It is almost the start of a new year (phew, 2021 is finally behind us)! So now is the time to plan your marketing strategy. However, how do you prepare yourself and your team to succeed in these unpredictable and unprecedented times? It is time for a business plan marketing.
First, even though the year 2021 brought about a number of upheavals, the general model of a marketing strategy is not much different from that of other years. The difference is in your specific marketing goals and KPIs. You will need to take a close look at how you position yourself compared to the previous year, given the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 and 2021. Nevertheless, before you decide on all of that, you need to have a solid foundation and a clear strategy.
Write a Marketing Plan
Your marketing plan is the roadmap that will allow you to execute the strategy and achieve your marketing goals. It should include a timeline, which gives you plenty of leeway to plan your campaigns, including launch dates and target dates for preparing certain actions.
All of the strategic marketing channels mentioned above have their own complexities. This means that, throughout the year, you can have a “marketing planning” for each strategy. For example, let us say your business is planning a major product launch. As a marketing team, every strategy plays a role. You might want to schedule several social media hooks before launch, and for those posts, you need to write specific content. In addition, maybe you want to find an influencer who will help promote the product after the launch.
Therefore, you need a carefully crafted social media marketing plan, content marketing plan, and influencer marketing plan. All of these plans need to be in perfect alignment with each other so that all team members are on the same page and do not run into obstacles (or miss opportunities).
Marketing Strategy Definition
Depending on whether your business is more transactional or relationship driven, the marketing strategy can also include all of the ways to encourage recurrence of website visits and purchases. The goals of the strategy are executed through a marketing plan, which breaks down the daily structure to put your ideas into action.
What are the different types of marketing strategies?
A comprehensive marketing strategy usually involves using a combination of several different distribution channels and marketing methods. These can be email, social media, SEO, and digital advertising campaigns. To guarantee true marketing success, whatever the size of your team, the actions carried out in each of these areas must be closely coordinated.
Social Media
As a digital marketer, your job is to harness proven channels while identifying opportunities that will allow you to reach new audiences and micro-communities in an ever-changing social landscape. How social media fits into your marketing mix depends on your buyers and your marketing goals. However, it is an important channel that you cannot ignore, no matter how important its role in your overall strategy.
The main social platforms used for digital marketing are
LinkedIn: Post your business successes and news, connect with others in your industry, find influencers, and create posts that boost your authority in your field.
Facebook: The demographic profile of Facebook users has changed dramatically in recent years. The over 65s are the fastest growing age group, reaching 40% in 2019. While teens fell from 71% in 2015 to 51% in 2018. Remember to consider this when you advertise on Facebook!
Twitter: 280 characters to get your message across, and a dialect of hashtags and GIFs to understand. Twitter is the perfect platform to build your brand’s personality. Instagram: With over a billion users accessing the network each month, Instagram is incredibly useful for social media marketing. Follow hashtags to find influencers and create stories to share compelling behind-the-scenes footage of your business. Authenticity on social media is one of the most difficult balances to find, but also a key part of the success of your social marketing strategy.
Dove is one of the most successful brands when it comes to authenticity and values-based social marketing. She clearly understands the values of her audience and the topics that matter to her. These include the enhancement of the body and diversity. Dove’s many campaigns throughout the year display individuality and highlight the empowerment of women.
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of those strategies that more and more people are familiar with, but are not working enough or focusing enough on. This fatal error potentially costs you thousands of hits per day to your website.
Moreover, if you are good at organic SEO, these visits do not cost you much. This gives you the freedom to spend more of your marketing budget on optimizing your website experience and lead acquisition flows, in order to turn that organic traffic into leads. Content is king when it comes to attracting new users through SEO, and starting a blog is a great place to start. Try to write articles around specific keywords, especially long tail keywords, to attract customers who are more likely to convert after landing on your website. Invest in content marketing actions by promoting the content you create on social media and other websites.
Use of Influencers
More and more brands are learning how to effectively leverage influencers in their marketing strategy. Micro-influencers, in particular, are increasingly being noticed for their niche topics and better engagement with audiences. When influencers have an engaged audience, their content is shared, which influences the sales of the brands they promote. It is a win-win! Discover Beyoncé’s winning strategy. Instagram and YouTube are the two main channels for brands who want to do influencer marketing. For example, popular YouTuber Bernadette Banner (over 1 million subscribers) specializes in tailoring and costume design.
Email Marketing
Even as new digital marketing channels continue to emerge, email remains one of the most powerful points of contact with customers. If you do not have one yet, you should create a newsletter. Tip: create both an internal newsletter and an external newsletter.
A catchy subject title is the most effective way to improve your email open rate. Your items should reflect your identity as a brand. Do not be afraid to experiment to see what your audience reacts to, for great examples of smart, fun headlines, as well as extremely personalized emails, check out The Hustle (and even if you do not read the emails, check out the awesome thank you page after signing up).
Audience Analysis
Identify your audience beyond basic demographics. The audience analysis helps you define personas buyers for your different groups of consumers. Learn about their values, interests and consumer behavior with a comprehensive social listening tool or consumer analysis software. This information will help you guide your promotional strategy; determine who you will contact for influencer partnerships and what products you will develop.
Customer Journey
Use 2022 to reexamine your customer journey and the push-pull tactics you use. Since we have different schedules, priorities, and routines when working from home, your users may log in at different times. The ideal time to contact them for the best conversions may therefore be different. You want to make sure they come back if they are not ready to buy. In addition, when they are ready to buy, the buying flow and CTAs should be straightforward. Make sure to simplify the act of purchase. The final piece of the puzzle is to keep them coming back through an effective re-engagement campaign.
Digital Advertising
Integrating retargeting ads into your marketing strategy could be a big part of your growth strategy if you have the budget. Use an Omni channel approach to increase your conversions (not to be confused with multichannel marketing). Rather, Omni channel marketing is about interacting with the customer in an appropriate way according to the stage at which they are in their customer journey.
Recent Zobuz study found that engagement metrics increased dramatically when companies took an Omni channel approach to digital marketing: “Using three or more channels in an automated workflow resulted in a higher rate of engagement. 18.96% engagement, while their single-channel counterparts only got a 5.4% engagement rate. When thinking about your display advertising, feel free to create ads that target a small segment rather than trying to speak to everyone. For example, check out these Microsoft ads that specifically target coders:
Media Earned
Invest in PR opportunities and initiatives to get the word out about a new product or partnership. The power of public relations lies in their ability to reach the widest possible audience while remaining relevant. (Make sure the PR team does not spam journalists with proposals that have nothing to do with that journalist’s specialty). You want your PR actions to maximize sales and visits to your website, not just draw attention to your post. Stay focused on the most relevant journalists in your industry with an effective media relations solution.
Comparative Analysis of the Competition
Finally, all of this is virtually useless if you are working blind. You need to keep an eye on what your competition is doing, how successful their marketing and PR strategy is, and what their followers are saying, in order to better compare yourself to them. Use a competitive analysis tool to automate this marketing process. This will allow you to stay ahead of the curve and be smart about your 2022 marketing strategy.
Barry Lachey is a Professional Editor at Zobuz. Previously He has also worked for Moxly Sports and Network Resources “Joe Joe.” He is a graduate of the Kings College at the University of Thames Valley London. You can reach Barry via email or by phone.
