10 Killer Strategic Marketing Approaches for Malaysian SMEs

A marketing plan is vital to the success of your business. It gets the word out to the market so that your customers and potential ones know about you.

Filling the funnel

Marketing will get you to great lengths if you have an effective sales funnel. At the end of the day, you still need to generate leads, nurture them and convert them into sales. Even if you do not have a funnel, it is extremely important that you have a plan that can drive visits to your site and enough promotions to influence your visitors to buy from you. That is where your strategic marketing plan comes into play.

Now, over to the list

Without a proper plan, your business will not thrive. You cannot wait until the pipeline dries up to start planning. You need to start immediately.

1. The Vision – Your business must work alongside a vision. This is the ultimate objective as to where you want your business to be in the future. Make a vision for the short, middle and long terms respectively. You need to be detailed about this like: To be the leading home-laundry service in Setia Alam in 5 years.
2. The Brand – You need to establish a goal for your brand as to where would you want your brand to stand in the market? Do you want to be the market leader or do you want to work with partners?
3. The Marketing Fund – You need to work out a certain percentage of your sales (and budget) for marketing. This must be followed-through precisely.
4. The Market Segment – You are not out to sell to just about anyone. In your plan, you need to be specific as to who and where your market segment is. In other words, determine where your niche is.
5. The Promotion – After establishing your market segment, then you need to establish what you are offering. This is because you are now sure who you are talking to.
6. The Platforms – Marketing entails advertising on multiple platforms. Going omnichannel should be your game plan. Be on social media but be at Mamak shop tables too, speaking the same message.
7. The Time – Marketing does not rest. Your marketing plan should be running even at the busiest of times.
8. The Approach – You must not limit yourself to marketing to customers but to business partners, new opportunities and even potential employees. This will affect your marketing messaging.
9. The Market Research – NEVER make assumptions! Carry out proper market research if you want to know where you can reach out.
10. The Aftermath – Your plan must include what happens after your campaign. Tracking processes are essential here so that you know how your campaign performed and where you can improve.