One of the most common marketing errors that small businesses make is not developing a marketing campaign. A marketing campaign is a plan that helps build your customer base, keep the customers you already have, and build the reputation of your business’ brand. There are some basic steps you can take to better marketing practices that will help you implement a marketing campaign for your small business.
Definition
The first step is of course to define your marketing campaign. This will guide all your marketing decisions. A marketing campaign involves a tagline or slogan that will be uniform throughout your material: letterhead, business cards, a print poster, a brochure, etc. Your marketing campaign slogan should define what you can do for your customers in a brief and powerful phrase.
Implementation
Implementation of your marketing campaign should be uniform and varied. The message must remain uniform across the various types of media used to convey it. Printed media such as poster and brochure advertisements need to have the same look and feel of your business’ brand identity as do electronic media such as your website and internet advertisements. They all need to reiterate and reinforce the campaign slogan.
Tracking
Track your marketing campaign success. Sometimes a small change can make a big difference in the effectiveness of an ad. Be aware of traffic flow in general and take note of any affects the campaign has. If the response is low, perhaps a re-evaluation of the scale of your campaign is needed. Hang more of your print poster designs, add one more radio spot at the right time, try different locations to place your print posters, different stations to air your ads, etc.
Follow-up
Most importantly, follow up with customers. Find out if they were unsatisfied in any way. If so, fix the issue. Be sure to thank them for their input. Accept criticisms graciously and make improvements if needed. Great customer service is a great selling point. A stunning print poster design and enthusiastic commercials touting a superior product or service may lead customers to you, but only the level of your customer service will keep them coming back for more!
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