Boost your marketing strategy

Make your marketing matter. The key to refining and authentic and successful strategy really comes down to one key element. HUMANS. Keeping a customer focus and having empathy for those you are providing products or services for can be a key differentiator to gaining results and developing new innovative strategies.

Marketing is a fast paced gig. You develop a strategy, implement it and before you know it the next market opportunity arises, and the gauntlet is laid down in front of you. Marketing professionals are adept at moving quickly onto the next campaign or initiative.

However, it’s important for anyone in marketing to honour the process of analysis and reflection. Without this our marketing budget can be wasted on repeating the same mistakes time and time again.

Keep the customer at the centre of your plans.

In short get the best understanding possible of your consumer. Only then can you unlock their true needs and tailor relevant marketing messages.

This could mean analysing sales data or market and industry trends but keep in mind these aren’t just numbers. They are there to tell you something. Become a master at seeking and interpreting key insights from data.

You may be working for a small to medium business that simply doesn’t have access to big industry data or even a client database. Don’t be disheartened. Talk to people in your organisation who liaise directly with your end consumer. For example, research incoming calls and enquiries and see what people are enquiring about. Are there any trends? Talk to people who are at the coal face. It might be a sales team or service delivery team. What questions and issues do they repeatedly face?

Have your customers talked to you lately?

Whether its via gleaming testimonials or complaints this is all vital information your customers are giving you. They are openly sharing their experience using your product or service and it hasn’t cost you a cent in focus groups or surveys. Never dismiss this feedback. It’s what can make your entire marketing strategy relevant or irrelevant to your audience.

Take a step back to see the big picture.

All marketing activities should align with the organisations overarching objectives. Take note of what your CEO is trying to achieve and check in with what your sales team are working towards. Joint team initiatives are always going to gain more engagement and traction than if you try to go it alone. Successful marketers do more than sit behind a desk!

Go live but keep your finger on the pulse.

Ensure you track and monitor your campaign as its happening. Gone are the days where our campaign goes to print or to air and we hope for the best. Create check points throughout your campaign to see what the results are looking like and make changes or build on this if required.

Give the odd shout out!

Keep your team engaged by demonstrating results of your initiatives and keep them inspired. Make it fun and about the collective achievement.

It’s never over.

Once your campaign is complete, dedicate time for you and your team to analyse your campaign. Share the outcomes and results but also spend time analysing what worked well and what could have been done better.

The only way to achieve continual improvement in anything we do is to take time to analyse and reflect. Use these tips to start your journey in creating an innovative marketing team. For more advise on a simple repeatable process you can implement to innovate your marketing initiatives reach out to livbydesign.com.au