How is your marketing in 2020

As we near the end of the first quarter of 2020 it would be beneficial to begin benchmarking your marketing strategies are they working? not only to keep ahead on events that you can utilise for increased sales, but to also be ahead of your competition.

Although the external environment is somewhat unpredictable and turbulent to a degree, we at Born Agency, believe that every business should have key marketing strategies that place emphasis on unique selling points and campaigns that are rolled out in time to capture the attention of target audience.

Below are a number of ways you can analyse your marketing:

1. Analyse current reports

Thorough analysis of marketing reports including a SWOT analysis, will help you understand what marketing techniques work best for your business. For instance, social media marketing may not be as beneficial when targeting an older generation when compared to other marketing techniques such as billboards or newspaper advertisements. These reports will allow you to focus more on techniques or marketing campaigns that are more successful and plan ahead for the upcoming year, which brings us to the next vital step in planning ahead:

• Marketing Budget

The marketing budget is a crucial determining factor of how far you can take your advertising and marketing. Being clear on a set marketing budget before the start of a new year is a fundamental step for preparing your marketing campaigns successfully. Utilise the budget on techniques that work best for your target audience through thorough analysis of historical data and focus on processes which give a higher return on investment. Olenski (2018), also suggested keeping aside a small percentage of your marketing budget for testing various marketing processes, holding the possibility that you could potentially stumble upon a strategy that could increase your ROI further. All in all, setting your marketing budget for the year ahead is key for preparing your marketing.

• Competitor analysis  

Increasing competition and globalisation has made the environment more turbulent than ever. For this reason, using an effective competitor analysis tool such as the updated Porters Five Forces Framework will enable you to understand who your key competitors are and keep ahead of the game. In addition to this, conducting bench marking will enlighten your team on marketing processes that they are falling behind on. Once this information is at hand, preparing your marketing for the coming year is made easier and more efficient.

• Target Market, consumers and the Pareto Principle

Identifying your target market is essential. This helps you identify what marketing techniques to use based on consumer demographics, age, gender, among others. An analysis of sales reports also allows you to understand who your main target audience is and who your repeat customers are, this is where the Pareto Principle comes into play. The Pareto Principle suggests that 20% of your customers contribute to 80% of your sales. Therefore, it would be beneficial to focus on these repeat customers that contribute to your overall return on investment and target your marketing techniques and campaigns towards increasing consumer loyalty. We would therefore suggest loyalty cards with benefits for repeat customers.

• Marketing Calendar

The beauty of preparing your marketing is that you can never miss an important day! For instance, the first day of autumn is crucial for coffee companies such as Starbucks which excite their consumers with launch of new seasonal products and advertise in advance to increase the hype. A subsequent delay in launching a product for the popular coffee company could cause a tremendous loss in revenue. Similarly, filling your businesses’ marketing calendar in advance will help you identify important events and set roll out dates for your campaigns to ensure a smooth process, reduce extra expenses and stay ahead of competition while increasing revenue if executed as planned.

These are some of the ways we think that you can prepare for your business marketing in 2020. We would love to hear your thoughts.