Creating a marketing plan that works for your small business

All businesses, no matter their size, should have a marketing plan. It’s just as important as your business plan. Both should clearly explain what you want to achieve—and how you’ll get there. Without a clear idea of how to reach new customers, or how to make sure they can find you, it will be hard to grow. Claire Turner, Marketing Manager at Business Growth Advisory Elephants Child, shares some practical tips to help you write or update your marketing strategy.

What’s your goal?

A good business plan helps you understand where your business is heading. That will guide the kind of marketing you need to support your growth.

Start by being clear on:

• What your business offers
• What problems you solve for your customers
• How you're different from your competitors.

Ask your team what questions customers ask them—and make sure you incorporate the answers into your marketing content. Test your messaging with current customers or trusted contacts. Does it make sense? Does it sell you well?

Once you’re clear on your offer, set simple goals. For example:

• Get 20 new enquiries next month
• Gain 100 newsletter sign-ups
• Attract 50 attendees to your next event.

Where are your customers? What do they respond to?

You don’t need to market to everyone. If you’re selling dog food and your marketing reaches a million people but none of them own dogs, you aren’t going to sell much dog food. Focus on the people most likely to buy from you.

If you already have customers, ask them:

• How did they find you?
• What platforms do they use (online or offline)?

Choose the right channels based on your audience. That could be email, social media, print, events, or networking.

At Elephants Child, we focus on LinkedIn, as it's the best match for our client base. We also work with partners and networks to expand our reach.

Check your competitors too. What channels do they use? What content gets the most engagement? Do they attend events or organise their own? 
People like to buy from people so use personal LinkedIn profiles as well as company pages. Content shared by individuals is favoured by algorithms and so tends to perform better.

Push and pull marketing

Push marketing means actively pushing your message to people—perhaps via social media ads or email campaigns. You don’t need a big budget to start, and social media marketing in particular allows you to really define your target audience for your content.

Pull marketing is about ensuring people find you. Make sure your website is optimised so that it shows up when people search for your product or service. Make it easy for happy customers to recommend you—on LinkedIn, in person, or by sharing a link or flyer. Keep your website and business details up to date to give the best impression when people are pulled to you.

Are you measuring success?

Make sure you track what’s working. Digital tools give you useful data—like email open rates, social media engagement, enquiries, and sales. But not all customer journeys are simple.

Some people buy right away, sweets positioned at a supermarket checkout are a classic example of this. Others follow you for months and hear from you or about you from multiple sources before getting in touch. That doesn’t mean your marketing isn’t working—it might just take time.

Always ask new customers:

• How did you hear about us?
• What made you reach out now?

These answers can guide your future marketing.

When should you update your marketing plan?

You don’t need to check your stats every day. But do set aside time regularly - perhaps once a quarter depending on the size of your business - to review what’s working.

Update your plan when:

• You launch a new product or service
• Your business changes direction
• Something isn’t working anymore

Share your marketing goals with your team. Involve them - it will help everyone support your efforts and stay on message.

At Elephants Child, when we work on business growth plans with clients, marketing is often the weakest area. But with a focused, consistent approach, your marketing can drive real results - and help your business grow.

Ready to take your business to the next level?

If you're looking for expert financial advice to complement your marketing strategy and help your business thrive, we're here to support you. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your business approach, we help to empower business owners like you to achieve your goals.

Learn more about our financial advice for businesses and owners and discover how we can help you create a solid foundation for success!

The services provided by these specialists are separate and distinct to the services carried out by St. James's Place and include advice on how to grow your business and prepare your business for sale.

Where the opinions of third parties are offered, these may not necessarily reflect those of St. James's Place.