2. An informed marketer is a smart marketer:<\/strong> Now you have your \u2018Dave\u2019 and \u2018Tracey\u2019 characters, you need to build an understanding of how they like to communicate. This market intelligence will inform your marketing strategy in terms of what communication channels you choose to utilise and where your budget will get the most bang for its marketing buck. As an example, there is no point investing time and money in updating your social media if you have yet to optimise your website for search engines.<\/p>\n 3. Messaging is key: <\/strong>What differentiates your business from your competitors? What are your unique selling points (USPs)? Use this information to develop a selection of key messages to include across all of your marketing communications to build a consistent voice and message. Avoid using phrases such as \u2018we can do this\u2019 and \u2018we offer that\u2019, instead focus on the benefit to your customer.<\/p>\n 4. Everyone loves a freebie:<\/strong> It is more cost effective to retain your current customer base \u2013 so look after them and treat them like kings! Weave into your strategic marketing plan initiatives that go the extra mile; they don\u2019t have to cost the world either. Here are some ideas to get you started:<\/p>\n 5. No strategy is perfect.\u00a0<\/strong>There is no end point with marketing strategy; it is fluid and there is always room for improvement. Ensure you are measuring the outputs and outcomes from your marketing activities to make informed decisions, perfect your approach, and spend your budget wisely.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2. Know who you are talking to<\/strong>. It seems obvious, but knowing who your target audience is, is crucial to perfecting your strategy. Your consumer will dictate what content you need to put out there. You\u2019re wasting your time if it\u2019s not relevant or valuable to them. Understand them and you will see the return you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n 3. Digital plays well with others<\/strong>. Digital should be integrated into your strategy and complement your more \u201ctraditional\u2019 channels. There is no reason why you should have a separate digital strategy. Your social media should work alongside your radio campaign and tie in with your print ad. Digital added new dimensions to the playing field but you\u2019re still playing the same game.<\/p>\n 4. Your team are your arsenal<\/strong>. No strategy should be written and planned by the marketing manager alone. Your team are your idea generators, your idea perfectors and essential to the implementation of your strategy. Arm yourself with the right people who are specialised in what they do so that you can lean on their expertise and they can help you drive a winning strategy.<\/p>\n 5. Love your brand<\/strong>. It may sound a little twee you but you really need to believe in what your brand is offering to be completely convincing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2. Planning. <\/strong>The key to success is planning. Every single marketing activity should run at maximum efficiency. Still it\u2019s important to remain flexible. If plans become too limiting and unadaptable, they fail to take realistic considerations into account and tend to be useless. Strong and reliable communication is paramount to success. Communicate with those who will be responsible for the execution of the various activities and ensure that your strategy is aligned with your corporation\u2019s overall road map. Focus on the target groups that promise the greatest chances of success depending on the activity in question. This allows you to decide what you want to communicate at what time period and minimises the wastage of resources that occurs when you put your time and effort into all of your target groups simultaneously.<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Budgeting<\/strong>. Budgeting has several benefits. You should know well ahead how much financing you need to accomplish your goals and similarly, your goals should incorporate your budget in order to be realistic. Planning a year or more ahead can also get you a lot of discounts!<\/p>\n 4. Tracking<\/strong>. It\u2019s important to measure your progress in order to know what to optimise in the future. Ideally, you want to have a number of concrete quantifiable goals to measure or key performance indicators, which can help you make important decisions.<\/p>\n 5. Internet. <\/strong>Nowadays the Internet is an extremely powerful communication platform, as it makes marketing a lot cheaper than before and reaches a vast amount of people. However, today people tend to develop defenses against nearly all forms of online advertising. Still, the Internet holds great opportunities such as content marketing. Through blog posts, infographics, pictures, videos, etc. a company can create trust, and more traffic on their corporate website (good for search engines) amongst a variety of other benefits. Your content should be available on every platform and every device. The website\u2019s address should be clearly listed in email signatures, business cards, letterheads – practically anywhere you can imagine. You should change your strategy from push to pull – how can you best be found on the Internet?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thanks to all our contributors for their valuable advice. For more expert tips be sure to follow us on\u00a0Facebook<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether your company is a start-up, small business or major corporation, there\u2019s no denying it stands to benefit from effective marketing. Regardless of how great your company\u2019s offering is, without marketing efforts there is a large probability that your brand will be ignored rather than embraced by potential customers. In today\u2019s edition of \u2018Tips from the Experts\u2019, we asked three business professionals to share their top five tips on how to perfect your businesses marketing strategy. Gemma Rawlinson, Director of Marketing Operations, Mosaic Publicity 1. Know your customer, not just your target market: Many businesses identify their target audience within their strategy, but customer persona development takes it one step further. Invest some time to build fictional characters of the people you communicate with and sell products or services to. This will help you to better understand your core customers, segment your audience and tailor your marketing content to them. Your customers could be a \u2018Digital Dave\u2019, a male that likes to buy online, or maybe a \u2018Traditional Tracey\u2019. Some companies go as far as making their profile customers into cardboard cut outs for their office as a visual reminder! 2. An informed marketer is a smart marketer: Now you have your \u2018Dave\u2019 and \u2018Tracey\u2019 characters, you need to build an understanding of how they like to communicate. This market intelligence will inform your marketing strategy in terms of what communication channels you choose to utilise and where your budget will get the most bang for its marketing buck. As an example, there is no point investing time and money in updating your social media if you have yet to optimise your website for search engines. 3. Messaging is key: What differentiates your business from your competitors? What are your unique selling points (USPs)? Use this information to develop a selection of key messages to include across all of your marketing communications to build a consistent voice and message. Avoid using phrases such as \u2018we can do this\u2019 and \u2018we offer that\u2019, instead focus on the benefit to your customer. 4. Everyone loves a freebie: It is more cost effective to retain your current customer base \u2013 so look after them and treat them like kings! Weave into your strategic marketing plan initiatives that go the extra mile; they don\u2019t have to cost the world either. Here are some ideas to get you started: Provide top tips and share online and via email Develop helpful content such as \u2018how to\u2019 guides Special offers and discounts to valued customers to encourage repeat business Freebies Offer reliable technical support 5. No strategy is perfect.\u00a0There is no end point with marketing strategy; it is fluid and there is always room for improvement. Ensure you are measuring the outputs and outcomes from your marketing activities to make informed decisions, perfect your approach, and spend your budget wisely. Chevaun Herholdt, Marketing Manager at the Red & Yellow School 1. Be prepared to roll with the punches. Your marketing strategy should be driven by your business strategy. Your business is driven by the consumer, who can be fickle at times. You will be forced to change your plans as their needs and trends change \u2013 and that\u2019s okay. 2. Know who you are talking to. It seems obvious, but knowing who your target audience is, is crucial to perfecting your strategy. Your consumer will dictate what content you need to put out there. You\u2019re wasting your time if it\u2019s not relevant or valuable to them. Understand them and you will see the return you\u2019re looking for. 3. Digital plays well with others. Digital should be integrated into your strategy and complement your more \u201ctraditional\u2019 channels. There is no reason why you should have a separate digital strategy. Your social media should work alongside your radio campaign and tie in with your print ad. Digital added new dimensions to the playing field but you\u2019re still playing the same game. 4. Your team are your arsenal. No strategy should be written and planned by the marketing manager alone. Your team are your idea generators, your idea perfectors and essential to the implementation of your strategy. Arm yourself with the right people who are specialised in what they do so that you can lean on their expertise and they can help you drive a winning strategy. 5. Love your brand. It may sound a little twee you but you really need to believe in what your brand is offering to be completely convincing. Markus Steinhauser, Co-Founder of Testbirds 1. Research, research, research. It\u2019s vital to know where you stand in the market. Therefore, it\u2019s important to align the needs of the market with your overall strategy and to research your target groups by clearly identifying your audience as well as understanding your product or service\u2019s clientele. Make sure to state how you wish your public image to be perceived and analyse your competition in your marketing strategy. Define your goals and have a clear, realistic image of where you want to take your company. Without knowing the various strengths, weaknesses, variables and risks, it\u2019s possible you might take your company in the wrong direction and are unable to identify the obstacles in your path. 2. Planning. The key to success is planning. Every single marketing activity should run at maximum efficiency. Still it\u2019s important to remain flexible. If plans become too limiting and unadaptable, they fail to take realistic considerations into account and tend to be useless. Strong and reliable communication is paramount to success. Communicate with those who will be responsible for the execution of the various activities and ensure that your strategy is aligned with your corporation\u2019s overall road map. Focus on the target groups that promise the greatest chances of success depending on the activity in question. This allows you to decide what you want to communicate at what time period and minimises the wastage of resources that occurs when you put your time and effort into all of your target groups<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,217],"tags":[7,137,93],"class_list":["post-2222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-growth","category-expert-tips","tag-business-tips-2","tag-marketing-strategy","tag-tips-from-the-experts-2"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n![\"gemma-rawlinson-1-768x952-720\"](\"http:\/\/uk.instantoffices.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Gemma-Rawlinson-1-768x952-720-242x300.jpg\")
1. Know your customer, not just your target market:<\/strong> Many businesses identify their target audience within their strategy, but customer persona development takes it one step further. Invest some time to build fictional characters of the people you communicate with and sell products or services to. This will help you to better understand your core customers, segment your audience and tailor your marketing content to them. Your customers could be a \u2018Digital Dave\u2019, a male that likes to buy online, or maybe a \u2018Traditional Tracey\u2019. Some companies go as far as making their profile customers into cardboard cut outs for their office as a visual reminder!<\/p>\n\n
Chevaun Herholdt, Marketing Manager at the Red & Yellow School<\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n
\n![\"chevaun-herholdt-720\"](\"http:\/\/uk.instantoffices.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Chevaun-Herholdt-720-229x300.jpg\")
1. Be prepared to roll with the punches<\/strong>. Your marketing strategy should be driven by your business strategy. Your business is driven by the consumer, who can be fickle at times. You will be forced to change your plans as their needs and trends change \u2013 and that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\nMarkus Steinhauser, Co-Founder of Testbirds<\/a><\/h2>\n
\n![\"markus-steinhauser-1\"](\"http:\/\/uk.instantoffices.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Markus-Steinhauser-1-200x300.jpg\")
1. Research, research, research. <\/strong>It\u2019s vital to know where you stand in the market. Therefore, it\u2019s important to align the needs of the market with your overall strategy and to research your target groups by clearly identifying your audience as well as understanding your product or service\u2019s clientele. Make sure to state how you wish your public image to be perceived and analyse your competition in your marketing strategy. Define your goals and have a clear, realistic image of where you want to take your company. Without knowing the various strengths, weaknesses, variables and risks, it\u2019s possible you might take your company in the wrong direction and are unable to identify the obstacles in your path.<\/span><\/p>\n