Marketing Is A Mountain To Climb, Not A Hill To Stroll
Marketing is a mountain to climb, not a hill to stroll. This, in effect, means that in order to achieve the best and most reliably rewarding marketing strategy, you must conform to a list of important duties.
A solid marketing strategy can potentially help your firm out of irrelevance, or it can cement its place as the top dog a little while longer.
You can have the most seamless internal communication structure, the best product or service to sell, and the most cost-effective methodology for carrying all of this out. However, if your marketing is non-existent or paints a negative image of your firm, most of your good work has already been wasted.
There are a few elements that contribute to a wholesome and cohesive marketing strategy, that will reman relevant for many years.
The following guiding marketing principles can help you frame your efforts in this light, and potentially gain a wealth of new consumers, customers or clients that you and your firm truly deserve.
Consistency
A consistent approach is often the best approach when developing your initial marketing strategy. After the first few advertisements are run, it’s always best for a consumer to immediately recognise your marketing brand before the full advertisement has concluded.
This might mean sheltering your overall marketing efforts within certain themes. For example, fragrances often want to be known as ethereal, premium, effervescent and out of this world.
This is why their advertisements often depict something such as a nude man or woman riding majestically on a white stallion, or something to that effect.
When looked at in reflection this might sound ridiculous, and it might take on a comical tone. However, the image is strong, and one that people can viscerally connect to.
We’ve also come to expect this from fragrance ads, meaning that people subconsciously are looking for it when trying to be sold on the ‘poetic beauty’ of wearing a top designer fragrance.
Consider how your item can be sold, using the demographics in part to determine this, and try to achieve a consistent approach, at least within the confines of your current marketing strategy.
If it doesn’t work, at least you’ll know why, and what not to replicate in the future.
Stability
It’s important that no matter what stylistic choice you choose, you are able to offer a stability in your image. This allows people to feel that you’re a newcomer on the scene with some weight, rather than a startup simply trying to look good.
For example, try to establish in your advertising campaign how long you and your business have been around. Simply adding an ‘Est. 2003,’ to your end placeholders or graphic design advertisements can contribute to this.
Every decision you make within the scope of your marketing attempt matters, and small choices like this can speak volumes about your brand. If you need to prioritize them, then we’d recommend making stability a pinnacle of your sellable image.
Making Good
If you offer something in your advertisement, you need to back that up with positive action towards that goal. For example, if you sell your burger brand on the fact that your meat is sustainably sourced, well spiced and is the best-chargrilled meat you can find for your price range, then you need to make good one that.
Deception can be found out rather quickly, and even if you’re not legally committing any crimes, people will be sure to denigrate and discuss your transgressions on social media.
Make good on every statement you put out there, as the life and reputation of your firm demands it.
Leaving No One Out
Knowing your demographic is important, and this can help you tailor strategies to a select customer base. This can increase the effectiveness of any advertising campaign you conduct, potentially reaping the rewards in new loyal customer and those who feel you are directly tailoring your marketing strategy just for them.
However, this can sometimes isolate firms from an even larger audience.
You should always assume that while your targeted demographic is important, anyone could potentially become a part of this group. For example, if you sell artistic supplies your product is probably accessible and available for everyone to use. You could attract artistic novices looking to make this a hobby and also those with a passion to create a business from their craft.
With this effort in mind, you will effectively open your doors to anyone who wants to become part of the identity associated with the use of your brand.
This can be more difficult when it comes to targeted products, such as those that help people with a disability to manoeuvre. In these cases ensure your value marketing is easy to understand, no matter who sees it. This can be a great way to prevent limiting sales.
More Than One
Sometimes running more than one marketing campaign at the same time can be good sense, despite the doubled investment cost. For example, let’s say you’re a comic book retailer.
On the one hand you could target comic-con attendees who are deeply involved in cosplay culture by sponsoring a cosplay competition. Concurrently, create a new marketing campaign online tailored to those who just enjoy reading the odd comic book can allow for a wide-spanning range of exposure.
This is more effective when you have a product or service that spans a wide range of people. Sometimes two targeted marketing efforts are more reliable than one overly generalized campaign.
Informing Staff
Ensure you spend the time in staff training necessary to make good on your marketing offerings. For example, when offering a new food product range, all of your staff need to be made aware of its ingredients, how to make it and the potential customization options a patron might choose.
It might be ensuring your telephone answering services are well consulted regarding the scope of your new product offerings, so as to provide the correct support when needed.
Your staff must never look or sound lost when asked about a new product line, or service you have exposed to your marketing efforts. This means preemptively training them before ever going life with your new exposure framework.
With this marketing advice in mind, climbing that mountain will be easier than ever, as you’ll have prepared and will have brought the correct tools to conquer through and through.
Insanely Clever Marketing 