Currently, in the highly saturated market with various companies and businesses established, a good marketing plan is the essence of success. It helps your brand to reach out to its target customers properly, address them, and even help it meet laid down business objectives and marketing strategy. For businessmen or women whether old or young, business formulation is one of the most challenging tasks that involves forecast, analysis, and performance. Below is a guide in an attempt to assist you work smarter by avoiding common mistakes.
Understand Your Target Audience
The first activity to undertake when developing marketing strategies is always identifying your market and customer segmentation. Who are your customers and what do they want or need that will allow you to communicate with them effectively? The same HubSpot report also indicates that businesses, that adopt customer personas, stand to enjoy a 20% boost in conversion rates.
Some of the ways of data collection include Google Analytics, insights from social media platforms, and surveys. The more the audience is segmented, the better the strategy is a fit for the audience.
Set Clear Goals and Objectives
In this case, there is always a slogan alongside the plan and the slogan usually defines the goals and objectives of the plan. Whether your goal is to drive traffic to your website, sell a product, or make your business visible, your marketing plan should have the following kinds of goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-oriented goals.
For instance, instead of using the phrase ‘expand the online presence’ one might write ‘generate 30% more website traffic in three months using SEO only’. Specific objectives help your team maintain its orientation, and brand positioning and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Leverage Data-Driven Insights
As we begin to navigate the era of digitalization, it becomes apparent that the new valuable resource is data. Analytics can be used to better understand the trends for the campaigns and to better measure and improve the campaigns as well. According to McKinsey & Company, organizations making use of data and analytics are 23 times more likely to attract new customers and 6 times more likely to retain existing customers.
Some of the useful KPIs include, the customer acquisition cost (CAC), return on investment (ROI), and engagement rates of your marketing strategy.
Utilize Digital communication as a tool
The digital platforms are the pulse of the new marketing world. You can’t afford to miss the powerful cornerstones of social media, email marketing, SEO, and pay-per-click or PPC. According to a survey done by Statista, it was found that overall internet traffic that comes from mobile devices accounts for a shocking 52% hence why mobility is an absolute must.
The fourth is to ensure that a platform identifies and develops engaging content for the specific platform. Very much like how LinkedIn targets a professional audience, Instagram is about aesthetic appeal and graphic presentation. Use case 6 also showed that tailoring content achieves greater reach and stakeholder engagement.
Prioritize Content Marketing
It’s now clear that content marketing is still a game-changer. The key genre of communication that creates engagement and trust includes blogs, informative videos, and infographics. A study conducted by Demand Metric revealed that content marketing acquisition is 3x as effective at producing leads as traditional outbound marketing as it is 62% cheaper.
Be sure to appeal to emotion whenever telling a story to your audience. This will help you to tie your product or service to their struggles making your marketing approach personal and effective.
Test, Analyze, and Adapt
Marketing strategy also holds that the marketing strategy is not a prize for the stationary trophy, it changes with the fluctuations of the markets and consumer habits. Don’t run regular test campaigns without using A/B testing and evaluate what is best. It is always important to listen to what doesn’t work, adapt it, and be ready to change.
For example in a scenario where a specific social media channel has low returns, it is advisable to divert effort to another holding better returns. Change is inevitable in this competitive world and the ability to adapt fast provides longevity for any organisation.
Conclusion
It is a marketing strategy that involves coming up with the best creative idea and then backing it with research data. By knowing your audience well, providing clear goals, embracing technology, and appreciating change, a marketer can come up with a roadmap in the process of marketing.
As I have highlighted in the past, the ability to remain consistent and innovative on the one hand, and focused on the customer on the other, is the key to success in a rather saturated market environment. By implementing the right strategy your business is likely to grow.