If you don’t have a degree in communications or marketing, you may still have a general knowledge of what marketing and communications are, and value what these things bring to your business. It’s fine to have a great business idea or a long serving organisation, but if no-one knows about it, you won’t get very far!

The first thing to do is pull out your business plan and a large piece of blank paper (you can do this on your computer but us visual types prefer an alternative medium!). Your business plan will have your mission and vision, your services or products, and your target audience.

Review these. Are they all still accurate? We suggest you spend time concentrating on your target audience. Can you build an avatar for your audience? That is creating a character and considering their demographics and psychographics, their lifestyle, their daily activities, their passions and fears, and how your brand can solve their problems.

If you can create a one-line message, a tagline, that explains what you’re all about, that can become your external slogan while your mission and vision remain an internal mantra. Sometimes they work for both.

With this information, you can now look at what communication tools will help reach your target audience, and you can begin developing these. We suggest you write a list of tools (eg. Website, social media, advertising, printed collateral) and start building them using your logo, brand style guide colours and fonts, and imagery that speaks to your audience.

Once these tools are established, you’ll be on your way to marketing your business.