[Checklist] Is your marketing strategy still relevant?

Welcome to modern marketing: where content is quick, competitors are many and time is a commodity very few marketers have.

In years gone by, marketers had to worry about one or two pieces of content a year. It took about three to six months to conceptualise, execute and flight said content and usually it was on one medium, such as television or radio. Today, things are very different: marketers have a plethora of channels within which they need to communicate, a new piece of content every day, and next-to-no-time to turn creative around.

We’ve developed a checklist to help make sure you’re reaching your market, staying relevant and making money while you do it.

• Fish where the fish are biting

With the plethora of channels available, it may seem difficult to decide where to put your marketing efforts and spend. Understanding where your target market is looking for information and where they are most likely to consume your message is the first step to a modern marketing strategy.

• Listen and then act

Gone are the days where brand messages were sent out and consumers left to digest and accept them. Today, your consumers are dictating what your brand should be, what they want, how they want it and when. The beauty of the digital era is that all of this information is offered to you by your target market; learn to listen to them, through their comments, responses, engagement, and then act. This invaluable information is a nugget to a competitive advantage.

• Remain consistent

With all of the channels your target market is exposed to daily and the number of marketing messages they receive, you have to make sure that your message, brand, creative and offers are 100% aligned. Repetition is one of the age-old marketing rules and yet it has never been this relevant. Make sure that what you are doing,  saying and actioning is the same across the very broad board.

• Close the marketing loop. Again and again

Understanding that while your messaging must be tailored to the medium you are engaging with and that there are many of these mediums, also means that you need to close loops. All. The. Time.

Never assume that anyone seeing your message on TV understands what you are doing on social media. Never assume that somebody engaging with your brand in store knows what you are communicating outdoors. Always make sure that you are singing the same tune, at every juncture, without being seen as copy and paste.

• Have a clear call-to-action

Organised chaos doesn’t exist, especially if you’re trying to communicate above a million other messages. People just want to know what you want them to do and how to do it. Enter, purchase, share, like - be explicit about what you would like your audience to do and then make sure that you close the loop (as per step four).

Following these rules will assist in taking away the anxiety of being relevant in today’s fast paced marketing era and it will also help guide you through the many marketing efforts and messages and calls-to-action for the same purpose. Simply put, make sure everything is unified.

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