I’m stuck! How do I start working on a marketing strategy?
Does that sound familiar? Yep, we hear ya!
We know finding the starting point to get working on your marketing strategy can often be the barrier in even having a strategy to begin with. ‘Where do I start?’ ‘What do I do?’ ‘This is too damn hard!’.
But rest assured, we’re here to make this mammoth task, as simple as possible, so you start the New Year right. A solid marketing strategy is not just about planning, but also about setting realistic goals and understanding that results may take time to be achieved and crushed.
Here’s a few things to help you get started:
1. Set your objectives and make them super clear
Ask yourself, ‘What do I want to achieve this year?’ Are you looking to increase your brand’s awareness or drive more leads? Looking to grow your social media platform? Whatever the objective, make sure it’s measurable and realistic.
2. Get up close and personal with your audience
Without sounding too stalker-ish, get up close with your audience and understand them inside out. Understand their demographics, behaviours and interests. Identify your ideal customer and create a strategy that is tailored to them.
3. Be smart with your budget
Whether you’re putting your money towards paid advertising, email marketing, or content creation, it’s essential to have a clear budget. This will help avoid overspending unnecessary (or unavailable) funds, while getting the best bang for your buck.
Tip: this is where reporting and tracking plays a huge role in determining what works well.
4. Plan your content
Content really plays the heavy lifting game and can drive a successful marketing strategy. Make it simple; have a content calendar that allows you to plan out key dates and milestones, create powerful content pillars or themes and monitor what keeps your audience engaged.
5. Don’t forget to track and monitor
Marketing is not a set-and-forget process. Use analytics to track your progress regularly and monitor what is performing super well for your audience. Above all, ensure it aligns with your goals that you previously set. If something isn’t working, it’s also ok to pivot.
Not that you need permission from us, but that’s the beauty of digital marketing and strategy – things can change and that’s ok.
These 5 key steps will act as the perfect stepping stone to creating a marketing strategy that is going to align your business goals and give you a nice, clear direction around how to achieve them all in the New Year!
And if you get stuck? You know who to call!
(Hive, in case that wasn’t clear).
