At Blue Bee we are experts in marketing. We have put together countless marketing strategies for a number of different companies from all walks of business. So, we know exactly what needs to be done to make sure your marketing strategy perfectly fits your business, its goals and its target audience. Throughout this blog we highlight the key considerations for any winning marketing strategy, so you can make sure your time, money and expertise don’t go to waste.
Before getting to the actual activity part of the marketing strategy, it’s important to ask yourselves a few important questions to establish which direction you would like your strategy to go in.
Who?
Firstly, you need to establish you target audience. Ask yourselves which kinds of people are likely to buy your product or use your services. When you have a picture of who this person is you can move on to every other step of the marketing strategy with them in mind.
What?
You need to make the decision on what marketing activity you are going to do. You should prioritise the activities that are going to best promote your products/service and capture your target audience. For example, if your demographic is in the older age bracket it may not be worth devoting too much time and effort to social media. If you are B2B focussed company, then it can be quite difficult to maximise a PPC campaign, therefore budget may be better used elsewhere. This leads us on to the next point
Budget
Marketing costs both time and money. You need to carefully consider how much you want to sacrifice financially to maximise your marketing strategy. It’s not quite as simple as the more you spend, the more you get out of it. It’s about spending your money wisely and effectively to maximise ROI. You may not get this right straightaway and over the first few months of your marketing to you may need to adjust or move budgets accordingly.
Time?
When it comes to marketing strategies, it’s not simply a case of setting everything up and letting it run. You need to dedicate time to managing it and ensuring it’s performing
to its maximum, checking in on it regularly to make changes. For smaller businesses this can be quite overwhelming, so consider outsourcing it or engaging a marketing agency like Blue Bee to take care of it on your behalf.
Competitors
It’s important to do research on your competitors when starting your marketing strategy. Find out which keywords they rank for, check out their social media, read their blogs and view their google ads. This way you can see what is working well for them whilst gaining inspiration on how to go about your marketing and identify any gaps you can exploit.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the most important aspects of any digital marketing strategy. It’s all about making sure your website ranks highly on search engines like Google for the keywords your potential customers are searching for. Good SEO ensures that your website is not only visible, but also user-friendly, fast and mobile optimised. From technical tweaks and meta data to quality content and link building, there are many moving parts to SEO. It’s not an overnight fix, but a long-term investment that delivers sustainable results. At Blue Bee, we create tailored SEO strategies that help your site climb the rankings and stay there, ensuring you’re always one step ahead of the competition.
PPC
Setting up a PPC/Google Ads campaign is a really effective way of driving traffic to your website and can bring immediate results. It’s a quick and efficient way of putting your brand or products in front of consumers. If you get the set-up of your PPC right, you can ensure you appear in search results, increasing visits to your website whilst you are building up your organic SEO, social media following and mailing list.
Social Media
Social media is a great way to showcase your business. For the most part it is free and is used regularly by pretty much everyone. However, it is important to get it right when marketing yourself. There is a fine balance of posting too much and not enough an your content needs to be a mix of corporate, sales, promotional posts and a more human, fun and social side that showcases the people and the work they do. It also needs to look good, having high quality photos and professionally designed creative. By combining all these aspects, you will create a professional and legitimate image for your business helping to build trust with your target audience.
Content & Emails
Content marketing includes blogs, guides, infographics, emails, videos, images and everything you need to engage and inspire your target audience. Having an effective
content strategy that fits in with your brand identity and speaks directly to your audience is an important aspect of marketing.
You don’t have to do all of those listed above, but two of the most common aspects of content marketing are blogs and marketing emails.
Blogs are the easiest and most effective way of updating your website content regularly and by incorporating keywords, they will help your SEO significantly. Marketing emails are a great way of directly connecting with your target audience, whether that is previous customers or leads. You can promote products/offers, deliver latest news or showcase completed projects. They also encourage a good amount of direct traffic to your website.
Conclusion
Building a winning marketing strategy isn’t about ticking boxes – it’s about creating a tailored, flexible approach that aligns with your business goals and speaks directly to your audience. From SEO and PPC to content, email and social media, every element plays its part in creating a cohesive marketing plan. Take the time to define your audience, set clear objectives and allocate your time and budget wisely. Most importantly, be ready to adapt and improve your strategy as your business grows. And if it all feels overwhelming, contact Blue Bee – we live and breathe marketing, so you don’t have to.
