Six Steps to Marketing Effectiveness

Very few of us set out on a journey without knowing the destination or how we are going to get there. Marketing your business should be no different. Having a clear objective and a strategy on how to achieve it is essential to accomplish your business goals. So many businesses spend money “willy-nilly” on tactical marketing activities and then get disappointed when they fail to see results. The good news is there are six straightforward steps you can take to get organised and start thinking about your marketing more strategically:

1. Discovery
   The first step of any marketing plan is to understand your business landscape. You need to analyse your business, your market and your environment. You should consider things like; your business offering, your strengths and weaknesses, your unique selling points, your competitors, economic factors and industry trends, your target market, where they are and what they want. This “Discovery” phase helps to highlight your business challenges and how your product or service offering fits into the marketplace.
2. Strategy
   Once you’ve got an understanding of your market, your business offering and your objectives, now it is time to work out some strategies to meet those objectives. This might involve launching a new product or service to meet consumer demand, entering an adjacent market, selling other products/services to existing clients, exiting a difficult market or taking your business online to name a few.
3. Development
   Then you have to come up with some ideas on exactly what marketing tactics you are going to employ to bring your strategy to life. A good place to start is putting together a calendar of promotions or activities that fits with your strategy. Where possible make them relevant to the season or typical buying patterns of customers. For example, an air conditioning company may plan a special offer for May – “stay warm this winter with a 10% discount off our split systems”.
4. Execution
   Once you’ve got your calendar worked out, now it’s time to make it all happen! Develop all the tools, collateral and individual campaign plans you need then roll out your promotions, attend the exhibitions, build the website etc. Remember a marketing plan is no use if you put it in a drawer and forget about it, you need to refer to it often and ensure you take action.
5. Measurement
   With each marketing activity you undertake, remember to measure the results. There are lots of ways to measure marketing. For example regularly check your website analytics – how long were people on your site, what pages were most viewed etc. If you are starting an email newsletter, test subject lines, check the open and read rates and compare the results each time you send one out. Over time you will work out what appeals to your customers and what works well. If you run an advertisement, use a separate phone number and/or landing page so you can measure how many people respond.
6. Review
   Marketing plans are never set in stone; they should be a living document. Review the results of your activities regularly and alter your plan to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. It is worth spending the time and effort to plan your marketing strategically. If all this sounds too daunting, consider the price of getting it wrong. The cost of planning yourself or having a plan prepared for you by an experienced marketing consultant is small compared to the cost of undertaking marketing activity that doesn’t deliver results.

Start planning your marketing success today!