money into that marketing. That is marketing predictability.

Marketing is vital for any business that wants to thrive. By understanding your customer, you can create a plan that will allow you to reach them through the most effective means possible. This in turn will help increase sales and grow your business. If you want to learn more about how to create predictability in marketing, please contact us today. We would be happy to discuss your specific needs and help you take your business to the next level.