OUR GUIDE TO ENTERPRISE MARKETING
Join us as we discuss the process behind growing your small business or solopreneurship into a brand that’s manageable, scalable, and sustainable through enterprise marketing.
What it is: Defined
Enterprise marketing (EM) is the combination of strategies focused on the growth and expansion of a business, many of which are rooted in the regular practice of enterprise-level businesses. These strategies are intended to expand outside of the marketing department and into the brand’s culture and day-to-day operations. It’s turning your business into something more than just a product or service, but an experience.
Why Do It: The Benefits
Outside of what’s been just mentioned, there are more reasons to employ enterprise marketing strategies. To name a few, EM:
Promotes Scalability
EM creates opportunities for team members to think beyond their spatial limitations within your brand. Decisions made in the marketing process or otherwise made to advance the brand should be, to an extent, shared with non-management staff so they may better embody the changes and motivate differences throughout the brand. Additionally, these implementations are agile and quick to adapt to the ever-changing e-commerce industry. In combining agility with communication(which we will address later), the road to scalability is seemingly paved with fruitful benefits.
Helps Set Intentions for the Business
It’s easy to lose track or sight of a brand’s vision when things get busy, or life finds a way of interrupting things, like in the form of a global pandemic. Use EM to keep your brand on track, and the vision understood from several perspectives as much as possible.
Streamlines Processes
A business requires several processes to ensure sustainability. From payroll, to marketing, to customer service, it takes learning and set practices to keep consistency and make customers happy. Enterprise marketing principles help individuals find ways to better name and detail the processes that keep your business running daily, and how better to communicate these to customers and staff, both present and future.
What We Need: A Plan & Some Tools
Now that we’ve lured you into considering EM for your business, let’s devise a plan.
Your plan should have:
Strategic goals
We spend a lot of time emphasizing the importance of goals in our writings. That’s because we believe that operating with a goal-centric mindset will lead to success. Goals are what keep us on the path forward and remind us why we get up every day and do our job. So, with that, make sure you’ve set goals that are SMART and easily communicated to your staff. These should focus on identifying how you plan to improve processes, updates to digital or print marketing, or communication guides you plan to provide to your customer service needs.
Targeted audiences
The concept of target audiences serves a brand much like bowling alley bumpers serve a novice bowler. These segmented audiences, who each hold their niche characteristics, help us maintain a better understanding of our customer base when we interact with them at checkout when we’re promoting products or simply communicating with them over social media. As a result, staff is better able to serve and promote to each audience in ways that are lasting and impactful.
Consistency
Consistency is probably the #1 key practice to keep around that will carry your brand the furthest down the road to success. It’s what separates the outliers from the general population of brands to choose from as a shopper. Consistency communicates to your audience that you are intentional, confident, and assured in your offerings. This applies to all aspects of your brand.
In implementing the said plan, we recommend implementing these practices along the way.
Consistency communicates to your audience that you are intentional, confident, and assured in your offerings.
WOMM (Word of Mouth Marketing)
Word of Mouth Marketing has worked for businesses for generations. It’s easy for satisfied customers to gush – or riot – about a new product or service in which they’ve recently invested. People trust the word of their loved ones over an advertisement, and will often look to their inner circles for guidance before deciding on a purchase. Stay ahead of the game by finding ways to encourage your customers to speak highly of and spread the word about the goodness of your brand by offering referral discounts or codes, host contests on social media, or other creative means that are easily attainable that provide such incentives. Trendy hashtags are a great starting point, too.
Personalized Experiences (UI/UX)
We talk about the UI/UX, aka User Interface or User Experience, a lot when discussing topics like web development or management. When we create websites for a client, we focus on what the experience is like for their customers. Do you address each one personally in your correspondence to them? Can they save their payment information safely on your website if they create an account with your brand? The more personalized the experience, the greater chance this customer will stick around and become a loyal one as well as a happy one. As you make your plans and assess future goals, make sure to remember the user experience. If website improvements in your future, finding other ways to make your customer feel special will suffice, like personal phone calls, handwritten thank you cards, or birthday gifts or discounts.
Brand Awareness
Brand Awareness is a broad concept that is addressed throughout this article in its own little ways. It means not only are your customers aware of who you are, but also your staff, the vendors you work with, and the people who interact with your brand in passing or directly. It’s a goal that requires constant tending to, which is achieved through implementing the practices mentioned above. Check out this blog from our friends at HubSpot who’ve taken the time to further detail tips and tricks on how to get started.
Executive Summary
Enterprise Marketing solutions, just like Enterprises themselves, don’t simply come to fruition overnight. It certainly won’t happen over the next week either. Investing in scalable expansion strategies requires time, consistency, and effort. If you’re able to implement these practices little by little, then truly over time you’ll notice a significant change in how your customers view you, how your staff operates, and the great heights you’ll achieve.
Contact us today for more information and help on getting started.
