Putting together your business’s marketing plan can be more daunting than attempting to run a marathon in a pair of broken thongs.
But it doesn’t need to be. To say putting together a marketing plan often sounds like an overwhelming experience would be an understatement – and we understand why. Word of mouth can only get you so far, so at a certain point it doesn’t matter how good your product or service is – you’re going to need a solid marketing plan to take your business into its next phase.
Our first assumption is often to start by focusing on your product or service’s benefits and features. But before you can really dig into what makes your business so great, it’s crucial to identify who needs to hear it. You need to start with your audience. You might know you’re the best on the block, but your audience sure as hell doesn’t. Ask yourself, who is using your products or services? What are some of the ways they identify collectively? Can you make them feel a certain way when they use your product or service?
In the last decade, marketing has become all about identification and defining who is using your product or service. If you consider the targeting available now with advertisers, it’s about how you can define your audience and know what placements get you the best results. The more you can define said audience, the easier it is to identify what works. Tapping into specific audiences with a specific service offering can assist in your brand cutting through the rest.Once you define your audience, your marketing will begin to resonate. This is how you can foster brand loyalty between your brand and your audience. If you’re looking for a few tips on how to do this – we’ve got you covered:
1. Create marketing personas
Create personas that represent your ideal customer. It doesn’t matter whether that’s 34 year old accountant Jeff who loves skiing with the family or 72 year old retiree Huong who spends her days growing veggies in the backyard, that’s your customer. From here, you can develop your content to best fit the desires of your personas. You’ll have an idea of what messaging will best target your audience.
2. Check your analytics
Create personas that represent your ideal customer. It doesn’t matter whether that’s 34 year old accountant Jeff who loves skiing with the family or 72 year old retiree Huong who spends her days growing veggies in the backyard, that’s your customer. From here, you can develop your content to best fit the desires of your personas. You’ll have an idea of what messaging will best target your audience.
3. Test, test and test some more
You should assume testing different types of content is a given. Even with all your data, you never know for sure what will resonate with people and what won’t. So different types of content, different campaigns and ad objectives are crucial to see what creates the most engagement, leads and conversions.