So through the planning stage you know who you are targeting and how to get to them, you now need to create the tools, this could be an email campaign, direct mail, advert etc. The 3 core parts to this stage are design, delivery and data:

Design – By investing in professional, well thought out design you will increase your chances of success dramatically, this is the first thing a prospect will notice so you need to make sure it not only looks good and reads well but actually works commercially for your business – simply put it should be clear, compelling, concise and consistent.

“Design Council research proves that businesses that use design as a key strategic driver are consistently more successful. For example:
– A business that increases its investment in design is more than twice as likely to see its turnover grow as a business that does not do so
– Shares in design-led businesses outperformed key stock indices by 200 per cent for a decade
– Rapidly growing businesses are six times more likely than static ones to see design as integral to their business.” http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/about-design/

Delivery– Once the design is signed off you then need to make sure you use the right tools to distribute, for example there is no point spending £000’s on a great design if you then print it out in house on 80gsm paper in B&W. You also need to consider who the audience is and always make sure the delivery tool is suitable for them, afterall is email the best way to reach 80 year old females?

Data – Brilliant design and a fantastic delivery method are all almost useless if you don’t have the data or access to your market, The key, in our experience, to good data is to make sure it is accurate, specific, current and reliable. You also need to establish a good CRM system which enable you to maximise the use of your data in terms of reports and analytics.

So that’s the action stage complete, but the work hasn’t stopped there as you will see next time…

Now I know that there are plenty of cycles, formulas and models surrounding how to market a business effectively, however during a twitter conversation with @MarketingDonut I came up with the following sequence / cycle that although I use has never been formally recorded. From experience I know this works for most marketing campaigns, from small direct mailings to large scale email and web based activities, and I wanted to share it with you –

 Plan      –       Action      –       Measure       –       Review      –     Retest

My aim is that this simple, but effective sequence will help businesses to expand their knowledge and go away and do something differently (and more successfully!) with their next marketing campaign.

Before I start please be aware that this process is cyclical so in order to make this work you need to use it in this way, it’s a learning curve and changing process with each stage being just as important as the next.

Stage 1 – Plan

I am always surprised to hear a number of businesses don’t formally do any planning for their marketing (or sometimes their business in general), planning is more often than not the key to most marketing and business success, as they say failing to plan is planning to fail. Therefore at the most basic of levels you need to consider the following before commencing any marketing campaign, I would suggest writing down the anwers –

Who are you targeting (small businesses, 50 year old females…)?

Where are they found (homes, workplace, leisure activities….)?

What do they like / dislike (price, quality, accessibility…)?

What medium will reach them (email, leaflets, adverts…)?

What are you trying to say (sale on, we have opened a new store…)?

Why should they buy from you (service, price, knowledge….)?

What do you want them to do (call you, visit website…)?

What do you want to achieve (brand awareness, enquiries, sales….)?

What does success look like (10 enquiries, 1 sale, increase in footfall…)? 

This list could easily go on and on and I would, as stated before, write your answers down – use a mind map, have a brain storm or whatever format you are comfortable with. This will then start to make some sense and will allow you to start to organise the information into sections and priorities which will, in turn, help you formulate the structure and message.

Always bear in mind that different businesses have different markets and you need to know and understand your own, some may be very broad whereas others are extremely niche, this planning process should go into as much detail as possible so you can define your campaign strategy to directly meet the requirements of your market.

By thinking about the answers, writing them down and doing some research you will go a long way to identifying what marketing tools you should be using, what message to send out and how you can maximise your success.

Keep your eyes open for the next blog post which will introduce the ‘action’ stage….