It may be from a lack of marketing experience or expertise within the company, or it may be that the person driving the marketing has so much on their to-do-list they are struggling to keep all their plates spinning. Whatever the reason, this trend can lead to missed opportunities and/or a loss of time and money.

A key step to overcoming this problem is making sure every channel within the marketing mix has a clearly defined purpose, in line with the marketing and business-level goals and objectives. Tips for how to do this are outlined below.

Understand the ‘What’

To make an informed marketing channel selection, it’s important to first familiarise yourself with the marketing channels available. Beyond simply knowing they exist, you should also explore deeper to identify what goals each channel is best suited to help accomplish.

Further, as budget is a key consideration when planning the marketing strategy for a business, it’s important to understand the expected costs associated with each channel.

Clarify the ‘Who’

Marketers are becoming more aware of the need to understand ‘who’ they are targeting, to guide more strategic marketing decisions. To identify which channels will be best suited to reaching the right audience, you must first have a comprehensive understanding of who that target audience is, including:

• A top-level understanding, defining the overarching market;
• Identification of the key target market segments (or groups) that exist within that overarching market; and
• A detailed understanding of the characteristics and preferences of each target market segment (i.e. a ‘profile’ for each segment).

Identify the ‘Why’

Every business decision should be tied to the overarching business objectives. Before selecting marketing channels, both the business objectives and the marketing objectives should be clarified and understood. This will allow you to consider how each marketing channel can help you achieve these objectives, and then set clear goals and KPIs for exactly what you want to achieve through each channel – giving each channel a clear purpose, driven by your objectives, with metrics by which to measure success.

Monitor and Analyse

Tracking must be correctly set up across all selected channels to ensure the data can be recorded to measure performance. Creating a monitoring and measurement plan in line with the KPIs is a good step to take. This plan should clarify which metrics will be measured and what methods will be used for measurement (e.g. Google Analytics to measure conversions on the website).

You should then analyse the success of each channel at regular intervals and adjust approach based on performance insights. This shouldn’t be a case of set and forget, and you should continue to consider if there is anything you should analyse that you haven’t thought of before. You should also continue to consider the purpose that each channel is serving and review your channel strategy in line with the performance insights.

The post Flying blind? How to nail your marketing channel selection appeared first on Reload Consulting.

This has made it important for brands to establish a presence online, specifically in social channels where customers come together to find, explore and interact.

For any marketing to be effective, there is a need to develop a strategy behind the efforts. Where does one begin? Below are some steps to follow for creating a Social Media Strategy.

• Identify your goals – Keep in mind that marketing is effective if results meet or exceed goals or objectives previously set. Thus, the first step in developing a strategy is to identify the business’ digital marketing goals and tie these to the organisation’s overarching goals. The marketing that will be developed will then aim to achieve the goals set.

• Define target audience – The second step is to determine who the customers are. This involves defining your customer segments, making profiles of each segment then mapping out their customer journey. This will allow you to determine, what messages and tactics will be most appropriate and effective.

• Conduct research to see what’s working – Chances are, your competitors are utilizing social to create awareness and increase conversions. The beauty in this is that you can conduct a competitor check to get a glimpse of how they are using social to see what is effective. You can then consider the findings when deciding on the tactics and social media channels to infiltrate.

• Select the most appropriate social channels and tactics – Once you have gained a full understanding of who your customers are and their purchasing behaviour, it is time to select the most appropriate social channels to be active in. Some research may be beneficial at this stage to match the demographics and interests of customers to the social channels.

• Confirm message – What is it that you are trying to relay to your customers and what action would you like them to take? Based on your customer understanding, develop and confirm a message that will appeal to your target audience to entice them to act on your prompts.

• Create a content plan – The content published through your social pages should always be relevant to your target market and should always offer valuable information.

• Measure results – Gather data on your efforts. One way is to enlist in tools that have analysing capabilities.

Social Media Marketing can become an effective marketing method. However, engaging with customers through social media should be calculated . There should be a plan behind it for it to be useful.

The post What you need to know about Social Media Marketing appeared first on Reload Consulting.