Marketing strategy: Do you have a 360-degree marketing plan?

Does your marketing plan have a 360-degree view?

Are you wasting your advertising money?

Having a marketing plan is crucial for your business. This impacts how you will grow and progress but also how you stop yourself from backtracking.

In the 1800s, John Wannamaker said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half”. For many businesses today, it may be more than half, often because they lack sufficient marketing strategy, planning, execution, and measurement. You cannot expect your marketing dollars to be put to good use without first doing your due diligence by planning your next move.

A goal without a plan is just a wish. Spending money on marketing without a plan is just wasting money. A great marketing plan requires strategy.

Want help developing a marketing strategy? 

In starting, it’s helpful to take a full 360 view of your business and all the factors under your control. For example, your target customer, how your brand/product brings them value, and how or why your brand is better or different than your competitors. Then look at your factors beyond your control: your competitors’ actions, the economy, and the market overall. Focus on what you can control, but prepare to react to what you can’t control. 

By taking a step backing and analyzing the market you are in and what makes your business special, you will be able to put together a much more thought-out marketing strategy. Lots of people rush the early stages, looking for quick turnovers and conversions, but without a solid foundation to base your efforts on, you could end up wasting money or even worse…wasting money

After you set a goal, evaluate the risks/rewards of all your alternatives, and run the numbers. Plan, test, and measure. From what you learn, you will have more confidence that your marketing plan will deliver the results you expect.

Get more information about developing a 360-view strategy for your marketing. There’s always more to learn and we encourage you to educate yourself before potentially wasting any of your precious advertising budget…and remember, we can always help.

Brand strategy is critical to marketing success

Does your brand have an emotional connection with your customers? If so, can it be correlated to higher sales and profit? Yes.

Ad agency MBLM produces an annual Brand Intimacy report. It tracks the performance of “intimate brands,” which create stronger emotional bonds with their customers than their competitors do. Intimate brands build more trust and loyalty.

During the pandemic, the report shows that intimate brands have outperformed other S&P 500 and Fortune 500 peers in both revenue and profit.

In fact, intimate brands’ year-over-year profits grow about twice the rate of non-intimate brands. Their stock price also tends to outperform both indices.

A brand doesn’t have to be Amazon, Disney, or Apple to build an emotional connection with its customers. It can be a family-owned print shop or a neighborhood salon.

Also, logos, trademarks, colors, and type styles can play a part in the identity of a brand’s strategy. Brand naming agencies can help with the research and development of these brands. Considerations include competitive positioning, customer journeys, market landscapes, and societal trends.

You can build an intimate brand with how you treat your customers, how your service makes them feel, and how you exceed their expectations time after time. Those customers won’t leave you for a better price.

If you are considering hiring a digital marketing agency to help with your brand, look around and find an agency that is best suited to your needs. A good way to start is to create a digital marketing RFP. What is an rfp? Learn more here.