Welcome, business owner! I am thrilled to have you here today as we talk about how to implement strategies in your small business. I think strategy is kind of a buzz word these days, and it seems like a mystery. Hopefully, by the end of this episode, you’ll know how to implement a marketing strategy or at least have a starting point to know which direction you want to take it.

           I want to remind you of a few things that’s going on around DAC Balance. If you haven’t already joined our private Facebook community, please do! I would love to have you and continue the conversation around these podcasts and all things business ownership. You can go to my website at lydiagmiller.com and find more information there.

           Now, let’s get into the content!

When you think about your small business, do you feel overwhelmed? When I first started, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. My goal was to just get clients, but I didn’t have a plan on how to do that. I didn’t know much about marketing at the time, so when this content came up in class, I was thrilled to finally know some of the framework of creating a marketing strategy.

In this episode, we are going to talk about just some generic strategies and what people have used to market and grow their business.

             

Implementing Strategies

           Cost Strategy. There are two sides to this strategy. One is horrible and one is fantastic and what I am trying to implement now.       This is the worst of them all, but it seems to be really common among businesses that are first starting out. In the cost strategy, you are trying to be the lowest price in your market. This means that you are intentionally pricing yourself below market value, below your competition and below what your services are worth. This often backfires, because when I am looking at who to hire for let’s say photography, I am not going to go with someone just because they are inexpensive. Actually, if I see someone who is inexpensive, I automatically assume they are low quality and not who I am looking for. You can’t win in business if you try to be the lowest price.

The other side of cost strategy is the smart way to do this. You’re not necessarily the cheapest, but you use technology to become more efficient and to provide a higher quality item for less. In this strategy, your goal is to be super efficient, getting more done with fewer resources. You are trying to eliminate waste everywhere. You are trying to cut our unnecessary expenses from your budget to make more room for profits and you are figuring out how to get your raw materials cheaper while still maintaining the quality that you have decided is your target. I am working to do this in my business now by digitalizing everything and creating systems for each unique client. Using apps and things make this a lot easier. Embrace technology, don’t run from it!

             Differentiation

      The second type of strategy that you can use is differentiating yourself from other companies in your industry. This is crucial if you are in a highly competitive market where customers have lots of options and lots of need for your product or service.

     Here are a couple ways that you can differentiate yourself.

                                                            Niche down. This is incredibly scary, especially when you don’t have a lot of customers or clients and you are wanting to grow. Excluding people that you’re marketing to or accepting if you are a service based business can seem counter-productive. But! If you want to be seen as an expert or as the thought leader, you have to do this. This also makes it easier to target who you want to get in contact with and when people refer you, they will know exactly what you do. This process takes time. You have to think through your ideal client and the attributes you want them to have as well as the need that they have for your product.

                                                Another way that you can differentiate yourself is to offer unique attributes. I’m thinking about the photography industry here, maybe you offer film photography. Maybe you offer polaroid photography, if that is even a thing. Maybe you create products for those types of photographers.

                                                        Another way to differentiate is to position yourself as a luxury good. This means different things for different industries. The day planners that I use run for almost $60 each. That is definitely on the higher end for day planners. I can go to target and get one for $5! But the brand has positioned itself to be a higher-quality good and they provide content year round to use with this.

          Focus Strategy

     This strategy is one that is really unique and interesting to me. In this strategy, you are so niched down that there is no one else as your competition. You are serving collectors here, or small groups of people who need a certain good. You aren’t going to have a huge market in this strategy, because only a small percentage of the population even wants this item and is willing to spend money on it. You have to dominate the market to make this sustainable.

I’ve have a few book recommendations for you if you want to learn more about what we talked about today. If you are thinking about cost strategy and are needing help leaning out your business, check out the book Profit First by Mike michalowicz. They talk about how you can create a more profitable business and how you can cut down on the unnecessary expenses. If you’re looking for a book on nicheing down, check out Book Yourself solid by Michael port. If you are looking for some specific social media strategies check out Jab Jab Jab right hook by Gary Vaynerchuck.

You can go to the show notes and get a direct link to these books. It will take you to amazon, and if you purchase the book, I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you, which I will really appreciate.

I hope you heard something that you can implement today that will help you with your business.

If you have a business and are wanting someone to help you out in a strategy session, I would love to do that! You can go to my website at lydiagmiller.com to find out more. If you have specific questions on it, feel free to email me at [email protected]

I hope you join me next week as we answer the question Who are you in your industry?

Have a productive week!