Understanding the fundamentals of marketing is key to success in the marketplace. Oftentimes, we get caught up in the glamour of growing our Instagram followers, when in reality, what we really need to focus on are the basics. This is especially vital for woman-owned small businesses. To make sure you’re building your marketing strategy on a strong foundation, here are five marketing fundamentals to make your business successful.

Fundamentals of Marketing

•  Know Your Audience

This might sound like an obvious one, but a lot of founders overlook this. The first step in digital marketing for beginners is to know your audience and how to reach them. Your audience determines how you build your strategy, approach your branding and go-to-market strategy,, and impacts business decisions. This includes how to choose the best platforms to drive your online presence. If you’re not sure on where to start to understand your unique audience, we created this template to help you get started! This marketing guide will help you understand how to find  your target audience, understand their needs and wants, consumption of media, and how to appeal to them. Once you know your target market, you’re set to go to the next fundamental for developing your business identity.

• Develop a Great Brand

Your brand represents everything about your company, and at the end of the day, your brand is the reason customers will buy from you again and again. To help you stand out among the competition, your brand  needs to be able to cut through the clutter to capture your audience’s attention. You can do this with your logo, website, marketing campaigns, content strategy, customer service, social media presence, and so on. Your company’s personality and values are unique to you, and they must appeal to your targeted personas and speak directly to their needs. Use our ultimate brand identity template to help you create the right brand to represent your business and speak directly to your customer. 

Advantages of Consistent Marketing

• Understand your Unique Selling Points (USPs)

At the end of the day, what makes a business successful isn’t your fancy Instagram grid or your website, it’s how you fill a need that is not being met. What do you offer that’s different or unique that makes you stand out from competitors? How are you filling a need, or serving a customer base, in your special way? Lean into what you know you’re gifted at to create a business that you’ll love. It is fundamental to capitalize on your customers’ needs by giving them the best products or services. Highlight your strengths in your branding, clearly communicating what you offer and how it benefits your target audience. Understanding exactly what problem your business solves and then focusing on a specific solution in everything you do will give you the best chance of finding a niche to win.  

•  Have a Great Social Media Strategy

Another marketing fundamental is developing a strategy with social media. Again, we know this seems obvious, but social media is about curating relationships at scale. You can have a very successful business and not have a huge social media following. The goal is to create an engaged following of potential customers who are intentional about their online reactions with you. Oftentimes, less IS more with social media. Digital marketing and social media is a great way to build loyalty with your customers so that they feel like they’re part of your company. As a woman-owned business, you have the unique opportunity to strengthen customer loyalty through a sense of community, this is done really well via social media. By having a detailed and specific social media strategy, this will result in growth by repeating strategies on a recurring basis that continue to work for you. 

How Digital Marketing Changes Growth

• Consistent Marketing Consistency is KEY!

One of the biggest challenges for startups and small businesses is consistency. At the end of the day, consistency wins every single time, and the lack of consistency is what hurts a lot of small businesses. To help keep a consistent connection with your audience, it’s important to understand that quality is better than quantity. If you can’t keep up with the algorithm demands of Instagram, then don’t! If you can only post once a week, be honest about your ability to utilize the platform, and create a consistent schedule that you can realistically adhere to. This concept is especially important for email marketing and other forms of content curation (like blogs or podcasts). Don’t feel pressured to post every day, we know this is counterintuitive to what you probably think, but it’s far better to post consistently than sporadically. Posting sporadically confuses your audience and overtime, hurts the trust you could be building with them by being consistent. 

With our team here at Sohuis, we’re here to arm you with all of the marketing tools and resources you need to really be successful. Marketing is overwhelming and stressful for most female entrepreneurs and small businesses, we are here to teach you the fundamentals so that you can build your brand with confidence. Ready to dive into what we’ve got going on at Sohuis? Check out our latest masterclasses, and join as a member to access our amazing member benefits!