Small Business Marketing Campaign Checklist
Posted by Robert Hennessey on Mon, Oct 17, 2011
Below is a checklist of major steps to consider in planning your next small business B2B marketing campaign.
You want to carry out your next marketing campaign but are you sure it will be successful. Marketing is a process, so having a plan and knowing what needs adjustment to make your results better is essential.
Establish the purpose of each marketing campaign you undertake. Is it to build your company’s brand, launch a new product or service,
open new markets, or increase market share.
Define your target audience. Will you be targeting new customers, existing customers, or both? Have you adequately outlined the
personas of your target audience?
Set specific marketing goals for your campaign.
- What is your sales goal?
- What is your profit goal?
- What is your marketing budget?
- What is your projected return-on-investment?
Analyze your Marketing Assumptions. Be sure you are making realistic assumptions that will result in meeting your marketing goals.
If not rethink your assumptions or adjust your goals.
To assist you in analyzing your sales assumptions you can use a free and simple to use marketing campaign analysis tool. It makes it easy for you to evaluate your next marketing campaign.
Construct your marketing message. Be sure you design a customer-centric marketing message that focuses on how you will
help your potential customers as
opposed to telling them why they should buy from you.
Also, include an offer to entice your sales prospects to respond. Your offer needs to be something valuable to your prospect. Avoid the ubiquitous free sales meeting that is only good for you.
Select a distribution method for your campaign. Some typical marketing message distribution methods are direct mail, trade ads,
email, SEO/public relations, radio/TV/billboards, social media or
seminars/webinars. Be sure the distribution method you select fits
your budget.
Track your campaign. No matter the distribution method you use you will need to monitor and track results against your marketing
goals. Your message, your offer, the distribution method and your
target audience are important aspects of your campaign to assess
not only for this campaign but also for conducting future campaigns.
This will allow you to benefit from your mistakes and avoid repeating
them in the future.
Have a structured follow up plan. When you receive a response to your marketing be prepared with the steps you will follow to turn
your sales lead into a sale.
Takeaway:
Basic planning is critical to ensure your success. These are the minimum planning steps you should be prepared to execute to conduct your next marketing campaign.
