Marketing is easy to overlook for a small business with a limited budget. However, you should not underestimate the power of good marketing because it can make or break a company. If you are struggling to craft an effective marketing message, look no further. Help is here. Here are five tips to crafting the perfect marketing message.
1. Who is your target audience?
Developing the perfect marketing message takes a lot of background research before even thinking about advertising. First, you need to determine who you want to reach with your marketing message. Perhaps you want to target your major consumers and try to create more brand loyalty or heavier use of your services. This would mean that your message will try to raise preference and long-term adoption. Or perhaps you want to target an audience that has previously not heard of your company but has a need for it. This would mean that your message will try to raise awareness for your brand and the services that your green industry business provides.
Once you have decided who your target audience is, you need to thoroughly research this segment in order to find useful insights for your message. You will want to research geographic location, demographics, psychographics (want the consumer cares about), and behaviors (what the consumer's everyday life is like). Psychographics is useful for directing your message so that it emphasizes the aspect of your product or service that your audience cares about most. Behavior is probably most useful for determining where to place your advertising that will be most visible to your audience.
2. What platform is best to reach your audience?
Now that you have established your target audience, you need to find the best way to reach them that also fits your budget. You can use your behavioral research to determine if your target audience uses social media, listens to the radio, watches TV, or drives by billboards everyday. These days, almost everyone is on social media, and it costs you very little to create and maintain company pages on social media.
3. Timing
If you have a seasonal product or service, it is important to know when customers start getting ready for that season. For example, a flower shop would be smart to do a moderate advertising a week before Valentine's Day and heavy advertising the day before, the day of and the day after (to cater for the procrastinating husbands out there). Try to time your advertising for when it will be most relevant to your audience.
4. Incentives
If your amazing product or service isn't enough to get some initial involvement from your target audience, you may need to think about some incentives. Marketing incentives can be rewards programs, coupons, contests on social media, and more. Another effective way to offer incentive is to create the illusion of scarcity. Your advertising can say, "limited time," or "supplies limited," in order to make customers feel like they have to act fast. This will get people in the door, and give your company some new exposure.
5. Clarify your objective
Lastly, your audience must be able to correctly interpret your marketing message and be able to take away your main idea. Your main idea should be based off what you know about your consumers needs that your company distinctly offers. If your consumer needs a reasonable price, you message must tell them that you offer the best prices. If your consumer needs the best quality, they need to know you have it. In the end, your marketing message should be likable and easy to interpret.
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