An effective marketing strategy is a must for the success of even the best product of industry. Reaching the minds of target buyers in the right way is essential for making sales. There are two aspects of a marketing plan assignment: marketing strategy and marketing plan. Marketing strategy has to be updated and changes should be made accordingly to reinvent the marketing plan assignment as a whole.
While taking steps for reinvention, few things should be kept in minds which are as follows:
- Marketing is more than advertising: This is a common mistake for most of marketers. Advertising is a part of marketing but has a much wider ambit. Marketing is a process and not an event. It includes planning the strategies, implementation, and follow-ups. So while planning to take any steps for improvement, keep in mind that there is a clear difference between marketing and advertising.
- Consistency and perseverance: Before starting to make any changes, we must focus on the fact that for how long have we implemented the previous strategy. It here means that every strategy should be given sufficient time to show results before planning for any new strategy.
After analyzing the above two points, marketer can now go on to select a method or a combination of methods best suited for reinvention of his marketing plan assignment. Some of the ways are listed below:
- Data analysis: First of all the data accumulated from the previous marketing plan should be analyzed thoroughly to identify the problem areas. Use analytical tools like Google Analytics. It helps to know what area of your marketing plan brings a lot of traffic without creating enough output.
- 80/20 rule: The famous rule given by Pareto can be used here to remodel the marketing strategy. This rule states that 80% of the revenue comes from 20% of the customers. Hence while marketing, focus should be on these consumers and strategies should be built for them. One way to strengthen the relationship with top customers is to send periodic newsletters to keep them updated about the latest products, services, and offers.
- Spread the budget: Putting all the eggs in one basket can turn out to be more harmful than useful. So it is always advisable to spread your marketing budget across various strategies. Introduce a new scheme, even a small one, every few months. This will keep the customers attracted to the product or service. Several avenues should be researched and experiments should be conducted. Key performance indicators should be tracked to measure the performance of each strategy.
- Increase the number of meetings: Senior marketers should increase the number of meetings they hold with the people responsible for implementation. This helps to boost motivation in the employees as well as keep a check on the performance. Following issues should be addressed in these meetings:
- Any new content or ad that was made during the period
- Performance of a previous strategy
- Talk about the changes in strategies of competitors
- Brainstorm ideas and trending topics which can be useful to the marketing of products.
- Strengthen relationships: Only creating sales does not make a marketing plan successful, but these sales should be consistent and long-term. For this, it is necessary to develop and nurture long-term relationships based on trust. Brand-positioning is all about building and maintaining consumers’ trust. To build this kind of trust, marketing efforts should be as personal as possible. Social media marketing can be used as an important tool of personalized marketing.
- Create curiosity for the audience: This can be a very effective marketing strategy. For example: an ad film saying that a product is good in quality will be less effective than the one which is saying that if you want to judge the quality of the product try it. This will catch the attention of potential consumers and compel them to give the product a try. Leave your marketing strategy at a note where consumers are bound to take a step further to know what is going to happen next.
- Charity begins at home: Every business house should engage in some sort of charitable events. This not only creates a good image for the audience but attract many new customers. Even if you don’t want to take the hassle of creating an event, being a sponsor can also attract a large amount of attention. A huge amount of publicity can be gained through these events and even free samples can be distributed at such places.
A mix of above strategies can be used to reinvent your marketing plan assignment based on the needs of your business. Whether you use some or all of the above strategies, point to be noted is that marketing is not a static field and being agile here is critical. If you want to successful everyday, it is important that you are ready to adapt to the needs, wants, and problems of consumers.
