Making Sense of Marketing Strategy

Marketing is hard. There are no two ways about it. Back in the day it was relatively straight forward – identifying your audience and looking at the best way to reach them. The media choices were far simpler and considerably more limited than they are now. To some extent I would suggest it is easier if you have a large budget – (has it always been easier) – but even then, the choices are mind-boggling and the levels of data and information demand intense scrutiny in themselves. And that’s before you look into the wider landscape of CRM, UX, website development and customer journeys.

If one is to believe the “gurus” we are all supposed to have a Paid Strategy for social media; an Organic Strategy for social media; an Email Strategy (which may or may not linked into a CRM or broader platform like Hubspot or Sharpspring), a Media and PR Strategy; not to mention online and offline promotions, discount planning and influencer development. If the concept of website as “mothership” is still valid (and I believe it is) then we need a plan for SEO, website content development and a variety of strategies to address a variety of customer journeys.

Sitting underneath all of that someone, anyone; someone good one would hope has to write all the content; keep it current and engage with the customer responses that are generated.

All of these platforms have their “partner” analytics and data. So, at the simplest level there is Google Analytics which can demonstrate the numbers visiting your website, their routes through your site, how they arrived, where they came from and the page they left from. It will show how long they stayed, how long they stayed in particular pages and whether they bought anything. In email marketing there is data on opening rates, unsubscribe rates and timing advice. The best time to send, the best time to re-send….it goes on and on. Then if you’re looking at A/B testing you can immediately double all of that. Paid ads generate data and insights too. The numbers of impressions, the numbers of click-throughs and the cost of each (CTR). Free platforms are no different with weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting – numbers of accounts reached, accounts engaged, total followers, most popular post, reel or story. But then each post, story or reel will reach a different segment of your audience at any one time so in all cases they’re not really comparable.  

If you have taken the leap into E-Commerce (and after Covid, that would seem sensible) that opens up a whole new world of insight and data.  If they were thinking about buying something, you can see what they left in their basket and ask them if they really meant to and would an offer tempt you to come back and complete a purchase. When do people buy, what products do they buy, what products don’t they buy, what are the characteristics of your best buyers? Then, of course you can create avatars.

Who really has the resource to handle all that? The answer, we do.

Let’s Talk and Build a Real, Workable Marketing Strategy

If you want to make waves in your own sector, then please get in touch. Eight thousand projects in twelve years means we’re experts when it comes to B2B marketing. Our main aim is to provide creative, intuitive and innovative marketing solutions for your business, which is why our services include lead generation, website development, content creation and much, much more.

To find out more, contact us today. You can find us at our Northampton Head Office at The East Wing, Burlington House, Wellingborough Road, Northampton NN1 4EU, call us on 01604 239 837 or email us at [email protected].