Marketing is a key component in the success of any business. With the right strategy, marketing can get the company’s name out there, and gain more customers. However, coming up with a marketing strategy and executing it can be tricky. Luckily, with a little creativity and research, you can come up with a plan that will help your business succeed.

1. Create compelling content

If you’re looking for ways to improve your marketing strategy in 2020, then you might want to consider focusing on content. This is probably the most essential piece of any marketing campaign. Without good content, you won’t be able to inspire interest in your product. It could be anything from a beautifully written blog post to an entertaining video; content is all about fostering interest, or craving for your product or service in a reader (or observer), subscriber, or customer.

When creating content for marketing purposes, it is essential to consider whether or not your audience wants to read, view, or hear about your product. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that your content offers value and is of good quality. Don’t just throw together any old content and expect it to do well. There is a reason why you are spending money on marketing – your audience ought to value what you have to say, and want to hear more. This is why it’s important to consider the medium when creating content. If you’re struggling to come up with content ideas, consider using content marketing platforms like HubSpot, which can help you find topics to write about and develop a content schedule.

2. Measure the results of your strategy

Every business is different, and some will be more successful than others with the same strategy. To get the most out of your marketing efforts, you should be considering measuring the results of your strategy. The most effective way to do this is to set up Google Analytics and use its various tools to examine traffic, and how this traffic is interacting with your site. This way, you can determine what components of your strategy are working, and what you should be changing or improving on. For example, if you notice that some pages on your site seem to be performing better than others, it might be a good idea to work on optimizing those pages – ensuring they are engaging your audience, and helping them find the information they are looking for.

3. Identify your target audience and create buyer personas

While it’s great to have a broad vision of who your customer is going to be, it’s even better to have a clear, specific idea of who they are. With a clear focus on your target audience, you can create highly engaging content that speaks directly to them. This will help establish (or re-establish) brand loyalty, and encourage them to become brand advocates.

Even if you do have a clear idea of who your customer is, it’s quite likely that they fall into several different categories. One approach you might want to consider is creating buyer personas. These are simple archetypes of your ideal customer, and by understanding who they are, you can determine what content is most effective at getting them excited about your product. Remember that personas are fictitious, and are a tool to help you understand your audience. You can’t expect your target audience to have the same characteristics as your personas – after all, that would make them pretty dull, wouldn’t it?

The advantage of having buyer personas is that it can help you determine the messaging you should be using in your marketing. For example, if you notice that a particular persona frequently visits your blog, and reads several of your articles, you might want to consider re-writing one of these articles to target this particular persona. Or, you could create a blog post specifically for this person – addressing whatever it is they are looking for.

4. Use digital marketing to its full extent

If you’re looking to build a better marketing strategy for your business, then you might want to consider looking into digital marketing. This is where you can find a broader audience and have greater impact on your customers. While traditional marketing methods will still be effective, digital marketing offers so much more opportunity to capture and retain a customer. You can use a tool like Google Adwords to gain more detailed analytics on your customers, and determine the most effective ways of reaching them – be this through paid ads, or through organic search results.

The advantage of digital marketing is that it is usually pretty easy to set up and provides useful analytics. The disadvantage is that it is often expensive, and takes a lot of effort to gain good results. To create a successful campaign, you will need to consider many factors – including a strategy to follow, which we discussed earlier, and the tools you will need to make it all happen.

5. Measure the ROI of your strategy

To get the most out of your marketing efforts, you should be considering the return on investment. This is particularly important if you are looking to allocate a limited budget for marketing. Simply put, the ROI of your strategy is how much money you are likely to save, and how much profit you are likely to make, relative to your investment. To calculate this, you will need to look at your marketing spend, and then compare it to your income (sales and profit).

Unfortunately, getting an exact number for the ROI of your strategy is not that easy. This is because your income and marketing spend are likely to be influenced by many factors – including the economic climate and the performance of your competitors. There are tools like Exponent that can help you forecast the financial impact of your marketing strategy – allowing you to examine its many variables and determine a precise number for its ROI. However, these are quite complex tools, and can be pretty hard to use. Luckily, you can get an idea of the general area that your strategy is likely to fall short in, and how you can improve it – using the info you already have.

6. Track your marketing results

In order to get the most out of your marketing efforts, you will want to track the results of your strategy. This doesn’t mean that you have to measure everything that you do – after all, you will be able to identify the successes and failures of your plan once you have set it up. You can monitor the results of your strategy through simple metrics – including visit to website, email open, and social media engagement. To get these metrics, you can use platforms like Google Analytics.

7. Consider the role of traditional media

While digital marketing should be your main focus when looking to improve your marketing strategy, you should still consider the role of traditional media. This includes newspapers, magazines, and radio stations. It’s important to note that while many people think that podcasts are created equal, this is far from true. Just like with any other type of content, it’s important to consider the source – namely, who is putting out the content and how well they know their audience. This can be effectively measured through online tools like Google Analytics. So, although traditional media is often considered “old school”, the methods used to measure success (traffic, engagement, and conversions) have not changed – they are just being applied to new platforms (like podcasts or websites).

8. Regularly review and reassess your strategy

As you’re constantly trying to improve your marketing strategy, it’s important to regularly review and reassess it. This means that you are continuously taking a look at everything that you do, and either adjusting your strategy or abandoning it altogether. The better your initial strategy, the less likely you will be to completely overhaul it – especially if you are looking for quick wins. Instead, you will aim to make gradual changes that gradually improve your results. This is why it’s so important to review and reassess your strategy regularly – if you don’t, then you run the risk of it stagnating and becoming obsolete. With continual change, your strategy will always be able to evolve and accommodate new methods, new platforms, and new ideas.

9. Look at the big picture

To create a successful marketing strategy, you will want to look at the bigger picture. This includes not just what you are doing, but how you are doing it and who you are doing it to. In order to get the most out of your efforts, you should consider everything from your messaging to your target audience to your budget. To effectively measure your progress, you will want to look at metrics like website traffic and social media activity – as these will give you an idea of the results of your strategy. To create a successful marketing strategy it is important to not just look at the numbers, but to consider how exactly you are going to reach your target audience, and what kind of engagement you can expect from them.