Marketing has always been evolving every year; therefore, it’s possible to find something that worked a few years ago being almost completely obsolete today. This means that if you want to stay competitive and have successful marketing campaigns in 2021, you need to improve your marketing strategies. The good news is that there are amazing ways to improve your marketing this year, so keep reading.
Analyze your competitors
As a marketer, it’s likely you know that one of the best ways to create a good marketing strategy is to check what your competitors are doing to come up with something that is more “complete.” However, like many marketers, you may be focusing your efforts on analyzing your competitors’ services or products through their sales data; and keeping tabs on what they’re generally doing from a distance.
While that’s great, you need to go a step further and consult your existing customers to gain more insight. Ask them what they think are the real differences between what you’re offering and what your competitors are offering. Besides appreciating your concern and readiness to improve, they’ll provide you with valuable details that can assist you to advance your own marketing efforts.
Use targeting
Next, find out which market segment you really desire to reach. In other words, create what you’d refer to as “buyer” personas to define the various groups of people. Pay attention to each persona and determine each subset’s characteristics. Ask yourself questions like, “What do they like or hate?” “Where do they go to unwind?” “What challenges do they share?”
Essentially, you should be able to determine the attributes of your audience’s sub-groups so that you aim your campaigns to them more accurately.
Understand the kind of metrics you should track
To improve your marketing strategy, you need to try and see whether it’s helping you meet your goals by monitoring it closely. For instance, if you are looking to generate IT leads, a simple performance monitoring can help you understand whether your IT lead gen ideas are worth keeping.
You can use metrics like traffic, leads, sales, or even social media engagement. Some of the most important metrics you can track include consumption and sharing metrics. The former entails downloads, page views, page visits, and so forth. The latter can tell you the number of times your content has been shared on social media. You can also utilize lead generation metrics, which can tell you how often visitors subscribe to your list or request a quote. With sales metrics, conversely, you can know how often your leads convert into actual sales.
Your marketing strategy needs to articulate clearly which metrics you have to track, and how you’re going to track them.
Align your strategies
Since marketing is not a one-size-fits-all, you need to align your marketing strategy with your business strategy to come up with a successful marketing plan. For instance, if your marketing goal is focused on engaging new customers, you need a marketing campaign that is different from a goal like launching a new product.
Remember that alignment means that everyone gets on the same page and increases your chances of getting the business to achieve its goals or even surpass them.
Document your strategy
53% of the most successful content marketers usually have a documented strategy, according to Content Marketing Institute. Having something as simple as a three-page document outlining your plans and content marketing goals can go a long way towards maximizing your marketing strategy. Documenting your strategy can help you focus on your set goals and the general picture, and ensure you allocate scarce resources fittingly. If you do it well, you should also expect to understand your target audience better, as the process provides a well-rounded view of who you want to reach and why.
Actually, marketers who fail to document their strategy are often more likely to report that their marketing strategy is not working for them. Therefore, if you are a content marketer, take some time to write down your marketing strategy.
If you’ve been looking for great ways to improve your marketing strategy, this page has all you need to get started. Simply analyze your competitors, use targeting, understand the kind of metrics you should track, align your strategies with your business strategy, and document the strategies.
