This article was written by:
Lewis Robinson, Business Consultant and Writer.
More effective ways to market a business can benefit almost every aspect of a company’s growth, expansion and future prospects for success. Developing a strategy helps to ensure that promotional efforts are able to benefit from greater focus and direction. From establishing initial goals to taking advantage of the latest advertising tools and tactics, crafting a marketing plan and designating a full-time marketing team to manage it can be of immense benefit.
Setting Benchmarks and Goals
Having a set goal or goals in mind makes it much easier to judge the effectiveness and impact of a promotional campaign. Outlining key metrics and determining which aspects of a marketing strategy are the most crucial ensures that businesses are better able fine-tune their approach. Knowing which promotional tactics are working and which may be wasting time, effort or financial resources means that more insightful and effective decisions will be made.
Tracking Progress
While determining whether or not a marketing campaign is having an impact can be a straightforward proposition, quantifying the results is often a little more complicated. Businesses that take a scattershot approach to their promotional efforts can find it all but impossible to track their progress or to gauge the effectiveness of their efforts. While establishing a long-term goal is an essential step in the process, weighing actual results against projections can produce further insight.
Targeting the Right Demographic
Demographic-based promotional tactics can yield impressive results but dialing in on the target demographic may involve more than a little trial-and-error. For businesses who fail to develop and maintain customer profiles or whose marketing team may be asking themselves what is inbound marketing, designing a marketing strategy that focuses on a specific demographic can feel like an impossible goal. The good news is that even basic efforts, such as outlining the major consumer trends and habits of their customers or choosing a marketing format that makes it easier to attract a specific age group may begin to show results.
Making Incremental Changes
A stagnant marketing strategy or outdated promotional plan can be a real liability. Consumer habits have a way of changing and evolving, often more rapidly than many businesses realize. Strategies that are allowed to fall behind the times may begin to underperform and could even have a negative impact on a business’s image and reputation. Inept marketing efforts and antiquated promotional tactics could leave businesses looking out of touch. One of the benefits of working with a dedicated marketing team is that it makes it much easier to manage an ongoing promotional strategy and to ensure that a business’s long-term marketing plan is able to change and evolve in order to keep up with the times.
Utilizing the Latest Tools and Resources
The latest marketing tools can be a key asset, one that will help businesses to keep up with the ever-shifting and evolving trends and habits of their clientele. Until quite recently, tactics and resources like using social-media sites and services to promote a business were regarded as a niche resource. Today, almost 75 percent of small businesses utilize social-media marketing as part of their overall promotional strategy. Emerging technologies and the latest digital and online promotional resources can quickly become an indispensable resource, often much faster than many businesses might realize. Organizations that fail to keep up could soon find themselves at a real disadvantage.
Why Every Business Needs a Marketing Team
A dedicated marketing team is a key asset, one that businesses can leverage in order to achieve greater success with their promotional plans and advertising efforts. Relying on an understaffed department or tasking a full-time employee to who may have other duties to manage their promotional efforts can be a serious miscalculation. From establishing a more recognizable brand to devising more cost-effective marketing plans and promotional strategies, the insight, efforts and solutions that only a dedicated marketing department can bring to the table often allow businesses to market themselves to greater effect.
Lewis Robinson is a business consultant specializing in CRM and sales. He’s helped start several small businesses. He currently spends his time as a writer and personal consultant.
