Are you struggling to put together an effective marketing strategy? Here are five tips to help you get started.

Step 1: Review your past activity

What exactly did you do and why did you do it? What were the results? If things didn’t work out as expected, what would you do differently in the future?

Go into your analytics data and compare year on year performance. You might see trends that aren’t obvious when you simply compare month on month.

It’s surprising what insights you can get from evaluating previous campaigns, it is all about the data! Improving your LinkedIn and / or your Google analytics skills might be something to consider.

Step 2: Check who you are targeting

Who is your primary customer and are you communicating with them in the most engaging way? Have you differentiated between existing customers and prospects?

Prospects need very different information and communication to your existing customers who you already have a relationship with.

Step 3: Explore your messaging.

Have your marketing messages worked? Is your value proposition being clearly communicated? Are you using storytelling techniques?

Improving your storytelling and messaging techniques could be a big goal for the rest of 2019.

Step 4: Content is King – what is your content strategy?

Mediocre content won’t generate results! 87 per cent of B2B content marketers say they struggle to produce content that truly engages their buyers.

Aligning your content with business objectives is just half the battle. You need to arm yourself with the insights you need to publish ideas that resonate with your customers before you even put pen to paper.

Tailor inspiring messages for prospects at each stage of the marketing funnel and make sure buyers aren’t served product-centric content too early on.

Step 5: Consider doing more with video.

Our industry is moving towards a future that places video at the centre of marketing.

People are more apt to watch a short video than read a lot of text. That’s why nearly every platform has released short-form vertical video stories.

And let’s not forget about YouTube.

How can SMART Marketing Coaching help?

Here’s how:

#1: We have a whole track on analytics. This will help you improve your measurement, better interpret what’s working, and warn you early when things are failing.

#2: We have SMART Coaching packages for developing your value proposition, understanding your customers and developing your marketing strategy. These will help you be more effective in your targeting and communication.

#3: We have tools to help with you planning. Whether it is a content plan or a marketing activity calendar you need, we can help and upskill your team to use these. The right tools and the right processes are key.

#4: We can help assess your agencies and outsourced partners. This will help you determine whether you are getting the best return on investment and the latest thinking.

#5: We provide an objective view. Our marketing experts can give their experienced views on any area of your marketing.