Wherever your strategy takes you and whichever tactics you choose to explore, marketing your products, services or wider brand unlocks an array of excellent advantages. As well as giving you a carefully crafted voice to showcase what your business does best, marketing enables you to interact directly with new and existing customers whilst building the trust and loyalty that will inevitably increase your bottom line.

With a vast range of marketing platforms and techniques to experiment with however, handling your own marketing activities in-house, particularly as a company that’s new to marketing, isn’t easy. Here at Square Media, we offer a number of expert marketing services, but another thing we do is advise companies who want to deal with their own campaigns. Our marketing gurus are here to arm you with the guidance and support you need to achieve your marketing objectives, whether your aim is to raise brand awareness; provide a better customer journey; sell, sell, sell; or all of the above.

The start of 2018 couldn’t be a better time to get your brand organised and launch your very own, and very first, marketing campaign. Here we take you through the planning musts so you can be the master of your market.

Get down to the nitty gritty

Every great marketing campaign is built on a foundation of research. Whilst you may feel like you know your business, its industry and your audience inside out, doing your research before your marketing campaign launch is important. Things after all change, and in today’s digitally driven age, market evolutions don’t just happen now and again, they can occur every day, every week or, if you’re lucky, every month.

Use a range of primary and secondary resources to complete your market research, and delve deeper into market trends, audience wants and needs, and the ins and outs of competitors.

Define exactly who you’re marketing to

Your market research will throw up all manner of useful information, most of which can be used to fine-tune each and every step of your marketing campaign. Knowing your audience and defining your target demographic however may need more attention.

Understanding your audience isn’t just a matter of seeing what they buy and where, analysing their online activities is essential to discovering how you’ll reach them most effectively. By drilling down into your target audience you can predict just which type of marketing will best resonate with them, whether that be a creative social media marketing campaign, well-crafted pay per click advertisement, content centric marketing approach or something a little more on trend, like influencer promotion.

Develop a complete plan

Audience needs may change at the drop of a hat, but deciding on the design, launch, promotion and analysis of your marketing campaign in advance is a vital part of proceedings. Your strategic plan should guide your business through various phases, with every step connected with the research and insights that it’s been derived from. By putting your plan down in detail, and in writing, you can make sure you stay true to your marketing campaign’s core values and objectives.

When devising your marketing campaign, don’t be afraid to take inspiration from what other businesses have done. Read our rundown of the top marketing campaigns of 2017 for all the marketing motivation you need.

You don’t have to develop and plan your very first marketing campaign alone, let us do the hard work for you! We keep up with and practice the latest and greatest marketing techniques on your behalf. Get in touch with our team today to discuss your requirements.

Square Media is Northamptonshire’s premiere Web Design & Marketing Agency experienced in developing effective content and marketing strategies for forward-thinking companies in the local area. Our team of specialists consistently deliver outstanding results working in a variety of areas such as Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Marketing Consultancy, Pay Per Click (PPC) and AdWords Management amongst a wide range of other services.