“I want to expand my business, but where do I start with my marketing?” The options are practically limitless when it comes to deciding on a comprehensive marketing plan, so defining your goals and strategy are basic first steps in outlining a successful path.

Defining Your Goals

What results do you wish to see from your marketing? Some objectives may include:

  • More visits to your website – Start with Analytics to determine how many users are currently coming to your website and what’s bringing them there. Having Google Analytics on your website and monitoring it often can give you valuable information regarding traffic and help define your plan, saving you money and frustration! Defining your target audience is crucial and will help determine which media are right for you.
  • More appointments booked – Social Media, Search Engine Marketing, and targeted digital campaigns are just a few options that can help get more appointments.
  • New customers – Identifying your audience and serving them quality creative is key! Are you positioning your brand properly for long term success?
  • Expanded relationships with current customers – Continue to communicate with your customers and provide excellent customer service. If not, your competitors will. Perhaps e-mailing your database or having a text campaign in place is best, depending on your business and goals.

Each of these goals may require slightly different tactics, but there is one common thread in terms of results from each: they all work to build relationships and your brand.

Media Tactics

Some media options include:

  • Digital Ads and Video Display (ads you see when visiting websites and apps)
  • TV: OTT/ Streaming TV (like Roku and Apple TV) and Broadcast Networks
  • Audio: Broadcast Radio, Digital Radio (like Pandora and Spotify) and Podcasts
  • Social Media (Having a defined audience can determine which social media are most appropriate for your business. For example: LinkedIn vs TikTok)
  • Print
  • Billboards
  • E-Blasts
  • Search Engine Marketing
  • Public Relations and Press Releases
  • Sponsorships

The options are limitless and determining your budget can be a challenge.

Budget

If your budget can afford it, diversifying into various media provide a more integrated approach. Should you hire someone in-house or engage with an agency? One benefit of hiring an agency is that you get an entire team of highly skilled marketing professionals for a fraction of the cost to hire someone in-house, and an agency can bring technical knowledge of the industry to help guide a strategic plan and deliver desired results.

Content

Make sure your content appropriately fits your audience and addresses your goals. Brand awareness should always be top of mind, and using a call to action is useful in encouraging customer engagement. For example, if your defined goal is to have a new customer come into your store, make your call to action reflect that.

Results

And remember, results do not usually happen overnight. We ask for a 90 day commitment from clients to see more accurate performance. When analyzing a campaign’s performance, make sure your metrics match the goals you defined in the beginning. If your goal is to drive traffic to your website, you will want to look at click through rates on ads and visits to your website via analytics. In raising brand awareness for example, the number of impressions can be more valuable than the number of likes a social post gets.

Always Adapt and Try New Things

While it’s important to maintain brand consistency for customer loyalty, changing content keeps your audience engaged with your business. Testing can be helpful to see which campaigns are more successful, especially when you have analytics to give you measured results of various tactics. Staying fresh and relevant and trying new things can bring new customers more effective marketing!

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