中小企业营销兵法

Marketing is essential for small businesses and one of the key ways to ensure success is to have a marketing plan that will attract new visitors and convert them into customers. In this post, we’ll take a close look at the factors you need to consider and choices you have open to you when creating your marketing plan.

营销对于小型企业至关重要，确保成功的关键方法之一是制定一项营销计划，以吸引新访客并将其转化为客户。 在这篇文章中，我们将仔细研究在创建营销计划时需要考虑的因素以及可以接受的选择。

营销基础 (The basics of marketing)

Marketing is the art of attracting new customers and retaining them over the long-term. We use the word ‘art’ because to do marketing well, you need to have creativity – the ability to think of new ways to reach out to people.

营销是吸引新客户并长期保留他们的艺术。 我们使用“艺术”一词是因为要做好营销，您需要具有创造力-能够思考与人接触的新方法的能力。

At the same time, marketing is also scientific. You need to think strategically, understand how people behave and, increasingly, be able to analyse marketing data in order to figure out what does and doesn’t work.

同时，营销也是科学的。 您需要进行战略性思考，了解人们的行为方式，并且越来越需要能够分析营销数据，以便找出有效和无效的方法。

Finally, marketing can be complex. You now have a much wider range of channels through which you can market. In pre-internet days, small businesses were limited in where they could promote themselves: local radio, newspapers and magazines, trade shows, window displays, etc. Today, you have everything from YouTube channels and Facebook Live, to websites, email, PPC advertising and a vast array of social media platforms. Small companies often lack the resources to use all of these, so you have to choose the best ones for your business.

最后，营销可能很复杂。 现在，您拥有广泛的营销渠道。 在互联网时代之前，小型企业在自我宣传方面受到限制：本地广播，报纸和杂志，商业展览，橱窗陈列等。如今，您拥有从YouTube频道和Facebook Live到网站，电子邮件，PPC的所有内容广告和各种社交媒体平台。 小型公司通常缺乏使用所有这些资源的资源，因此您必须为业务选择最佳的公司。

了解客户的行为 (Understanding how customers behave)

One of the key learning points for small businesses is to understand the process that people follow when they become customers. There have been numerous academic studies into this over many years and the results show that there are several stages that people go through before becoming a long-term customer.

小型企业的主要学习点之一是了解人们成为客户时遵循的过程。 多年来，对此进行了许多学术研究，结果表明，在成为长期客户之前，人们经历了多个阶段。

Together, these stages are known as the marketing funnel and understanding what they are will help you design a marketing plan that caters for people at each step in the process.

这些阶段一起被称为营销渠道，了解它们是什么，将帮助您设计一个营销计划，该计划在过程的每个步骤都可以满足人们的需求。

The stages of the marketing funnel are these:

营销渠道的阶段如下：

1. The customer becomes aware that your products, services or brand exists. 2. They develop an interest in your business and begin to consider the benefits of your products, services or brand. 3. If they like what you offer, they begin to desire the products or services you sell. This desire can be created by the feelings they have developed for your brand. 4. The desire or feeling leads the person to give your product a try. Often this is done tentatively with a small purchase to start with. 5. If satisfied with the first purchase, the customer begins to develop trust and loyalty with the products, services or brand and may remain a customer over the long-term.

1.客户意识到您的产品，服务或品牌存在。 2.他们对您的业务产生兴趣，并开始考虑您的产品，服务或品牌的好处。 3.如果他们喜欢您提供的产品，他们就会开始渴望您销售的产品或服务。 他们对您的品牌所产生的感觉可以创造这种渴望。 4.欲望或感觉使人尝试您的产品。 通常，这只是尝试性地花很少的钱就可以开始的。 5.如果对首次购买感到满意，则客户开始对产品，服务或品牌建立信任和忠诚度，并可能长期保持客户。

The important point that businesses need to be aware of is that, at each stage, the number of potential customers reduces. If a million people become aware of your products, only 50,000 may develop an interest; of those, only 10,000 may evaluate your products and only 2,000 may try them out. You may only get 1,000 long-term customers.

企业需要意识到的重要一点是，在每个阶段，潜在客户的数量都在减少。 如果有一百万人意识到您的产品，那么只有五万人可能会感兴趣。 其中只有10,000个可以评估您的产品，只有2,000个可以试用它们。 您可能只会获得1,000个长期客户。

It is essential, therefore, to try and maximise the number of customers who make it through each stage of the process and this means having targeted marketing for each. This is how you begin to develop your marketing strategy.

因此，至关重要的是，尝试并在该过程的每个阶段中最大限度地增加进入该阶段的客户数量，这意味着必须针对每个阶段进行有针对性的营销。 这就是您开始制定营销策略的方式。

为什么分析很重要 (Why analysis matters)

One of the ways to maximise the number of people who move from stage to stage is to analyse why they drop off. Analytics data and A/B split testing help identify the main drop off points and this can help you remodel your plan.

最大化每个阶段迁移的人数的一种方法是分析他们为何下岗。 Analytics(分析)数据和A / B拆分测试可帮助您确定主要的落点，这可帮助您重塑计划。

For example, if people show an interest in evaluating your products, perhaps by signing up for your newsletter or following you on Twitter, but then never get around to trying the product out, it shows that there is something putting them off making the initial purchase.

例如，如果人们对评估您的产品表现出兴趣，例如通过注册您的时事通讯或在Twitter上关注您，但是从不回避尝试该产品，则表明存在一些阻碍他们进行初次购买的因素。

For many customers who have never bought from a company before, this is often price. If they don’t know the company, they may be unwilling to pay a lot for the first product. Companies get around this by offering free samples (e.g. Netflix and Amazon Prime offer a free month’s trial) or lower initial prices (e.g. Sky or Virgin Media giving half price TV deals for the first 6 months).

对于许多以前从未从公司购买过产品的客户来说，这通常是价格。 如果他们不了解公司，他们可能不愿意为第一个产品支付很多费用。 公司通过提供免费样品(例如Netflix和Amazon Prime提供免费的一个月试用版)或降低初始价格(例如Sky或Virgin Media在头6个月内提供半价电视交易)来解决此问题。

营销业务的不同渠道 (Different channels through which to market your business)

Another key factor is using the right marketing channels. For many businesses, the most effective ways are to market online and even for those that still use traditional marketing techniques, adding a few online marketing techniques can help expand your reach to a much wider audience.

另一个关键因素是使用正确的营销渠道。 对于许多企业而言，最有效的方法是在线营销，即使对于仍使用传统营销技术的企业，添加一些在线营销技术也可以帮助您扩大覆盖面。

Below are some of the key marketing channels you can choose to use online.

以下是您可以选择在线使用的一些主要营销渠道。

内容行销 (Content Marketing)

Content marketing is a way of promoting your business by creating online content aimed specifically at your target market. Unlike traditional marketing, its focus is not to hard sell your products or services but, instead, to give readers something that they find valuable and relevant.

内容营销是通过创建专门针对目标市场的在线内容来促进您的业务的方法。 与传统营销不同，它的重点不是硬销售您的产品或服务，而是给读者一些他们认为有价值和相关的东西。

The main ways this is done is by creating content that solves problems faced by your customers. This can be achieved through blog posts, infographics, videos and e-books, etc. For example, if you sell tyres, post a video on YouTube showing people how to check whether a tyre needs replacing – at the end of the video, subtly tell the viewer that you have a wide range of high quality and affordable tyres in stock. Then share that video on your website, Facebook channel and Twitter.

完成此操作的主要方式是创建可解决客户所面临问题的内容。 这可以通过博客文章，信息图表，视频和电子书等来实现。例如，如果您销售轮胎，请在YouTube上发布一个视频，向人们展示如何检查轮胎是否需要更换–在视频结尾处，巧妙地告诉观众，您有大量的优质和负担得起的轮胎库存。 然后在您的网站，Facebook频道和Twitter上共享该视频。

The advantage of this form of marketing is that it builds up an interest in your company, highlights your expertise in your field and helps to develop trust. This is enhanced by not going for the hard sell. Customers who value the content you publish will be more likely to look for you again in future. They may subscribe to your newsletter where you can promote your products more strongly or they could even purchase from you there and then. It is a tried and tested technique with the added advantage that it can be liked and shared on social media. It’s also great for SEO.

这种营销形式的优势在于，它可以建立对公司的兴趣，突出您在该领域的专业知识，并有助于建立信任。 不通过强行出售可以增强这一点。 重视您发布的内容的客户将来很有可能会再次寻找您。 他们可能订阅了您的新闻通讯，您可以在其中大力宣传您的产品，或者甚至可以在那里从您那里购买产品。 这是一种久经考验的技术，具有附加的优势，可以在社交媒体上被喜欢和共享。 对于SEO来说也很棒。

社交媒体市场营销 (Social Media Marketing)

Social media marketing is a very powerful technique that uses platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to reach out to new customers. One of the benefits of social media is that you can market for free: your posts can be seen by your followers and if they like what you post, they can share it with their own friends and followers.

社交媒体营销是一种非常强大的技术，它使用Facebook，Twitter和LinkedIn等平台来吸引新客户。 社交媒体的好处之一是您可以免费进行营销：追随者可以看到您的帖子，如果他们喜欢您的帖子，他们可以与自己的朋友和追随者分享。

Social media is also a great platform for building relationships with customers as it enables you to interact with them. They can respond to your posts and you can reply – and all the people who follow them can see what you say. Indeed, some companies now use social media as a way to carry out customer service.

社交媒体也是与客户建立关系的绝佳平台，因为它使您能够与客户互动。 他们可以回复您的帖子，您也可以回复-所有关注他们的人都可以看到您的发言。 确实，一些公司现在使用社交媒体来进行客户服务。

Another benefit of social media is that you can use it to spread the word about offers and deals which you are running. A simple tweet, “15% off on any online orders today. Share this with your friends and get 20% off,” can have a significant impact on your sales.

社交媒体的另一个好处是您可以使用它来传播有关您正在运行的要约和交易的信息。 一条简单的推文，“今天所有在线订单可享受15％的折扣。 与您的朋友分享并获得20％的折扣，”可以对您的销售产生重大影响。

电子邮件营销 (Email Marketing)

Email marketing is one of the most successful methods of converting people into customers – which is why virtually every website you visit wants you to sign up to its newsletter. Those visitors who sign up are already considering or desiring your products and are requesting more contact with you – in a sense, they are inviting you to market to them.

电子邮件营销是将人们转化为客户的最成功方法之一，这就是为什么您访问的几乎每个网站都希望您签署其新闻简报的原因。 那些注册的访客已经在考虑或期望您的产品，并希望与您建立更多联系-从某种意义上说，他们是在邀请您向他们推销产品。

Your email marketing needs to be considered and structured. Keep sending subscribers useful information that they will value, but you can and should use it to market your products and services too.

您的电子邮件营销需要考虑和组织。 不断向订户发送有价值的有用信息，但是您也可以并且也应该使用它来营销您的产品和服务。

Clever companies have different email campaigns for people on different stages of the sales funnel. They will offer a low-priced introductory offer to those who have never purchased before, whilst those who have made purchases and now have greater trust in the company will be offered tempting offers on more expensive products.

聪明的公司会针对销售渠道不同阶段的人们提供不同的电子邮件活动。 他们将为从未购买过产品的人提供低价的介绍性报价，而那些已经购买并且现在对公司有更大信任的人将获得诱人的价格更高的产品的报价。

在线广告 (Online Advertising)

Online advertising is another way you can promote your business and, for some companies, it is an essential part of their marketing strategy. You can run text, image and video ads depending on your needs and budget, however, with so much competition for ad space, it can be very expensive.

在线广告是您促进业务发展的另一种方式，对于某些公司而言，在线广告是其营销策略的重要组成部分。 您可以根据自己的需求和预算投放文字，图片和视频广告，但是由于广告空间竞争激烈，这可能会非常昂贵。

Adverts can be shown in search engine results, for example by signing up with Google Adwords or be hosted on other websites. (This service is available from a wide range of companies including search engines.) You can also purchase advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

广告可以显示在搜索引擎结果中，例如通过注册Google Adwords或托管在其他网站上。 (可以从包括搜索引擎在内的许多公司获得此服务。)您还可以在社交媒体平台(如Facebook和Twitter)上购买广告。

One of the best things about online advertising is that ad companies use internet users’ behaviour as a way to work out whether to show your advert or not. So, if a user has been searching for products that you sell, the ad network will know to serve your ads to that person whilst they are showing interest.

关于在线广告的最好的事情之一就是广告公司利用互联网用户的行为来确定是否显示您的广告。 因此，如果用户一直在搜索您销售的产品，则广告网络将知道在他们展示兴趣的同时将广告投放给该人。

结论 (Conclusion)

As you can see from reading this post, creating an online marketing strategy requires some work but, if well thought through, can bring a dramatic increase in sales. You’ll need to understand the marketing funnel and how to attract potential customers at each stage in the process to get it right. In addition, you will have to look at the wide range of marketing channels and assess which are the most appropriate ones for your business and your marketing strategy.

从阅读这篇文章可以看出，制定在线营销策略需要付出一些努力，但是，如果经过深思熟虑，可以带来巨大的销售增长。 您需要了解营销渠道，以及如何在流程的每个阶段吸引潜在客户以使其正确。 此外，您将必须查看广泛的营销渠道，并评估最适合您的业务和营销策略的渠道。

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中小企业营销兵法