Marketing is the most effective business activity, making a difference between successful and unsuccessful brands. While companies can survive various operational and product deficiencies, they can’t do anything without a steady influx of leads. 

Throughout history, we’ve seen some of the strangest, wonkiest products survive and thrive in their respective markets. They managed to do so because of the company’s resources, among which the quality of the marketing team took center stage. An excellent promotional message can prompt a person into action, invoke emotion, and make them speed-dial the phone on the screen.

However, for a marketing campaign to yield results, you need to have a meticulous, granular strategy. You must approach every step with due diligence, as small mistakes can be costly. In this article, we share the six main steps you need to undertake to successfully promote your product and survive fierce competition.

Establish Goals

You don’t have to manage a top-tier internet marketing agency to understand that marketing is all about goals. Setting objectives is vital because it will streamline budgeting, allow you to hire the ideal team, and identify opportunities. If you don’t know what you’re looking for in marketing, assessing results and managing daily tasks will be much more challenging.

Experts usually mention that your goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. In practice, this means that you should decide whether to pursue brand awareness, quick sales, or partnerships. Many strategies revolve around increasing your reputation before you start converting.

Create Budget

Budgeting is another major ticket that people often neglect. Brands frequently prioritize product and service development before realizing that even if you have the best product in the world, you still have to sell it to someone. When managers realize they need marketing to sell items, they will be deep into debt.

The marketing budget needs to take into account all eventualities and then some. The good rule of thumb is to set aside more resources than you initially predicted. As experts joke, you can never spend enough money on marketing, so this is an excellent policy to lead you through the process. 

Assemble a Team

Nowadays, most marketing activities are digital in nature. Whether we’re talking about SEO, PPC, SMM, email campaigns, or influencer marketing, you don’t need an in-office team to create great campaigns. Managers take advantage of globalization by outsourcing top experts from various countries, usually at a significant discount.

Due to the nature of the business, you don’t necessarily need people with an excellent bachelor’s degree (although it will help). Most digital marketing activities are self-thought, so you would get better results with experienced veterans who know how different algorithms work. 

We suggest scouring platforms such as Upwork for top talent. Make sure to hire professionals based on your long-term goals, as you’d like to create well-oiled machinery from the start. 

Analyze Competition

You can gain a lot of valuable insights by analyzing your direct competitors. First and foremost, you can see what works and what doesn’t within your field. You can also mimic their promotional strategies and build upon them. The best way to do things is to check their favorite marketing channels and see if you can implement them for your campaign.

After doing the basic legwork, such as checking their site and social media accounts, we recommend you take a deep dive into analytics. There are lots of fantastic marketing tools, such as HubSpot, Ahrefs, and SEMRush, that can give you valuable data about their SEO and SMM. That way, you can quickly establish whether you can compete on their level. 

Choose Marketing Channels

Once you realize what tactics your competitors are using, you can create a unique strategy that will build upon your strengths and hide your weaknesses. Finding proper marketing channels is crucial for achieving those goals, as you’d want to avoid platforms where competition dominates.  

Exploit various gaps in their approach, whether we’re talking about channels or tactics. For example, if most of your competitors have a solid organic presence in search engines, you should avoid SEO. You can say something similar about paid campaigns. Like in any other marketing process, differentiate yourself from the field so that your message reaches more people.

Use Right KPIs

The only way you can be sure your marketing strategy is working is by using specific KPIs. It’s worth mentioning that key performance indicators work separately but also in conjunction. Because of that, you shouldn’t overreact if one of them isn’t on the level you’d like it to be.  

Make sure your selected KPIs are in alignment with the marketing goals. If you want to build awareness, you should focus on increasing impressions and website traffic. If you need quick sales, you should prioritize driving people to your service pages and boosting conversion rates.

Conclusion

Marketing campaigns can be much easier, depending on your process. Many people are too hasty when implementing a strategy, which comes back to bite them sooner rather than later. So, we suggest you take your time analyzing the market, considering various tactics, and tweaking your approach if necessary.