Penquin Blog

5 marketing tips from the Assegai Young Direct Marketer of the Year 2020

Written by Nicole Glover | February 23, 2021 at 8:09 AM

An integrated marketing approach not only means establishing relationships with your clients but also building long-lasting partnerships of trust and respect.

From direct to integrated marketing, the Assegai Awards aims to acknowledge agencies and individuals delivering exceptional results in a respective category. The 2020 Assegai Awards was held at The Venue at Melrose Arch on 26 November 2020 and I had the privilege of attending this prestigious event. 

 

 

According to David Dickens, CEO of DMASA, “The Assegais ask for more than mere creativity. Our clients demand returns and our members must figure out how to reach for the stars while being rooted in the Rands and Cents of the bottom line.”

Being chosen as the Young Direct Marketer of the Year 2020 helps validate the work we do for our clients at Penquin and I’d like to share some valuable marketing tips with the rest of the marketing and advertising world that helped me win this award. While there is no set way of achieving your goals (every brand is different), these are some marketing foundations I lean on to create successful campaigns for our clients.

1. Understand your overall campaign goals and objectives

According to Smart Insights, a digital marketing website, “If there is any ambiguity around the campaign’s primary objective, it’s unlikely you’ll have a unified team that can collaborate and complement one another.”

If you don’t fully understand what you’re trying to achieve with a specific campaign, you’re not going to be able to choose the right mix of media or reach the correct target audience.

 

2. Choose your marketing metrics for measurement

From social media to email marketing, every marketer should measure their campaign to a set of metrics. Marketing metrics determine how effective your campaigns are, but it’s vital to remember that every campaign will have different metrics depending on your goals and objectives. 

Convince and Convert, a media company believes “No matter how you want to define it, these data points are the vehicles that make your goals real and concrete, and make your attempts at reaching them observable and quantifiable.”

Optimise and iterate as you go and at the end of your campaign have a debrief or final report to answer the below questions:

    • What went well?
    • What didn’t go as planned and how did we work around this?
    • What didn’t work well at all? 
    • How did we perform against the original goals?
    • What learnings can we take away from the campaign? How could we do better next time?

3. Define your target audience

Identifying your target audience will provide you with a clear perspective of who you’re trying to reach and what goods or services that specific person will purchase. 

You need to know your unique buyer persona and buyer’s journey intimately before creating an integrated marketing campaign. Always develop your personas beforehand with the help of a professional and experienced team that is well-positioned to think like your customer and provide various perspectives and outcomes.  If you’re targeting 18 - 75-year-olds in South Africa, for example, you’re probably spraying and praying. Really think of who you’d like to reach and why! 

Contact us for assistance in developing your brand’s unique buyer personas and buyer’s journey.

4. Be helpful and human in your messaging

Are you being a good partner to your clients or consumers and setting them up for success? No matter what product or service you’re selling, you should keep in mind your customers’ goals and challenges. Remember, it’s not about you - it’s about them! By always placing the customer first and helping them to reach their goals or overcome their challenges, you’ll build a strong relationship built on trust and transparency. 

 

5. Question everything! You know your brand best

As much as your agency pushes you, you need to push back - that’s how the best long-term relationships or partnerships develop. Diverse thinking is everything! By challenging each other’s ideas and strategies, you’ll achieve more holistic, comprehensive and creative marketing campaigns. 

Oozou, a design-driven team of engineers and creatives says, “There will always be negotiations, there will often be compromises, but there should rarely be a need for personal sacrifice for the good of the company. Client engagements can be very demanding, but establishing a culture of pushing back when necessary can help create long-term success for both your agency and your client.”

 

Every client, business, and campaign are different and I believe there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. So, I tailor my strategy and tactics to the client depending on their needs and objectives.

 

As a marketer, I have a framework and a baseline of knowledge and experience that I work from. I use this framework to build strategies and tactics that fit the specific campaign or client. I always make sure I understand the landscape, the client's needs, and how to make the two work together to get the best results.

 

There’s nobody that knows our clients and their businesses as well as we do, and that’s why what we do as an agency works. Our goal at Penquin is to put ourselves in your customers’ shoes to help you understand what makes them tick. We partner with you to help deliver results-driven integrated marketing campaigns that resonate with your buyer personas and lead to long term customer relationships.

 

Implement these tips for your next marketing campaign, and it will definitely be a success! If you need any help, feel free to reach out to me with your campaign idea and I’ll help provide a sounding board to help you fine tune your strategy.