Do you wonder why marketing practices are important to a company? Why would a company need it? Why the need of investing time and money in these practices? And above all, what are the returns to be expected from these investments?
Well, let's be clear and concise: marketing (and its good practice) represents all the actions that you could take in order to have, among other things, more customers, better visibility, more influence with your donors. Rather tempting, isn't it?
Indeed, good marketing practices will allow you to focus on the customers, donors, and volunteers of your company but also to understand their desires and needs in order to develop your company. Marketing is therefore essential and intrinsically linked to the growth of the latter.
1. Define Your Identity
In order to set up good marketing practices, you must first start with the sinews of war: defining the identity and mission of your company. Who are you? Who are you helping? What actions are you doing on this? By visiting your website, your prospects must have a very precise idea of your reason for being, and for that, you must be clear about it yourself.
The simplest method would be to use the concept of the Golden Circle of Simon Sinek (author of "Start With Why"), which prioritizes the three questions that a company must be able to answer through its communication with potential customers.
- What: This is the easiest part because all companies know what they are doing or what they are selling.
- How: Knowing how you are going to do it is more difficult because this is where your value proposition comes into play and how you will set yourself apart from your competition.
- Why: This is the raison d'être of your company.
Many people assume that the “what” is sufficient on its own when in reality it is necessary to start from the “why”, why does your company exist? What are its vocation and mission? What are you doing that is different? Why choose you over another?
Defining your identity well and, in turn, its positioning is essential for good growth (growing your company if you prefer). When you are aligned with this, you will be able to use another very useful tool in the development of your company which is what is called a SWOT table (still stung in marketing). In it, you will define in precise terms what are your strengths, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses.
Finally, do not forget to constantly be on the lookout of your competitors (in terms of benchmark in marketing) in order to keep an eye on the development of their offers and their products but also on their communication technique.
2. Set Your Goals
When carrying out marketing actions it is very important to keep your goals in mind. However, how do you know if you have reached them if you have not defined them beforehand?
Before each action, you will therefore need to write down your objectives and expectations in figures.
Is your goal to gain 50 new customers? Or rather to collect 100 email addresses to grow your database? Should 300 prospects have interacted with your sponsored campaign on Facebook?
Thanks to the definition of quantified objectives upstream, you will finally know whether or not your marketing practices are good or need to be reviewed.
A simple technique to use for this is called the SMART technique. This corresponds to an acronym that allows you to define objectives before each marketing action launch:
- Specific: what are we doing? who does it ? and how ?
- Measurable: data data data, establish criteria to measure the evolution of your actions
- Achievable: Small goals can be used to accomplish a bigger goal
- Realistic: conceivable and motivating, take into consideration the constraints
- Time-bound: specify a deadline, it will help you reach your goal
You can also use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), a management method from the 1950s, used by GAFAM in particular, which is based on the definition of objectives associated with the measurement of key results. Goals indicate where the company wishes to go. The key results indicate whether it was successful and, if not, an attempt is made to understand why and correct it.
The so-called OKR method wants each objective to be broken down into several small tasks, the results of which must be measurable each quarter for example. Each small task performed is a milestone which, linked to all the others, achieves the final goal.
3. Identify Your Ideal Target
In order for your goals to be achieved, you need to know if you are reaching out to the right people. In marketing we often use the persona, a semi-fictitious target of your ideal customer.
This is the representation of a group of people encountering the same problem in the form of the same profile (a sort of robot portrait), they can also share the same consumption habits or do the same job, for example.
You must keep in mind the different problems of your personas because by knowing how to respond to them you will be able to convince them of your expertise and your place as leader in the market. This will strengthen their willingness to turn to you rather than another company.
4. Use a database: CRM
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is a tool that allows, among other things, a company to manage its customer relationship and centralize data while increasing productivity and the efficiency of sales and marketing services. But why is CRM essential for a company?
Well, for the same reasons as a business, it will allow you to manage your base of customers, funders, donors or supporters while allowing you to collect enough data to make reports and keep an eye on the growth of your company.
A CRM allows you to manage all your contacts in one place, no more obsolete excel files that exist in V1, V2, V10. Your CRM is always up to date with the latest information you have!
Thus, whether it is to sell services or renew contributions, segment the campaign according to the profile of your prospects or retain your donors: CRM is the essential tool.
5. Produce content
For a company, using a content marketing strategy will be one of the best assets, especially if the content is original and stands out from your competition.
Content marketing will allow you to achieve relevant and effective SEO in the medium to long term. This will mean offering qualitative and interesting content to your potential volunteers, partners and customers in order to position yourself as an expert in your field.
This expert position will allow you not only to gain notoriety in the market but also to attract new customers and also to set you apart from your competitors.
Having quality content will help you carry the voice of your company through the communication you make of it. As we stated above, knowing who you are talking to (aka your personas) is essential in order to produce the most relevant communication strategy for them. This will start with the development of an editorial strategy if you want to highlight your expertise via blog articles for example.
Producing your own content therefore allows you to promote your company, retain existing customers, attract new ones and position yourself as an expert in your field.
Now you have all the keys in hand to establish an effective marketing strategy for your company. You will understand, the main thing is to define your objectives upstream as well as everything you will need to promote your company. Tools such as a CRM software will allow you to gain productivity and efficiency. Your communication plan should be thought through for a long time, be careful not to go too fast and make mistakes in your communication.
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