In order for any brand to achieve growth, they need a marketing strategy in place that tells them where to look for consumers, how they should set up their brand identity and which communication channels to utilise in order to engage with their target audience.

No one said it was going to be easy, and how well your marketing strategy is set out ultimately determines whether you are setting yourself up for success, or failure.

Here, the team at Newsclip reveals three things to include in your next marketing plan:

1. The target audience

Every campaign, event or product launch is geared towards a specific audience, and it’s important that you have all the information you need about them included in your strategy. How else will you know who your brand messages are being directed at?

Remember, you’re essentially targeting a niche group of people, and although your campaigns may attract individuals that don’t exactly match the ‘target consumer’ of your brand, it’s still important that you have this criteria of your consumers set out.

This is so that, when creating campaigns, you have a visual in your head of who exactly your initiative is being launched for, meaning you’ll know just how to attract their attention.

This means that it’s time to do some research! One great way to do this is to utilise a media monitoring solution. This service allows you to see where your brand is mentioned in the media, meaning you basically get to see exactly who is talking about you.

You’ll be able to trace those people and gain insights into how you’re being perceived by specific groups of people. For example, you may notice that more women are talking more positively about your brand than men. Your job is already (mostly) done, as the information will be right in front of you! Once you have all of your demographics of the ‘perfect consumer’ set out, you’ll be able to add this to your marketing plan — step one complete!

2. Your brand identity

Your brand identity is essentially how people are going to associate with your agency or pinpoint what it actually does. For example, what comes to mind when you think of Colonel Sanders?

Your first thought is probably ‘KFC’, or something related to what the fast-food franchise does. The brand character has become so well associated with the franchise’s identity that the person has become the brand, and is instantly recognisable — an important feat of any brand’s identity. You want your consumers to see a logo, image, character and immediately think of your brand.

However, a brand character is not the only important component of an agency’s identity. There are many things that should be factored in, such as:
  • Your tone: This is essentially how you’re going to voice your brand messages. Is your agency all about ‘humour’? Do you have a ‘witty’ edge? How about ‘professional’? These are all things you need to take into consideration when deciding on the tone of your brand.
  • Your voice: This is the style or manner in which your brand conveys its messages. If you frequently use certain catch phrases or a certain font, then that forms part of your voice. Your tone is how you say it and your voice is who said it. You need to incorporate your own brand’s voice in every single message you send out to your audience – it needs to be as instantly recognisable as your logo and consistent.
  • Your logo: Your brand colours, font and visual imagery related to your brand all need to be incorporated into your logo. If you’re a new start-up, then you should know that this is essentially how people are going to recognise your brand from the get-go, so it’s important to come up with a logo you and your team are happy with it and include it in all your messaging and imagery.

3. Communication channels and distribution

You need to decide on which channels you’ll be distributing any messaging regarding your campaigns, ads, events, product launches and so on. And, it’s important to first look at the channels that your audience frequents.

For example, if you’ve noticed that a majority of your audience likes to go on Facebook, then that would be one of the channels you could use for all your communications.

However, social media isn’t your only option: it’s also vital to consider what editorial media you could place your ads on (traditional or digital), which blogs and publications you could send press releases to about your brand as well as other media options available, such as radio and broadcast to utilise. For example, if you’re a car brand, is there a radio show with a massive motor vehicle fanbase? It might be worth it to find out and see if you can advertise there.

Additionally, if you want to find out how effective your communications are, then you can easily streamline your success through the use of these three tools:
  • Brand tracking: This solution offers you a holistic view of your brand’s coverage in the media, whether you’re looking at the ads that you’ve placed or mentions of social media.
  • Media monitoring: For a more detailed look at your media coverage, you would want to utilise a service like media monitoring, which forms a part of brand tracking. This allows you to see exactly where your brand was mentioned in editorial media, whether print or online.
  • Social media monitoring: If you want to see how your brand is being perceived on social media platforms, then this is the solution to use! See what your followers are saying about you on the platforms you’re active on in order to get an idea of how your campaigns and products are being perceived, and what the sentiments are thereof.
Time for the executive summary
Now that you’ve established exactly who your audience is, your brand’s voice and identity and you’ve discovered some tools to help you along the way, it’s time to compile everything into an executive summary.

This summary should be something you can refer back to when creating a strategy for your marketing and should include brief extracts and main points of everything outlined in your strategy.

The purpose of this is to also share your ideas and plans with other members of your organisation, such as your manager, other employees and your CEO or marketing director.

For more information, visit www.newsclip.co.za. You can also follow Newsclip on Facebook, Twitter or on LinkedIn.