Now that you’ve decided to invest in marketing for your business, the next thing on your mind is just what to do next!
To start a successful marketing campaign there are a few steps to keep in mind. First, you should have a general overview of where your business is standing before you start thinking of where you want to go. A SWOT analysis (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) might be a useful tool to acknowledge what your company has and what is it competing against.
The next step is having a clear image of who your target audience is. Every detail you can gather matters. Their demographic, their lifestyle, their general personality and (very important) the medium they use to research about the service or product you offer.
After this, you set a clear goal for your campaign. The more specific and measurable it is easier it’ll be to manage your campaign and lead it to success.
When all of this is done you’ll be able to design the marketing strategy itself. The specifics of each depend on your company’s branding, specific goals, and decisions, but what matters is that it comes as a result of the previous analysis so it fits your business perfectly. For each campaign, it’s also important to keep in mind what part of the marketing cycle it will target – or if it’ll include every, then what tactic will go for each. What works for a customer that’s only hearing about your company for the first time is different to what will work for the one who, already knowing your product, needs to be approached for the sake of keeping brand loyalty, and neither are the same as the customer who’s only missing step is completing a sale.
With every analysis done and a well-designed plan already, the last step is considering your budget. It’s important to keep in mind that spending more than you can afford on the costly strategies is not an automatic key to success- constant marketing efforts fitting to your business goals and progressive growth will last longer and take you further.