A marketing campaign isn’t something that comes to you while you’re having a coffee break. Successful campaigns tend to be carefully researched and focused on details and execution, rather than based around a single, grand idea.
Planning a marketing campaign starts with understanding your position in the marketplace, and ends with details like the wording of an advertisement.
Emphasise your business ethos in everything, from uniforms to poster printing and your office decor.For example, if your products are naturally derived and organic, make sure all components reflect this, such as incorporating green bags and packaging.
Small Budget, Big Marketing
Most small businesses operate on tight budgets. You often have to watch your spending carefully, and this means reducing expenses in some key areas. But clever marketing is one area you can’t afford to downsize.
Effective marketing campaigns can bring in a large number of potential sales leads, making them important in building the company.
With tight budgets, many small businesses run small campaigns. However, this can cause the company to lose out on creating value with the promotion, as they fail to reach enough of the audience.
The Right Size
A marketing strategy can be shaped to fit any sizeof a company. Start by including these steps to ensure the right marketing campaign for your business size:
- Define and align goals – Marketing must begin by identifying the goals. What are you trying to achieve? How will a new website reach that goal? Is a website the best way to tackle the problem? Are there other options?
- Understand the target audience – Describe everything that defines your ideal buyer. With the right research, you will uncover what the buyer thinks, how they shop for your product, and what features they value. This knowledge will guide your marketing campaign to the best place, time, approach and way to communicate.
Where to Start
- With limited time and financial resources, use your sales team to do the groundwork research, becauseoften, theycan provide a wealth of information.
- Current customers are often willing interviewees.
- Consider online surveys to capture an even broader point of view.
- Social media is a fantastic tool for understanding how trending views, ideas and issues might influence your marketing tactics.
Together, these research opportunities will help you to refine:
- What type of messaging is most appealing and believable;
- What buyers value most;
- How they make purchase decisions;
- Where they get their information; and
- What sources they trust.
When you start thinking about your future sales goals, don’t get overwhelmed thinking about the over-the-top marketing campaigns you’ll need to create. Instead, scale back your message, target your audience and develop an open dialogue, and you’ll be amazed at the results you get within a much smaller budget.
To stay on top of ever-changing business conditions, your marketing strategy should always be assessed regularly; and if necessary, adjustments should be made to adapt to any situation. Be aware that parts of your marketing plan may perform better than some, so see to it that you review often and rework your strategy regularly.
