Marketing – it feels like the buzzword of the decade, doesn’t it? You can’t spend more than three seconds online without seeing someone talking, tweeting or TikTok-ing about it, with promises of sneaky strategies that will transform your business.
If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all, allow us to chuck a lifebuoy and bring it back to the bare bones! From our seasoned know-how, successful marketing boils down to three building blocks: Message, Market, and Media. Get these sorted in your marketing strategy, and you’ve got yourself a rock-solid springboard for business growth that you can buff up and blossom over the years.
Message
Let’s start with Message, which let’s face it, is the whole point of marketing. What’s your business trying to communicate? Whatever your message is, it should be clear, concise, and compelling. Think about what sets your brand apart from the competition; does your audience know about it? Pop a spotlight on the one-of-a-kind perks that your product or service brings to the table. What problem can you solve for your customers?
Message: Now, when we think about the message, we’ve got to give a good think about the tone of voice we’re using. Are we going for a bit of a chit-chat vibe or is your crowd a bit more bookish? Would a cheeky tone hit the spot or is the topic a bit on the sombre side? Having a chinwag about the tone of voice will give your message a realness, and it’s more likely to get all ears on deck. It’s also important to dig into the pain of your client, learn what they’re struggling with and how you can help them the most.
Market
Your “market” is the gang who really need to catch wind of your message. They could be business gurus, parents of ankle-biters of a certain age, retired lovebirds, or just folk with a specific snag to sort out. Nailing your target market is absolutely vital; it calls the shots on how you relay your message and which media channels you pull out of the bag. Retired folks probably won’t be hanging out on LinkedIn, but they might be inspired by a well-crafted leaflet popping through their letterbox, for instance.
For this building block, you’ll need to have a look at demographics, psychographics, and behaviour. Sounds all scientific, right? Demographics include factors like age, gender, income, and education level, while psychographics are all about personality traits, values, attitudes, and lifestyle. Behaviour is all about how your target audience gets cosy with your product or service; how often they nab it, why they grab it, and how they put it to work.
So, it’s a total waste to shout your message to folks who’ll never give your product a whirl, so get specific! Doing a bit of market research and rustling up buyer profiles can help you nab some solid gold insights into your ideal customers. Dive deep into their needs, wants, and what gets them going. Sounds like a bit of a palaver, but take it from us, this will make your marketing that much more gripping and engaging.
Media
Lastly, but by no means least, is media. This is the ‘how’ of marketing, the path that your message trots along to reach your market. There’s a head-spinning smorgasbord of media channels out there, including print, broadcast, digital, and social media.
So which media channels should you have a punt at? Maybe just a handful, maybe the whole kit and caboodle. The secret sauce is sussing out which ones your audience is tuned into on the regular. Your work on target audiences should give you a leg up here, as you ought to have a decent idea of how your potential customers roll. If they’re buzzing on social media, zero in on content for their fave platforms and think about splashing out on a few adverts too.
This is where a bit of try-it-and-see comes into play, because when it comes to marketing moolah, there are no dead certs! It’s all too easy to get carried away and blow all your budget in one spot, so take a breath and decide what’s the bee’s knees for your business. Running ads or pay-per-clicks can rack up the pennies, whereas social media channels are free to use but need a hefty dose of time and elbow grease to keep the engagement cranking.
Review and Refine
So, there you have it, the three cheeky building blocks of successful marketing – Message, Market, and Media. Hopefully, this blog has given you a glimpse of how essential they are for a cracking marketing strategy.
Once you’ve brewed a clear and captivating message, pegged your market, and picked the top-notch media channels, you’re off to the races! Now you can whip up a dazzling marketing campaign that will turbocharge your business’s growth and success.
And it doesn’t stop there, oh no! You can use these three crafty building blocks as a way to give your marketing the once-over year on year. Sometimes you’ll need to tweak one, two, or all three of them as your business and audience shape-shifts and grows. And who knows what new-fangled media channels will rock up on the scene in the future!
If you can take a bit of time to review and refine your marketing strategy, you’ll stay one step ahead of the pack and continue to grow and succeed in this madcap world. And if it all gets a bit too much and you’re in need of a bit of backup, get in touch to see how we can help you.
