Marketing strategy is the overall vision and a long term, forward thinking approach to any firm or any organisation’s overall business objective of achieving a competitive, sustainable competitive edge by first knowing the requirements and wants of consumers. The basic tenets of marketing are very much applicable to businesses of all types and sizes in our modern, technologically and rapidly changing world. There is no doubt that marketing is a marketing culture and unfortunately there are far too many myths associated with this great art and science.

If you’re one of those marketing managers who believes “the more the merrier” then you’re going to have a tough time at it. Marketing managers spend a lot of time creating new products or services and hoping that they are successful. Often, their biggest problem is finding the right balance between being innovative and still delivering a quality service or product to meet the needs of the customer. Successful marketing campaigns must focus on two things; firstly creating a new product or concept and secondly developing a solid customer feedback and response system to measure the success of the new product or concept.

Quite often, new product or service concepts are introduced into a marketplace through a well-targeted marketing campaign that focuses on a single audience or sector of the population. One common example would be the introduction of a new TV series in the UK earlier this year. The marketing campaign included advertising in national newspapers, on public transport networks, on the radio and on various news websites. This was designed to reach the key demographics and groups of people who may be interested in watching the new programme.

However, what if you want to reach more people and drive more potential customers to your website? If you are planning a nationwide campaign to sell a particular brand of shampoo or make up remover cream, then a more widespread national marketing campaign would be more effective than a localized one such as in the UK. Why is this? Well, a marketer’s ability to influence decision makers, the public in general, can be significantly enhanced by taking advantage of the existing brand awareness that already exists within a consumer base. Great marketing campaigns follow a number of simple steps;

Creating a brand image is the initial step of any marketing campaign. Marketing professionals use images to communicate their messages across, including logos, pictures, animations, clipart, animations and even 3D visual presentations. The aim is to create the right lasting impression in the mind of the target consumer. Images should provide information and/or inspiration; a clear and consistent message is also crucial for successful marketing campaigns.

Next, the content of the marketing campaign needs to be able to generate interest and to create a strong lead conversion. It’s vital that all communication is relevant to the goals and outcomes of the business and to be able to attract and motivate an audience. Once again, it’s essential that the message is clear, concise, with no hidden agenda. The lead forms used in online marketing campaigns need to include the contact details, website address, logo and description of the company at the bottom, so the audience can identify with the company at a glance. The key metrics that determine success are the number of new leads generated and the number of sales made.

Thirdly, after understanding your target audience, it’s important to formulate your overall marketing goal and strategy. For example, if your overall objective is to gather customer feedback, the focus of your landing page will differ from that of a customer who wants to purchase something. Your overall goal might be to convert one lead to a subscriber, while on another you might be interested in collecting 1000 customer feedbacks. It’s important to understand the end-goal of your campaign, whether it be to gather customer feedback or to convert a lead.

Finally, once you’ve formulated your overall campaign goal, it’s time to start tracking your progress towards achieving the goal. Tracking your progress will help you measure your performance and adjust your strategies as needed. To help you gather customer feedback or convert a lead into a subscriber, make sure your marketing campaign includes contact form and tracking system that enable you to analyze the actions of each customer. Knowing how many new customers you’ve generated and how many of them have opted in for more information helps you determine where you’re going wrong and how to improve your approach.