The Secret Marketing Sauce

You came here thinking that you would get “the” answer to how to market your business with winning results in 2022, right? Whether direct mail, product fulfillment, fun new printing, graphic design techniques, or digital marketing, everyone is always looking for the one perfect answer. The problem? It doesn’t exist. To effectively market your business takes a combination of strategy, people, and technology. Let’s dive in:

• Strategy: If you read through our blog posts, you’ll see this theme crop up quite a bit. Without a strategy, marketing is just a buzzword. Your plan must include answers to 5 questions we all know well:

• Who you are targeting: – define your segments; Are they customers or prospects? What do you know about them, and why do you want to target them specifically? Break it down until you can’t break it down anymore.

• What you are hoping to gain from marketing to the segment(s): Be specific. You need to build your goals from this list. 

• Where will you target them: A combination of physical and digital is ideal, especially if one follows the other and they tie together

• When you plan to market to them: Daily, weekly, monthly, ahead of special dates, etc.

• How will you measure the effectiveness? This is a big one. We got advice years ago that we love to pass along: if you can’t measure it, don’t bother. Marketing should be trackable, tied to a return on investment or relationship, and most importantly, tied to goals. Sending out a postcard about a sale? Create a separate promo code to use. Offering free estimates if they call you? Ask them on the mailer to provide a keyword or phrase for the free estimate when the call is answered. Want to show off a new product? Use a QR code that they scan to get to the site and instantly track the hit. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but if you can’t measure it, you could be wasting time and money. No one wants to lose either.

• People: To market well, you need a strong team. If you don’t have the right person or people on your team, outsource it. Regardless of budget, agencies, marketing services companies, and direct marketing companies specialize in helping customers just like you work with your budget for a one-time campaign or a long-term commitment.

• Technology: The technology needed for your marketing is directly tied to your strategy. Your marketing partner may be able to provide what you need, or you may need to make a more significant investment, but first comes strategy, then you can work backward to figure out what’s required to execute. 

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Are you looking for assistance defining or executing your marketing strategy? Kirkwood Direct’s team is ready and willing to assist with strategic planning, direct marketing execution, and more. If you can dream it, we can make it a reality. Let’s chat and see if a partnership makes sense! Give us a call today or fill out our online contact form.