The Big Picture: A Quick Marketing Retrospective
It’s time for a quiz! (Stop sweating, it’s multiple choice).
Q) Which of these is most important for marketing?
A) Really cool looking marketing material
B) Lead generation. 5000 leads a day, regardless of industry
C) Lunches on the corporate card
D) Knowing your target audience
Pencils down!
For those who chose A: You just might be a Photoshop whiz kid, or a graphic design extraordinaire! Marketing strategies, however, may not subside on cool graphics alone, but on science and math too.
For those who chose B: Yes, lead generation is important, especially in the home improvement industry where there are many, many professionals available to offer their services at any given time. Lead generation, though, means nothing in and of itself. Your lead generation may be exceptional within the home improvement industry, but if they were all looking for a real estate agent in the first place, then the leads are of little to no value.
For those who chose C: Go to the corner store and pick yourself up a snack. Get your head in the game!
For those who chose D: You are absolutely correct. Knowing your target audience is essential for any business marketing campaign, regardless of industry.
Granted, this is easier said than done (and even somewhat obvious), but the point remains the same. Marketing strategies are not one-trick ponies. They are multi-faceted plans that use your marketing capital in order to achieve the greatest return on investment. That’s the marketing game, in a nutshell.
A good litmus test? Ask yourself right now, without cheating or using Google, “What is my target audience.” If you can answer that off the top of your head, then you still have a grasp of who you’re trying to reach.
If you find yourself either unsure, or hesitant to answer, then one of two things might have happened. One, you really might not know who your target audience is. If this is the case, you need to re-evaluate, or even just begin outlining your marketing strategy. What is your message? Who are you trying to reach? Even a small local business here in Austin, Tx needs a marketing strategy. If you don’t even know who you’re trying to reach, how will you ever know once you’ve reached them?!
If you once had a definitive answer to that question, but are now uncertain, then your target audience might have changed without you even knowing it. This is okay, because sometimes business plans and marketing strategies have to adjust and compensate for a variety of factors, and they will be fine as long as you are aware and consciously adjusting your marketing.
A little big picture retrospective is healthy in any planning process:
1) What are you trying to say?
2) To whom are you trying to say this?
3) How (via what mediums) will I get my message across?
4) Is this working?
With a carefully planned marketing strategy, 1 and 2 should be easy to answer, and 3 should be flexible until question 4 yields a “yes”.
Simple enough? (yeah, right).