At Badlands Marketing Agency, we know you want to see your business thrive in Northern California. But in order for this to happen, you need objective-based marketing that’ll get you results.

The problem is the 21st-century marketplace is now global, with bigger companies often able to offer a cheaper product or service online.

It’s easy to see why you feel overwhelmed, uncertain about the future of your business and frustrated with not being able to reach your target audience in a way that converts to sales.

Sadly, much of what gets called “marketing” is hardly that.

Sure, graphic design and web creation are important tools of the trade, but without strategic purpose, it’s “all show and no go”.

So what makes marketing effective?

4 Keys to Better Marketing for Redding’s Local Businesses

Ironically, better marketing is about getting back to the basics.

The industry is saturated with glitz and glam, but good marketing has a singular focus: present a customer with the best solution to their problem.

Here’s how you do it:

Identify Your Target Market (Who is your customer?)

Effective marketing always begins (...and ends) with getting to know your targeted audience.

It’s damn near impossible to sell a product or service when you don’t know who you’re selling to.

If you’re not already loosely familiar with your target market, secondary research (hint: Googling it) is the best way to begin to identify them. Ask Google “who is buying/spending money on [insert your goods or service]?”

Start with a breakdown of their demographics, including age, gender, income, schooling, occupation, interests, etc.

Then consider their personality traits or buying behaviors, anything that characterizes your potential customer’s persona… anything makes them “them”.

In some cases, your intended audience might be broad, so try market segmentation, where you categorize them into smaller groups.

Down the road, it may benefit you to tailor a campaign specifically for one of these groups.

Bottom line is, understanding who you’re trying to reach will inform every facet of how you try to reach them.

Pin-Point Their Problem (What does your customer want?)

After you’ve determined who your ideal customer is, then analyze the data to find patterns, trends, and insights to help answer the question “what is ‘it’ that they want?”

Here’s the secret: your customer is going to buy your product or service not because they want it, but because it helps them get what they really want.

They’re trying to solve a problem.

Why do Americans spend $100 billion on coffee every year?

Because it gives them an energy boost (the problem is they’re exhausted), or because it’s a source of familiar comfort (the problem is they’re stressed), or because it provides them an opportunity to connect with others (the problem is they need companionship).

This is the type of understanding that you need to be tapping into. What is “it” your customer is really after? What’s the problem they’re trying to solve?

“Get energized”. “ Feel comforted”. “Find friends here.” These get to the heart of why we buy coffee much better than “we grind the best beans, and pour water over the grounds at the perfect temperature”.

Your goods or service is not the end, it’s the means to an end.

Build a Stronger Brand (Why is yours the best solution?)

Once you’ve identified your target market and tapped into what it is they’re wanting (or the problem they’re trying to solve), then you can begin building your brand.

The next question to ask yourself is “why is your goods or service the best solution to their problem”?

Answering this question will provide you with your USP, or your Unique Selling Position.

This is what differentiates you from the rest of the competition in the market.

The truth is, like everyone else, you're going to have strengths and weaknesses.

But it will only benefit you to become more aware of these areas so that you can more clearly focus on the ways in which your company excels.

Accentuating your USP will help you create a more memorable brand identity, from logo, to colors, fonts, slogan, copy and beyond.

Just remember that when you communicate “how awesome you are” it should frame your goods or service as the best solution to the customer’s problem, and not just mindlessly toot your own horn.

Reach Your Customer Effectively (Where can you find your customer?)

Now that you know who your customer is, what it is they want, and why yours is the best solution to their problem, it's time to focus on meeting them on their level.

Where is your customer hiding?

Are they online? Are they at the farmer’s market? Are they on the road, passing through town tomorrow?

And in what way can they be reached?

Are they on Instagram or TikTok? Do they look out the window at billboards? Do they read emails? Are they waiting for a phone call?

These are important questions to ask.

For a while now, it seems that 95% of the industry has been focused on social media channels, and fairly so, but it seems that we’re trending back towards forms of more tangible, human connection which is great news for local businesses.

Choosing the optimal channel to market your goods or service is a deeply personal endeavor, and should resonate with both you and your customer.

Lastly, successful marketing really comes down to effective communication. Are you communicating in a way the customer can easily understand?

Effective communication should be clear, concise, and compelling.

At a glance, your customer needs to know what it is you're selling, and how it's going to solve their problem better than the alternative solution.

In a perfect world your customers would flock to you; in the real world you need to reach them where they’re at.

Better Marketing Starts Today

Better marketing can start simply with the way you and your team interact with customers today.

Especially as a local business, the language you use and the impression you give go a long way in generating more interest and pushing your brand forward.

If you're interested in honing your marketing efforts today, we’d love to work with you.

Having been local business owners ourselves, we’re familiar with the grind- all that it takes to be successful, from ideation, to product or service development, to marketing, sales, cash flow, accounting, payroll, etc.

But more than anything we know it takes dogged determination and grit to get the job done.

And like you, we’re built different. Let’s do this together.