During one of our DMV Note Network meetups, we had marketing strategy expert Terrence Blake of Guru Marketing Inc., join us to speak about marketing yourself as a note investor. Sometimes it can be difficult when note investing is not your full-time business, but yet you are looking for partners and money, whether it be from the bank or private investors. In order to do that, you want your business to look legitimate.
There’s no question that branding is important for businesses, after all your brand, or the unique identity for your business, it is what sets you apart from competitors and helps build trust and credibility with your target audience. Creating a strong brand requires you to plan your messaging, define your target audience and what you want them to think of when they think of your business.
This is why developing a strategy is essential on your roadmap to success, and without one, it’s easy to get lost or sidetracked. Before you can develop a strategy, you need to know:
- What you’re trying to achieve.
- What are your long-term goals?
- What are your short-term goals?
- What are your core values?
- Who is your audience or target market?
- What do you want to communicate to your audience?
Once you have a clear idea, you can start to develop a plan to achieve them.
Understand Your Audience
One of the most important aspects of any business strategy is your target market.
- Who are you trying to reach?
- What needs do they have that your business can address?
- What motivates them?
Knowing your audience is essential to developing a successful marketing strategy. When you know who your target market is, you can develop a strategy that is tailored to their needs.
According to Blake, the main thing he aims to do is start building a visual brand and voice for his clients. This may include a logo, color scheme, and typography. He also sets a tone to use in all your communications, from your website to your social media posts. “You always need to create consistent messaging and it should be reflected throughout all of your marketing products,” said Blake. “All of your communications should reflect your brand identity and core values.”
Research Your Competition
Knowing your competition will help you develop a strategy that gives you a competitive advantage. Who are your competitors and what are they doing that you can do better? What are their strengths and weaknesses? by understanding these things, you will be able to have a leg up on your competition and market yourself in a way that separates you from the norm.
Choose Marketing Platforms
With the wealth of social media platforms, it’s important to choose the right one for your audience. If your audience doesn’t use TikTok then you do not need to develop content for TikTok. By understanding the demographic that each of these social platforms cater to, you will be able to find what platform your audience frequents. For example, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is the most popular social media network for men and women aged 35-44 and the least popular with women aged 16-24, according to Hootsuite. More than 70% of people who use Facebook, also use Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube.
Linkedin is also a powerful tool to connect with peers in your industry, get leads and reach a lot of people at no cost. But Blake warns that you should take advantage of the platform now.
“Take advantage of it before they change the algorithm. Utilize it before they get you to pay for everything because that’s what happened with Instagram and that’s what’s happening with Facebook as well,” said Blake. “It’s incredible to be able to use various tools on LinkedIn right now for B2B and even B2C, depending on where you’re trying to target.”
You can create leads and lists on LinkedIn sales navigator based on people’s industry, their job titles, and how long they’ve been working in a certain industry. You can filter your search to find your specific audience, create lists, and build relationships. Even if it’s one person at a time, it doesn’t matter, because it’s targeted, so it will help get you closer to where you’re trying to go.
Benefits of using social to market your business
Perhaps the most obvious benefit of marketing through social media is that it allows you to create a more personal connection with your potential customers in a cost-effective way. In a world where consumers are bombarded with marketing messages from all sides, it can be difficult to cut through the noise and make a lasting impression.
“People do business with people,” said Blake. “At the end of the day, it’s all about relating to people, and educating them. By doing that you gain their trust, which funnels them to your business and makes them want to follow you and reach out to you.”
By engaging with customers on social media, you can create a relationship of trust and respect that is much more likely to result in a sale. Even if you get two likes on your social media pages, it means people are watching.
Feedback
Finally, social media provides an excellent way to get feedback from your customers. By monitoring what people are saying about your business or industry on social media, you can quickly identify areas where you need to make improvements.
Conclusion
Marketing is essential if you plan on being a legitimate business or want to bring joint venture partners and investors to invest with you. Just put yourself out there, and put your business out there. You may feel vulnerable but the beautiful thing about social media being set up correctly is that you can filter everything. You can block specific things. You’re in control. It’s your world.
View more of Terrence Blake’s marketing tips and tricks on our YouTube channel.
