There is so much NOISE about how about how entrepreneurs could or should market their businesses. Google returns almost 4 billion results for the search “how to market my business”. There are countless articles, webinars, Facebook posts, advertisements and blog posts (like this) that all say you should do what they do (except this). There are many marketing experts that know what they are writing (or talking about)  and their content is worth considering.

The fact is there is just so many tactics and tools and millions of recommendations about how to apply each one that it becomes unmanageable for a business owner to sort it all out. The short answer would be to hire a competent marketing professional and task them to devise a profitable growth strategy for your business. That probably isn’t an issue for you as a business owner and you’re left to your own devices to figure this out.

The other side of that coin is that you are the marketing professional a business owner has hired and you are also trying to sort through the compendium of information overload to implement a profitable strategy for your employer.

I have compiled a quick and easy to read 7-part series that should help you sort out some of that data and boil it all down to only the most relevant information. I have searched long and hard for a model that I can work with. I needed to be able to quickly identify what stage my business, product or service is at and then sort the tools and strategies that fit with that stage.

The Marketing Stack for Local Businesses

The MARKETING STACK is the best model I have found so far that helps me sort out ALL of the thousands of strategies and tools that I COULD use for marketing my my businesses. Much like you are probably feeling right now, I was getting frustrated with deciding where to spend my marketing dollars and get the best return.

More importantly, how do I not waste the money I have to spend on marketing. The real dilemma  I was facing (early on) in marketing my businesses was not how to maximize the return from investing the marketing dollars, but how to not lose money. I meet a lot of other business owners who are frustrated spending marketing dollars to not see any of those dollars come back.

It’s ok to test a strategy and not make much return. It’s not ok to invest in a strategy and lose the entire amount invested.

I wanted a model that would help me shorten the learning curve and narrow the choices of marketing tools and strategies; The Marketing Stack.

There are 6 components to the Marketing Stack:

1. Do they know about you?

2. Can they find you?

3. Do they trust you?

4. Do they like you?

5. Will they convert?

6. Will they remain loyal?

It’s not an accident that this model resembles a sales pipeline or funnel. Each of the steps in the Marketing Stack moves a client through the buying process. A potential client must first, find out about you then be able to find you. They must trust you and then like you before they convert to a purchase. The last step of the marketing stack addresses their loyalty and likelihood of a repeat purchase and a valuable qualified referral.

This 7-part series will explore each piece of the Marketing Stack in detail discussing:

• Description of the step in the Marketing Stack

• Why is it important

• What potential clients would fall at this stage of the Marketing Stack

• Which tools or strategies are most suitable for this stage

*** WARNING ***

This Marketing Stack only works if it works for you. I want you to be critical of this entire series and how it applies to marketing your business. Take what will work for you and throw away the rest. The most successful marketing implementations all have one thing in common. They generate results. Otherwise, each implementation is different in some way. Every one is unique and nothing will work the same way a second time.

CONTINUE READING IF YOU…

• Own a business who markets to local customers

• Operate a retail business

• Are a professional like lawyer, accountant, dentist, etc.

• Manage a services business

• Have a construction company

• Own a restaurant

• Run a salon

• Are a financial advisor

• Sell real estate

If you run an e-commerce store without a bricks & mortar location, a dropshipping/Amazon business or only sell info based products (e.g. online courses, books, etc.), you will still get some value from this series but some of the steps will have less benefit in your type of business. Please heed the warning and take only that information that will work for you.

Read part 2 of this 7 part series: Do they know about you?