Determine Your Marketing channels
Once your audience sets are established we can decide on the appropriate channels to use to communicate with them. It is important to establish the correct channels and not just every channel available so resources (and budget) are used wisely and not spread too thinly.
There are many marketing channels – social media, emails, blogs, website SEO, press releases, printed literature, on and offline adverts, and brochures to name a few.
We identify the channels we believe will give the best return based on identified audiences. We then measure the successes and failures of each channel and evolve as appropriate.
Marketing Content and Execution
Now that we know who we are targeting and where they are likely to hang out, we can begin to start the creative process of planning campaigns.
We use a marketing activity calendar to highlight relevant promotional dates and events and plot when to launch various content. The activity plan ensures we are always looking to the future so opportunities are not missed and always maximised. A scheduling service such as Buffer or Hootsuite is used to schedule evergreen posts whilst leaving the opportunity for ‘here and now’ posts.
Marketing Budget
The marketing budget agreed upon is taken into account whilst creating all marketing campaigns to ensure we do not exceed limits on money, time and other resources.
Monitoring & Evaluation
The marketing plan is an evolving project that will change and grow as time moves on and we learn more.
It is vital to the success of the business that it can be fluid and adapt to changing environments and social and economic factors. Monitoring our marketing campaigns and evaluating successes and failures will enable me to determine future steps.
I will look at several results including website traffic, website lead generation/conversions, SEO (search engine optimisation) results, social media stats (organic and paid), and email open and click-through rates. I obtain this information from Google Analytics, Mailchimp reports, Buffer/Hootsuite social reports, and Facebook business and social insights.