With 2017 well underway, the time is definitely now if you haven\u2019t yet looked ahead to start planning your marketing strategy. Quite often, working out a logical plan of action in terms of your marketing planning can be overwhelming when you have to consider all the different channels, audiences and costs involved, not to mention the commitment in terms of time and effort. The good news is, we\u2019re here to help guide the process and offer some clarity to help you get an effective and achievable marketing plan designed and implemented.<\/p>\n
First thing\u2019s first, you\u2019re going to need to ask yourself some very basic questions: What do we do? Why is our offering better than the competition? Who do we sell to? Who do we want to sell to? They might sound obvious but the answers to those questions might surprise you once you\u2019ve given them some careful thought.<\/p>\n
Once you know who you are trying to talk to it becomes far more easy to work out the best way to engage them in a conversation! Factors to consider are demographics, location, logistics, situation (i.e. are you trying to capture your potential customer\u2019s attention while they are at work, at home, at leisure?)<\/p>\n
Now you know the what, the who, the where, and the when, all that is left is the how and that is entirely dependent on the answers to all the other elements. Each company\u2019s perfect marketing plan is researched, developed and implemented. However, there will be a number of common channels that feature in many plans to one extent or another. They include, but are not limited to\u2026<\/p>\n
Brand<\/p>\n
Digital<\/p>\n
Email marketing<\/p>\n
SEO and PPC<\/p>\n
Social media<\/p>\n
Sales toolkit<\/p>\n
Marketing collateral<\/p>\n
Direct mail<\/p>\n
Corporate stationery<\/p>\n
Internal communications<\/p>\n
PR<\/p>\n
Strategic alliances<\/p>\n
Hopefully this gives you somewhere to start and something to think about but if you are still looking at a blank sheet of paper please don\u2019t despair!<\/p>\n