Marketing is the first step to making sales. Some would argue it is the most critical step. Your campaigns can make or break your business. Get them right, and you will see a rise in turnover, get them wrong, and you can turn the consumer off of your business and end up losing loyal customers. This is why it’s vital that you have a well thought out marketing plan and that you stick with it.
One of the most important parts of marketing is to know your brand, your stakeholders and the current trends. You need to understand the voice of your company and to do this, you need to understand the needs of your target audience. Now we are living in a digital era, and you have direct access to your key market twenty-four hours a day. You can directly engage with them and have a stronger chance of getting to know what drives them to purchase a product.
Market research will help you strengthen your next marketing campaign, but if you want to stand out, you need to start thinking outside the box. With the internet at your fingertips, there are lots of innovative ways you can get the attention of your target audience and stand out against your competitors. Utilize the thing we use every day for free: social media. Take out an ad on Instagram or Facebook. Social media is a great way to reach your target audience quickly and effectively without having to waste too much money. Regardless, the ROI of Facebook ads is worth the money you pay for them. You cannot have a marketing campaign in today’s business landscape without incorporating social media. Including social media in your campaigns has become a way to stay current against your competition.
Video campaigns are really popular, with companies such as Nike creating cinematic short YouTube campaigns that can also be chopped into bite-sized pieces. These videos may be short; however, the production that has gone into them is incredible. Budgets for marketing campaigns are reaching extreme ends of the scale. If you want to stand out and be unique, you could consider outsourcing an animation video production company. This will save you some costs but will deliver a unique and exciting campaign that could make your audience take note.
You could also step up your interactive marketing experiences. Using tablets or screens at events to get your audience to engage with you. It’s also a smart move to work out a catchy hashtag that you can encourage your users to adopt when they are posting about you. Marin bikes have adopted #madeforfun, which is now used all over the world by their mountain bike family on every post.
Try to think above and beyond the traditional marketing ideas, however, don’t forget that there is still a place for the old school marketing rules. While the media we use today has changed, the actual formula for successful campaigns has remained the same. So speak to your team and work out the cornerstone of your campaign, then get creative and bold.
Using humour is a great idea; however, there is a time and a place. You also need to remember that your target audience won’t all have the same humor as you do. One great idea is to show your new campaign to a selected group of your target market. This post-production research can help you see the reaction you are most likely to receive when you eventually go live.
Remember, research your competitors. Build your plan. Be bold.
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