You’ve got a great product, you’re excited about sharing it with others and you know people need it. Great! But if you don’t get that message out, or worse, get it out to the wrong people, all of your hard work will be for naught.
That’s why creating a successful marketing campaign is so important. Here are 5 steps to do just that:
1. Know Your Audience
Take some time with this step because it’s the most important. You have to understand your product, what it does and how it helps people in order to come up with your target audience. Is your product best suited for single female professionals or middle-aged men with families? For example, if your product is chic women’s clothing, your marketing message shouldn’t go into a magazine that focuses on retirement or men’s golf clubs. Once you have this figured out, the rest is easy!
2. Define Your Budget
A comprehensive marketing campaign encompasses a wide variety of mediums, so come up with a budget for each one. For example, social media, print ads, promotional items such as Next Level wholesale t shirts, radio ads, website design, and blog posts, among others. Allocate funds to each area and stick to it. You should also plan to allocate a certain percentage of your income back into your marketing campaign. Remember, marketing is not a ‘set it and forget it’ aspect of your business.
3. Define Your Message
Content marketing is a critical aspect of your online presence. Facebook ads, blogs, your website and other social media outlets all rely on content marketing. If you don’t have the time to write these messages yourself, or writing isn’t your thing, hire someone to do it for you.
Plan that into your overall campaign budget. It is well worth the money and quality content is just as important as getting your message out to the right audience. That’s not to say your message will never change; you will have to tweak it every now and again so you give your customers fresh content that they want to read.
4. Diversify that Message
Thanks to the internet and social media, there are dozens of ways to get your ads and messages out to people who will benefit from your product or service. You can stay local or go global, depending on your business (there’s no sense advertising your restaurant in New York if you’re located in Phoenix).
Don’t make the mistake of advertising only online. Print ads are still valuable and newspapers are still a great way to go if you do it right. Never assume that people don’t read print materials anymore, especially if your target market is geared to retirees.
Trade shows can be a great way to brand your business, as can sponsoring a local sports team. Use your imagination to come up with ways to get your business name in front of as many people as possible. When creating your print ads, always include your website link and/or email, along with your phone number to make it easy for people to reach you.
5. Track Your Results
You need to know where your customers are coming from. Offer a discount on a first order, and use different codes for different ads. For instance, for Facebook ads, you could have something like, “Discount20”; for newspaper ads, you could have “Discount 30” etc.
Keep track of which codes you use with each ad. That way you know which ads are most effective and which ones you need to tweak. Google Analytics is an invaluable tool for tracking your ads and making sure your marketing dollars are well spent.
The good news is that you can use this strategy over and over again, with any number of products or services. This is a great way to keep your expenses to a minimum while increasing your profit steadily month after month.
