Proper planning for p
This second instalment on behalf of my on-demand marketing department The Nurture Network is intended to kick start a marketing mindset within your organisation to drive effective business growth. The first instalment in the last issue of Entrepreneur Country magazine was on developing the strongest foundations with a marketing mindset; this second instalment focuses on planning and executing your marketing effectively:
Have a broad-minded strategy...
Marketing is often misconstrued as just advertising - that bit when you’re just shouting trying to get potential consumers’ attention. Done right, marketing is a very long way from just this, and will cover every touch point of your business: It will include strategies for making more people aware of your brand (where advertising often is a good tool), but it will also include activities to encourage trust; tactics to drive trial; tools to encourage people to come back, and even incentivise them to tell their friends about you. Creating a strong marketing strategy will include all elements of this mix.
Start with the end in mind
When faced with exciting marketing ideas, new technologies, and a limited budget, it is easy to become distracted to try everything. This is when we fall into the trap of being execution led – rather than objectives led. This can lead to stretched resource, wasted money and sometimes disappointing results because the activity chosen may not have been suitable for what you wanted to achieve.
Marketing is ultimately responsible for identifying, attracting and retaining consumers, making it pretty central to business growth – yet it remains an elusive and sometimes frustrating disciple to make work.
24 entrepreneurcountry
Starting out with a clear idea of what you want to achieve is key to avoiding these pitfalls. So, before you do anything, first assess what you want to achieve, or where you want to get to: If you want more people to know about you, that is about driving awareness; if you want people to try you out, that is driving trial; or if you want your current customers to buy more, it is all about driving frequency.
Most businesses will identify two or three key marketing objectives to achieve the business growth objectives. Furthermore, by aligning to the business objectives it is
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