Becoming Marketing Active: The Fulcrum Guide to Getting Started with Business Marketing – In the first part of our guide to becoming marketing active face2face Marketing Recruiters in navi mumbai, we looked at some of the reasons that drive a business to start marketing (if you missed part one, check it out here). But once you’ve made the decision to embark on a marketing strategy for your business, what next? Where do you start and what steps should you take to ensure a smooth and successful process? As is so often the case in business (and life!), preparation is key. So before rushing into any kind of marketing, it’s important to take the time to plan, research and strategise for success.
In order to create an effective marketing strategy, you need to develop a thorough understanding of your market, your competitors and your business itself. This means getting back to basics and equipping yourself with all the information you need to identify marketing activities that work for your brand. 1) Research your target market How much do you know about the target audience of your product or service? We’re not just talking about age, sex or occupation (though, of course, you need to know these too). To have the best chance of reaching your target market, you need to dig deeper and find out exactly what drives them towards purchase.
What kind of triggers are they most likely to respond to? Which elements of the marketing mix have the most impact on them? How will your product or service benefit them? Understanding these aspects of your target audience will enable you to position and market your brand accordingly, so comprehensive market research is essential. It’s often easier (and more cost-effective) to outsource this type of research to a professional agency who will be better placed to obtain the information you need. 2) Analyse your competition In order to stay ahead of your competitors, you need to know who they are, what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. Once you’ve identified who your key business competitors are, look into the marketing methods they’re using and the way in which they have positioned their brand. What channels and platforms have they chosen to market their business? How are they promoting their brand and its products/services? Consider which elements are crucial to your own business and how you can position your brand in order to get ahead. 3) Define your objectives What do you want to achieve from your marketing activity? Whether it’s to increase your revenue, establish your business in a new market segment or improve brand awareness, setting clear, measurable marketing objectives is vital in understanding what steps need to be taken in order to achieve these goals.
Make sure that each identified objective is specific (how much do you want to increase revenue by?), achievable (is it realistic?) and has a timeframe for accomplishment (are you aiming to achieve this goal in three months or a year?). You also need to make sure that your marketing objectives tie in with your overall business objectives. 4) Understand your business You may think you have a pretty good understanding of your business, but it’s surprising what insights can be achieved when you conduct a thorough SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Be rigorous, be meticulous, and above all be brutally honest. Is a lack of staff training letting your business down? Are your prices too high to compete in today’s market? Arming yourself with this knowledge is invaluable in developing a marketing strategy that leverages your company’s strengths and addresses those areas which need to be improved.
In the next instalment of the Fulcrum guide to becoming marketing active, we’ll be looking at the raft of marketing channels available and helping you to identify which ones are best for your business.
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Digital Marketing Requires Planning
Marketing and advertising inevitably require some lead time but too often businesses don’t plan ahead. For marketing dollars to be well spent some preparation is required before implementation. It is important to plan far enough ahead to establish objectives, determine processes for execution, decide who the responsible parties will be and then follow through. It’s expensive when these steps are not taken.
Some marketing campaigns take more lead time than others. If a lot of different tasks performed by different specialists are involved, the requirements for planning expand. Fewer moving parts are less cumbersome to implement.
Websites In most cases, marketing begins with the website. New web pages are relatively easy to add. Using a content management system, web pages only require a facilitator.
Email Despite the emphasis on other channels, email marketing continues to be a staple for most businesses. Three quarters of all companies surveyed in 2011 said that email provides an excellent or good return on their investment. And email marketing programs like MailChimp, Constant Contact and others help you create professional looking emails and also determine your effectiveness through analytics.
Direct Mail Direct mail marketing can be extremely effective for retail stores and local service providers because it is memorable and can be well targeted. New programs and processes have made direct mail quite valuable in converting prospects but a good campaign requires a month or more before delivery. Before a piece can be in the recipient’s hands copywriting, images, design, research and mailing are all required. You can learn more about direct mail on a previous post .
Social Media Assisting connections between people and collective sharing of information, social media includes short posts, blogs, video, and interactive forums. Social media requires knowledge of the technologies required and the time to maintain the campaign. Unfortunately, what started out looking like a magic bullet requires some lead time after all. It is most effective with an editorial calendar and whenever a campaign is established it must be sustained.
Pay-Per-Click To use the online advertising channel called PPC, you need to determine the keywords that your best prospects will use to search for you. With PPC, when the potential client uses that search term they will see an ad for you. If your ad is enticing they will be drawn to click through to your website and hopefully will decide to buy.
The best news is that you only pay for the advertisement when someone chooses to click on it and you can establish a budget before you start. Once you have spent your limit, your ads are no longer available.
Planning? You must determine what the relevant keywords are and what content you need in your ad. For some businesses, PPC is a great marketing channel.
Banner Advertising Banners include images but work like Pay-Per-Click. Well done, adding images will increase their effectiveness, but it also adds to the time and costs.
Radio In some industries, radio is spectacularly successful as a marketing channel. Having more spots is most effective . The lead time required is minimal, especially with a smaller or more tightly targeted market. Make sure which format that will attract your best prospects by checking the demographics and then write the copy carefully.
Television TV has the advantage of being both visual and auditory, but it is also more expensive than radio. The reach is even more fragmented and the costs are usually higher than radio because it requires sound and video. Writing, presentation, and talent all count so production takes time. In some industries and markets it is very effective, however.
Events and Sponsorships It seems obvious that there are a lot of moving parts in producing an event. The easiest way to do an event is to let someone else manage all the production aspects and be the provider of the branding and hosting. Since the venue, decorations, advertising, registrations, financial management, traffic flow, refreshments, lighting, entertainment, parking, communications, staffing, etc. will all need to be handled, putting on an event always takes time.
Sponsoring an event is much less difficult. Finding the right relationships to leverage and then using them to improve your visibility and sales can be done reasonably quickly.
In Short The key to successful marketing is planning ahead. Start your marketing campaigns in advance to put all the pieces together.
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