Marketing a Business

When a business sets out to write a marketing plan, there are many different questions that must be answered before a single ad is written. A marketing plan that isn’t carefully planned will not meet its goals and will lack in any overall direction. The first step of a business’s marketing plan is defining what it is and what the goals for it are.

What Are The Goals?

A marketing plan should an easily identifiable goal. For some companies, it can be to simply increase brand awareness and improve sales. However, other companies may have different goals in mind. For some companies, a marketing plan may seek to improve their overall company reputation. For others, a promotion may be chiefly focused on an entirely new product, not their overall product line.

What Is The Message?

A marketing plan needs a core and consistent message. This message should be easily explained and memorable. Consider the most well-known advertising campaigns their core message is often centered around an easily understood point. Having the same core message links all the material of a marketing plan together to create a consistent tone. A marketing plan’s message can be about superior products, a company’s strong reputation, or industry-leading customer service. No matter what the message it should be a consistent theme.

Who Is The Target Market?

Customer segmentation is an important part of modern marketing. A business can’t be all things to all customers and too wide a net wastes both resources and dilutes the overall message. Target markets can be divided by any number of identifying factors. These can include broad factors such as the region of the country they live in or more specific factors such as the model of their cellphone. By identifying a target market companies can focus on common traits and build marketing plans to reach their exact desired customer.

How Will Success Be Evaluated?

Success can be measured in different ways in relation to the goal the marketing plan has. This can be an increase in overall sales, more views on social media, or a new product having a strong release. No matter what the goals specific methodologies should be in place to study the impact a marketing plan has had after it has been implemented.

The Modern Marketing Environment And The Importance Of Digital Marketing

Of note is the current importance of digital market. While a wide-reaching concept it can be simplified to marketing focused on internet-based platforms. The continued growth of smartphone and social media usage has made digital marketing an important part of any company’s overall marketing strategy.

• Social Media: marketing on various social media platforms has become an important part of modern marketing. The various platforms allow for direct engagement with customers and each has its own niche. For example, Facebook allows for longer postings, Twitter for short messages or links, and Instagram is entirely driven by visual media such as pictures. A uniform approach across these platforms allow a company to reach current and potential customers in several different ways.

• Email Marketing: a classic approach an email newsletter is still a valuable marketing tool. Taking the place of the traditional paper newsletter an email based newsletter contains much of the same content. Articles, opinion pieces, business updates, product releases, sales, and links to outside material are just some examples of possible content. Email marketing keeps a company’s name in the mind of its recipients and is a way to engage customers.

• Content Creation: covers a wide range of creative marketing output. This can include an assortment of blog topics such as informative entries, reviews, lists and so on. Other creative output can include videos which due to an increase in streaming platforms, available internet speeds, and smart device screen quality have become more viable and widely viewed.

These are some (but not all) of the techniques a digital marketing strategy can employ. In addition to content and customer engagement metrics have to be carefully studied to measure effectiveness. As technology is rapidly evolving and in a constant state of change methods have to be studied, reviewed, and updated as the situational need arises.

Dispute the unique challenges digital marketing presents it is one of the most effective platforms to reach consumers. Live back and forth communication between a company and its customers helps build a better business relationship. While older methods of marketing such as commercials only allowed for one way communication digital marketing allows for this two-way relationship building approach. This coupled with high-quality content allows a company to show the more human side of their business and reach customers on a more interpersonal level.

Hiring Outside Assistance

When designing a company marketing strategy many businesses hire outside companies to assist. Hiring outside experts is common and businesses large and small do so. When hiring an outside marketing company they can develop not only an overall business marketing strategy but can also handle the digital marketing aspect. A skilled digital marketer who can handle the constant changes of marketing strategy in the digital world, is well worth the expense.