Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs are urged to periodically launch marketing campaigns designed to promote the products and services sold and the brand. The goal of marketing is to drive sales and generate revenue and profit, the lifeblood of all businesses. In support of that suggestion, here is a review of the core components of a successful marketing campaign.
Step 1: identify your target audience
Understand who you want your campaign to reach and influence. List the industry categories (for example, for-profit, non-profit, social services, IT, hospitals, banking, etc.) and the titles of your most frequent clients and most promising potential clients. Members of your target market groups must have the motive and the money to use your products or services.
Step 2: meet the competition
When creating your primary and secondary marketing campaign messages, keep your direct competitors in mind. The marketing message should promote the expertise, experience, judgment, and attributes that make you superior to others with whom customers and prospects might do business. Your message should be designed to overcome current or potential objections to you and persuade those with motives and money to choose you, because hiring them will make them look good.
Step 3: identify the primary and secondary marketing messages
What do you need to make known to current and potential customers to help them develop the confidence to do business with you? Refer back to your knowledge of your target market groups and competition, remembering to also reference the customer’s priorities and concerns and their goals when using your products or services.
In marketing messages, look for ways to improve your brand, that is, your reputation. Customers do business with those they know and like; they do even more business with those they trust and respect. Building your image or (tactfully) showing off your already remarkable brand will become the core elements of your marketing message.
Step 4: select the media platforms
Decide which media platforms you will use to reach current and potential customers. Marketing campaigns are most effective when they use more than one platform to get the message across to target markets. Comprehensive marketing campaigns will include a mix of print and online media platforms that feature text, visual and audio options, based on what the target audience follows and what they trust.
Sponsoring local charity events is another potentially effective marketing platform. When charity event sponsorships are part of your campaign, send a press release to local media to request inclusion on additional media platforms. Newspaper articles or radio ads are always trusted more than paid ads, because the news is perceived as unbiased.
There is also an indirect and ongoing brand promotion campaign that marketers are encouraged to run. B2B service providers are encouraged to regularly schedule presentations as a host or visiting expert at webinars; serve as a panelist or moderator in programs that address topics that the target audience will find relevant; speak at conferences that your target audience will attend; or teach related courses or workshops as a way to improve the value of the intangible resources that you sell, that is, your experience and criteria.
Step 5: create a budget
Once you have your version of the ideal marketing plan in draft form, calculate your expected costs and implementation schedule. Make sure the campaign ROI makes sense for your marketing goals. Align your marketing efforts with projected gross sales and don’t waste resources on unsuccessful initiatives.
Step 6: track campaign performance
Setting goals and objectives for your marketing campaign are worthwhile activities. The process will guide you towards making decisions that have a positive impact on your campaign design, and will also help you understand what kind of influence you can exert through your marketing activities. Decide what you want your marketing campaign to achieve and confirm the metrics that will measure and recognize its success or shortcomings.
Thank you for reading,
Kim