Pavel Stepanov is the founder of Virtudesk. He talks about business development and outsourcing.
In today’s ever-evolving and competitive business landscape, every decision can go a long way in determining your spot as a contender in your respective industry. Aside from establishing a well-structured plan and standard operating procedure (SOP), business owners should consider the efficiency of every decision and, more specifically, the efficiency of their marketing efforts and campaigns.
While the hurdles and challenges presented to business owners vary depending on their respective industries, familiarizing yourself with the fundamentals can go a long way in ensuring that you’re equipped with the right tools to adapt to the challenges that come with your business.
1. Determine your goals.
Establishing goals and objectives is one of, if not the most important aspects of setting up your marketing efforts. During the planning stages, this initial step will determine the direction that your business will take while setting clear and measurable deliverables for the fiscal year or for the duration of the campaign.
For example, at my company, our primary goal is to become the leader in virtual services across diverse industries. With this objective in mind, all our resources, strategies and marketing efforts are always working toward expanding our service, client base and brand recognition without limiting our offered services to a specific industry.
Over time, we got a better hold of our market and refined our strategies through effective content engagements, social media marketing and email marketing. This translated to the eventual introduction of referral programs and partnerships with esteemed real estate companies and more collaborations lined up in the future.
Setting goals will not ensure success, but establishing a clear-cut path can allow for a good starting point to measure progress throughout the specified duration of the campaign.
2. Familiarize yourself with the market.
Knowing your market is an essential part of maximizing marketing efforts since these specific groups of people will be the majority of your potential consumers. Particularly in the early stages, conducting demographic research and establishing a niche are highly recommended, as this can allow you to promote your product and services to people with the potential to be recurring customers.
This step also includes studying consumer behavior and exploring different strategies that can also prove useful in adapting to the constant changes in the market.
3. Set realistic expectations.
The path in any industry doesn’t come with a roadmap to follow on the road to success. Setting realistic expectations can not only help you get closer to your goals but also aid in keeping the company morale in high spirits.
With years of experience in the real estate industry, I’ve had my fair share of challenges that I had to overcome, which served as a great lesson and helped immensely during the early stages of founding my current company. We made sure to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals to help everyone in the company. By doing so, I’m able to lay out realistic and achievable expectations for my employees, as well as our clients.
Some factors that I share with my employees to help them determine a goal’s feasibility mainly revolve around three questions.
• Do we have the necessary resources?
• Do we possess the skills and knowledge to achieve it?
• Are we open to feedback and willing to adjust our strategies if necessary?
Asking these questions can go a long way in gauging the possibility of achieving a task and refraining from wasting precious time.
As your business works toward the primary objective, establishing feasible and short-term goals can be an effective approach, especially for employees, since it helps build confidence and promotes better focus. Not to mention that you, as an owner, will have a better platform to grasp and measure overall progress.
4. Track data and adapt.
Longevity has always been an important factor in any business, regardless of the industry. With the constant and unpredictable changes in the market, one way to ensure that your business is on top of these subtle transitions and can withstand the test of time is by continuously tracking data through market research.
Depending on the objective of your marketing campaign, analyzing the data you’ve gathered during research can play a pivotal role in providing the team with the right course of action to adapt to the fluctuation in the market.
5. Consider a virtual assistant to streamline tasks.
Since 2016, I’ve seen both sides of the coin as the founder of a virtual assistant company. Aside from the cost-effectiveness and round-the-clock availability, the appeal of virtual assistants mainly stems from the diverse lineup of employees coming from different backgrounds with endless learning potential.
While I can attest to the skepticism that business owners might have with the decision to get a virtual assistant, there are ways to put those doubts to rest and embrace the rise of virtual assistants.
In terms of challenges that business owners face when hiring virtual assistants for the first time, it mainly boils down to two things: adjusting to the new work setup and communication.
I think it’s safe to say that business owners have their own way of running things, and it’ll be hard for many to delegate tasks—especially to a virtual assistant who’s working remotely. What I usually recommend is to treat them as if you’re talking to an in-house employee. Since virtual assistants undergo extensive training, they are well-equipped to adapt to a company’s work culture, regardless of the industry.
Circling back to the remote work aspect, communication is a common issue that comes with hiring virtual assistants. I recommend researching and reading blogs to get a better grasp of the world of virtual assistants. This will help ensure that you have a smooth working relationship with your VA.
The world of business and marketing is a dynamic place that doesn’t come with a single foolproof plan to ensure success. However, with the right, well-structured approach and the prioritization of efficiency, your business can emerge as a serious competitor.
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