Marketing by Design

Marketing is never easy. Nor should it be, to be honest. Marketing should always require lots of thought and research into your target customer before you even begin to design a marketing campaign to increase sales. With that being said though, how can we better design marketing campaigns in a way that will not only connect with the target customer, but will also inspire action? A well designed campaign can more than pay for itself with high quality sales leads it may generate as well as the intangible value of getting your brand name out in front of consumers.

The first step in designing a good campaign is to decide on which segment of your customer base you want to speak to. Even very niche businesses have various customer segments within it and it is critically important that you craft a clear message to the part of your business you are wanting to address.

I often find that by thinking about my reason for the marketing campaign (increase sales, generate awareness, customer education, etc.) I am able to quickly define who I am looking to talk with. If you are having trouble segmenting your customer base I would recommend you look at it as talking to either new customers or existing customers. This can be an excellent starting point for your message.

Next, we will want to decide how to best deliver the content to our defined segment. This can be a tricky question and will vary depending on what sort of business you are running. For example, a local hair salon looking to obtain new clients may choose to use a direct mailing campaign to certain zip codes while an online consulting agency may choose to do a global advertisement push via Facebook. There is no single right answer for this, but by choosing the right platform for your message and target audience it increases the likelihood that your message will connect with the intended customer base.

Once delivery has been decided on you are ready to really dig into how to communicate what you want to say. This involves a lot more than just sharing a single marketing message or a sleek picture. This includes the multiple advertisements your target audience will be exposed to and how, by carefully crafting each part, you can communicate a full story to your audience.

This is where the marketing campaign showcases its value over singular marketing tactics in terms of broader planning. Link multiple advertisements together and storyboard your plan. How will the audience go from the introduction of your idea to the final action you want them to take?

In general, we would want this set up much like a classical story. The first message we want the customer to see will be the grabber. This can often be a flashy image or an impactful sentence that piques their interest in your content and causes them to be curious.

This curiosity will help them be open to your second message, this is going to be the meat of your content where you explain what value this good or service can provide for your audience. With the value communicated your audience will be ready for the last leg of the marketing journey, the call to action. This final advertisement builds off of the value you can provide and inspires action on their end. This could be asking them to buy the product or simply reach out for more information. At the end of the day, the goal with this final part is to prompt more engagement with your target audience.

All in all, marketing is a critical part of your business strategy. I often find myself spending a large chunk of my time thinking about how to deliver a solid marketing campaign that feels natural for the target audience. You want your customer to know that your product is there to add value to their life, by communicating the value and inspiring action you can build a pipeline of highly engaged customers who are excited to buy your products.