Can you believe that we’re all saying goodbye to 2019 in just a few days? Time flies really fast and 2020 is just around the corner.
If you’re a business owner or a marketer, this is the time where you need to think of fresh ideas and make sure that your game plan will attract more customers in the coming year.
Marketing strategy is without a doubt an important part of every business. Without it, it will be almost impossible to build authority and increase the visibility of your brand.
But how can you make sure that you are building a killer marketing plan for your business? To help you create an effective strategy, here are some tips that might be able to support in accomplishing your marketing goals for 2020.
Focus on brand building
Brand building is the process where you generate awareness and provide value for the customers so that they can know and experience your business. Through this, you’re making sure that people can have a certain connection with your brand.
If you will not prioritize brand building, you will end up doing every sale, discounts, promos or other gimmicks that will let you spend a huge chunk of money. It’s a super slippery slope.
So if you want to start improving your branding strategy for next year, you can do it by following the 60:40 model.
The 60:40 model means 60 percent of your efforts and budget will go into growing your brand. Those are things like storytelling which gives customers a good feeling about your brand. The remaining 40 percent will go to the short-term campaigns and ROI-driven strategies that we will discuss later.
It’s 60:40 because we want to make sure that we’re always focusing more on the brand. Every business needs to increase sales, we get it. But as much as we want to make it as the focal point of our marketing plan, it can be very critical for the brand if your only focus is the ROI.
In today’s digital age, competition is tough and having excellent products is not enough. You need to market your brand itself and let your target customers know that you are unique and exceptional.
Brand building can be crucial, but if done right, your company can gain a lot from it.
Tell stories
Sharing stories is the most effective way to deliver your brand message and capture everyone’s attention. You’ve probably heard this a lot of times, but we’re mentioning it again because this is an important part of a marketing strategy.
Tell stories that people can resonate with and let them know that your brand understands their struggles.
Brands like Google are using this strategy to create a stronger connection with their audience. Every year, Google is releasing a “Year in Search” video featuring the year’s most trending moments – both joyful and tragic.
Google’s “Year In Search” 2016 was one of the most successful holiday ads that year. After its launch, viewer response towards the video was overwhelmingly positive.
According to a study by Ace Metrix, it was in the top one percent of all ads tested by the company in 2016 and it is the third-highest scoring out of nearly 700 technology ads.
This annual campaign by the search engine giant is a good way to evoke emotions from their audience by tapping into those moments and events that have made them laugh, cry, or feel empowered.
No matter what type of company you are in, telling remarkable stories can help you to better connect with your potential customers and your target audience.
It can be done in a million different ways by sharing a million different stories, but the most important thing is that you understand your target audience’s feelings and pain points. Address those in any ad campaigns and you will succeed. I promise you.
Maximize digital advertising
Let’s now talk about the 40 percent out of the 60:40 model that we’ve mentioned earlier.
Assuming that you’re already building your brand or you’re telling stories that people can at least click through to see, the next strategy that you want to focus on is the Return on Investment (ROI) on digital.
Digital advertising is one of the best practices to track ROI because you can measure clicks all the way through that you can’t quite do on billboards, radio, or TV.
Yes, traditional ways of advertising are still effective, but although they have the viewership or your billboard is located at a prime spot, you can’t guarantee that people are actually looking at it.
But if somebody clicks an Instagram or Facebook ad and they visited your website, you can measure that. If someone added an item to their shopping cart or downloaded a form from your site, you can monitor it. You can track everything using the ad platform’s built-in analytics or tools like Google Analytics.
One of Good Monster’s clients, Honchos, wanted to increase their sales and online presence. They aimed to get the attention of their target market—young men and moms—by launching paid ads, organic content, and other digital marketing efforts.
In just a month, the brand earned a 6,500 follower increase, 36,084 total social media reach, and 4.5x in-store sales vs. top competitors.
Social media really changes a lot of things even in businesses. When done successfully, digital marketing can encourage consumers to buy your products and support your business that can help increase your sales.
This will allow you to reach an ROI that you cannot accomplish through other methods.
Plan your marketing campaigns in advance
By this time or before 2019 ends, you should already have some marketing campaign ideas for your business.
I know that planning in advance can be difficult especially for small businesses. Planning ahead is easier said than done, but you need to know that this is essential if you want your campaigns to succeed.
It may vary depending on how big your business is or what’s your goal in doing it. If you have an e-commerce business that is planning to throw a huge Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales next year, maybe you need to allot at least 6 months to properly curate stocks, logistics, promotions, and many more.
Whether you’re handling a startup or an established brand, it is significant to identify at an early stage in which marketing areas you’ll focus on and how much time and budget you’ll be spending.
Executing a marketing campaign without a concrete plan is like traveling out of the country without a passport and other travel documents. It’s risky and you wouldn’t want to waste money by doing that.
In every aspect of marketing, keep in mind that “Failing to plan is like planning to fail.”
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