1. Set goals
The wisest and greatest of marketers set goals. If you run a campaign without goals, who’s to say it was successful? Having goals in place for your marketing efforts will help you define success.
And we all define success differently. Maybe for you success is lead generation, customer acquisition, or a specific amount of revenue you want to generate. Whatever it is that you are striving for, assign a proper metric to it that you can aim to reach.
2. Study the Competition
Don’t market in the dark. Find out who your competition is and look at what they are doing. There is no shame in it. Marketers should want to know what their competition is up to and where their own marketing efforts fall in comparison.
This provides you with an idea of what you are up against and it can help you get ahead in the game. “They fall in the top 3 in a Google search”, you say? Well that means you need to focus on getting your business up there as well.
3. Address a Target Audience
This may seem obvious but you would be surprised how many companies out there don’t address their target audience properly. As a marketer you need to identify who your target audience is. You can do this by creating a marketing persona / buyer persona. This persona profile guides how, when and where to communicate with your audience.
The methods of communication that define your persona should be evident in all of your marketing. From the copy and design of your website to the tweet you just scheduled.
4. Create Content
I know you have heard it all before. You need to create blog posts, ebooks, pdfs, memes, infographics, webinars, slide decks… the list goes on and on. There is a ton of content types to dabble in and a great marketer dabbles often.
Great marketers create sharable content that their audience will have an interest in. With content, you can educate prospects about what is important in your industry and this builds trust between you and them.
5. Nurture
Building a relationship with prospects and leads is something that occurs daily. It starts from the moment they come across your brand on the Internet. From this point, a relationship has begun.
Marketers nurture relationships with automated emails. A series of emails can be sent to build on a lead’s interests by providing them with additional relevant content you think they may enjoy.
You can nurture on a more personal level with individual, manually sent emails. Following up on recent conversions and touches that have been made across your website.
Social media also provides a great space for nurturing. Marketers can find their audience on various social media platforms and engage with them directly.
