Marketing, like public relations, sales, advertising, etc., is a tricky area to master. As such, it’s hard to define a “formula” to use for each new marketing campaign or plan. To help you to create your own method of creating an effective marketing campaign, here are some tips:
- Don’t use the same plan you used last time. Your company, the environment/industry in which you operate, and your customers have all changed. People are consistently changing their tastes and worldviews, and you need to keep up. This means that for every new venture or marketing goal you set out to reach, you must create a new marketing plan. Even if all things were the same internally and in the industry, you would have to cater to your customers in a different manner when it comes to different aspects of your product or services. Know that what worked last time may not work this time.
- Avoid implementing without first knowing your objectives. Tactics are nothing without accompanying strategies. Your strategies must stem from your company objectives, and before you can implement tactics, you have to know the destination. While you cannot predict what the road will look like on the way there, you can map out where you are now, the desired goals you have, and the vehicle (pun intended) that will take you from Point A to Point B.
- Delegate responsibilities. This helps to keep everyone on the same page and also helps to make everyone accountable for the success or failure of the planning and the actual implementation of the plan itself. This can also help to encourage people to work together, enhance their strengths (or weaknesses, depending on what area they work on), and to create a collective ownership of the plan.
- Research, research, research. This step can help you to craft your objectives and goals and can also you to define the vehicles and methods that will be helpful to you in this marketing plan. Additionally, at the end of the marketing plan’s life, you can research where you went wrong and what went well so as to create an even better plan the next time around. Really evaluate the results of the plan to get an idea of what happened and where.
- Integrate other aspects of business. Marketing and PR are closely related, and with the help of the Internet, the defining line between the two is become more blurred as the months go on. That means your marketing team will need to work with the PR team to ensure things aren’t being done in an overlapping manner. For example, PR and marketing should both be using social media, and if one team hopes to use the same social media tool for a different reason than the other, there could be some disastrous results.
Just remember that marketing and PR plans need preparation and, well, planning. It’s a team effort that requires participation from everyone since there are different skill sets even within a small team.