Marketing Management: 8 in 1 Guide to Master Strategy, Branding, Digital Marketing, Social Media, Analytics, Content, Business Development & Mobile Marketing

By Santino Spencer

MARKETING MANAGEMENT - 8 MANUSCRIPTS IN 1 BOOK, INCLUDING:

 

1)

MARKETING STRATEGY:

7 Easy Steps to Master Marketing Fundamentals, Advertising Strategy, Marketing Management & Research.

 

2)

BUSINESS BRANDING:

7 Easy Steps to Master Brand Management, Reputation Management, Business Co

• Language: English
• Publisher: Santino Spencer
• Release date: Jul 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088213209

Book preview

Marketing Management

8 in 1 Guide to Master Strategy, Branding, Digital Marketing, Social Media, Analytics, Content, Business Development & Mobile Marketing

Santino Spencer

Copyright

© Copyright by Santino Spencer. All rights reserved.

This document is geared towards providing exact and reliable information in regard to the topic and issue covered. The publication is sold with the idea that the publisher is not required to render accounting, officially permitted, or otherwise, qualified services. If advice is necessary, legal or professional, a practiced individual in the profession should be ordered.

From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and approved equally by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.

In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

The information provided herein is stated to be truthful and consistent, in that any liability, in terms of inattention or otherwise, by any usage or abuse of any policies, processes, or directions contained within is the solitary and utter responsibility of the recipient reader. Under no circumstances will any legal responsibility or blame be held against the publisher for any reparation, damages, or monetary loss due to the information herein, either directly or indirectly.

Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

The information herein is offered for informational purposes solely, and is universal as so. The presentation of the information is without contract or any type of guaranteed assurance.

The trademarks that are used are without any consent, and the publication of the trademark is without permission or backing by the trademark owner. All trademarks and brands within this book are for clarifying purposes only and are the owned by the owners themselves, not affiliated with this document.

Table of Contents

Marketing Management

Copyright

Table of Contents

Book 1: Marketing Strategy

Table of Contents

Book 2: Business Branding

Table of Contents

Book 3: Digital Marketing

Table of Contents

Book 4: Social Media Marketing

Table of Contents

Book 5: Marketing Analytics

Table of Contents

Book 6: Content Marketing

Table of Contents

Book 7: Business Development

Table of Contents

Book 8: Mobile Marketing

Table of Contents

Book 1: Marketing Strategy

7 Easy Steps to Master Marketing Fundamentals, Advertising Strategy, Marketing Management & Research

Santino Spencer

Table of Contents

Marketing Management

Copyright

Table of Contents

Book 1: Marketing Strategy

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Step 1 - Understating Customers

Know Your Customer

Why Knowing Your Customer Is Important

Standing Out

Creating Content

Customer Loyalty

Getting to Know the Customer

Pro Tip 1 – Buyer Persona

Pro Tip 2 – Social Media Listening

Pro Tip 3 – Surveying

Pro Tip 4 – Content Engagement

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Navigating Market Analyzation

Why is Market Analysis Important

Competitors

4Ps of Marketing

Product

Price

Place

Promotion

Primary Research Options

Chapter 3: Step 3 - Analyzing Competition

How to Assess Where a Brand Stands with Competition

Pro-Tip 1 – Who Is the Competition?

Pro-Tip 2 – Products of the Competition

Pro-Tip 3 – Understanding Competitor Sales Tactics

Pro-Tip 4 – How Competition Markets Products or Services

Pro-Tip 5 – Competition Content Strategy

Pro-Tip 6 – Engagement

Pro-Tip 7 – Promotion of Marketing Content

Pro-Tip 8 – Social Media Presence

Pro-Tip 9 – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT)

Chapter 4: Step 4 - Researching Distribution

Selecting Distribution Channels

Direct Selling

Wholesale

Mail Order

E-Commerce

Chapter 5: Step 5 - Defining the Right Marketing Mix

4 C’s of Marketing

Product/Customer Solution

Price/Cost

Promotion/Communication

Place/Convenience

Choosing the Right Marketing Mix

Chapter 6: Step 6 - Conducting a Financial Analysis

Financial Approach

Sales Projections

Break-Even Analysis

Fixed Cost

Variable Cost

Cash Flow Statement

Loan Activities

Product Viability

Chapter 7: Step 7 - Assessments and Revisions

Evaluating the Market

Market Reaction

Customer Response

Sales Performance

Cost-Per-Acquisition

Return-On-Investment

Knowing When to Make Revisions

Conclusion

Book 2: Business Branding

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Step 1 - Figure Out the Brand Purpose

What Is a Brand Purpose?

How to Build a Brand Purpose?

Advantages of Having a Strong Brand Purpose

Importance of Having a Brand Purpose

Examples of Brand Purpose

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Determine Your Target Audience

What Do You Mean by Target Audience?

Why Do You Need a Target Audience?

Types of Target Audience

Tips for Identifying the Right Target Audience

Chapter 3: Step 3 - Research Your Brand's Competitors

Identify Your Direct Competitors

Identify Your Indirect Competitors

Identify Future Competitors

Focus on the Products Offered by Your Competitors

Analyze Your Competitors' Sales Strategies and Their Results

Analyze Your Competitors' Marketing Strategies

Know Their Content Strategy

Analyze Your Competitors' Content Engagement

Run A SWOT Analysis

Chapter 4: Step 4 - Prepare Your Mission Statement

How to Create a Strong Mission Statement?

Why Is a Mission Statement Important?

Chapter 5: Step 5 - Develop Your Brand Name and Logo

What Is a Brand Name?

The Purpose of a Brand Name

Requirements of A Good Brand Name

How to Select a Proper Brand Name?

What Is a Logo?

What Is the Purpose of a Logo?

Constituents of a Logo

What Makes a Logo Unique?

Chapter 6: Step 6 - Build a Brand Story

What Is a Brand Story?

Advantages of Having a Brand Story

How to Build a Brand Story?

Chapter 7: Step 7 - Market Your Brand

Create a Website

SEO

Use Social Media

You Can Try Live Streaming

Make Your Brand Unique

Start Storytelling

Try Influencer Marketing

Make Valuable Content

Publish on LinkedIn

Help Others

Conduct Podcasts

Do Giveaways and Offer Discounts

Incorporate Infographics

Try Car Wraps

Remarket Campaigns

Try Paid Social Advertising

Networking

Conclusion

Book 3: Digital Marketing

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Step 1 - Understanding Why Digital Marketing Is the Future of Your Business

The World Is Changing

What Is Digital Strategy?

The Apple Case Study

Chapter 2: Step 2 - How to Create the Right Kind of Content

Quality Content Is King

What Type of Content Qualifies As Great Content?

The Type of Content You Should Be Generating

Who Churns Out the Content?

Chapter 3: Step 3 - Preparing Your Digital Strategy

Step 1: Set Clear Objectives

Step 2: Understand the Audience You Are Trying to Target

Step 3: Figure Out Your Messaging

Step 4: Determine Your Channels

Step 5: Think About Your Content

Chapter 4: Step 4 - A Guide to Budgeting

What Is a Marketing Budget?

The Benefits of Going Digital

Steps to Begin Creating Your Budget

Chapter 5: Step 5 - Why Email Marketing Automation Is a Game Changer

What Is Email Marketing Automation?

How Email Marketing Automation Will Benefit You

Chapter 6: Step 6 - Tell A Digital Story That Sells

What Is Digital Storytelling?

Why Would You Create A Story?

The Process of Creating Your Story

Quick Tip About Attention Spans

Chapter 7: Step 7 - Tracking Your KPI and Metrics

What Are Digital Marketing KPIs?

How Do I Choose the Best KPIs for My Brand?

How Do I Track My KPIs?

Your Most Important Metrics

Conclusion

Book 4: Social Media Marketing

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Step 1 – Understand Why Your Business Needs It

What Is It?

Why Your Business Needs It

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Market Research Done Right

What Is Social Media Market Research?

The Benefits of Market Research

Primary and Secondary Market Research

Social Media Channels That Are Good for Research

Chapter 3: Step 3 - How to Market on Facebook

Your Content Is Where the Magic Happens

Focus on Creating Video Content

Repurpose Your Top Performing Content

Focus on Your Pages to Watch

Listen to Your People

Chapter 4: Step 4 - How to Market on Instagram

You Need to Have a Plan

Create Shareable Content

Identify Who Your Target Market Is

Your Account Needs to Be Visible

Use Your Hashtags Sparingly

Create Content That Is Strategic

Engage with Your Target Audience Regularly

Create Vertical Video Content

Chapter 5: Step 5 - How to Market on YouTube

Your YouTube Marketing Strategy

Setting Up Your Channel

Getting Your First Few Subscribers

Chapter 6: Step 6 - Focusing on the Right Niche Market

What Is a Niche Market?

How Do You Find Your Niche Market?

Chapter 7: Step 7 - Build an Unforgettable Presence

The Importance of Social Media Presence

The Benefits of Being Unforgettable

How Do You Make a Lasting Impression?

Conclusion

Book 5: Marketing Analytics

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Step 1 - Determining the Stakeholders

How to Identify Key Stakeholders

Mapping Stakeholders

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Integration of Data

Path to Purchase

Combine First- and Third-Party Data Sources

Building Bridges

Putting Insights into Action

Chapter 3: Step 3 - Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Understanding Marketing KPIs

Sales Revenues

Cost Per Lead

Customer Lifetime Value

Inbound ROI

New Contact Rate

Lead-to-Customer Ratio

Conversion Rate for Landing Page

Organic Traffic

Social Media Conversion Rate / Traffic

Mobile Traffic

Chapter 4: Step 4 - Implementing Analytics

Dashboard Development

Five Second Rule

Logical Layout

Less Is More

Choosing Data Visualizations

Chapter 5: Step 5 - Data Hygiene and Data Governance

Culture and Resource Strains

Challenges

Data Hygiene

How Data Becomes Compromised

Data Audit

Maintaining Data Hygiene

Applying Data Governance

Data Governance Goals Defined

Processes

Chapter 6: Step 6 - Measuring Success

Marketing Analytic Paradox

Mistakes with Marketing Analytics

Chapter 7: Step 7 - Vendor Considerations

Marketing Analytics Software

Mixpanel

AdWords Performance Grader

Formisimo

CrazyEgg

BuzzSumo

Convertible

Crowdbooster

Open Site Explorer

Conclusion

Book 6: Content Marketing

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Step 1 - Understand the Value Proposition

Leverage Existing Content

Engage Your Audience

Tailor Your Content

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Build the Narrative with Content Marketing

The Power Tool

Creating Customer Identities

Cutting Through the Clutter

Benefits of Storytelling

Principles of Storytelling

Transmit Knowledge and Meaning

Chapter 3: Step 3 - Structure Influence and Authority

Boundless Benefits

Enhance SEO efforts

Higher Domain Authority

Chapter 4: Step 4 - Build and Strategize

Document Your Aims, Goals, Along with Key Performance Indicators

Audit Your Existing Content

Research Keywords and Create Content

Finalize Your Lead Magnet or Hook

Commit to a Publishing Schedule

Boost Your Materials

Chapter 5: Step 5 - Align Content Marketing with the Buyer's Journey

Your Content Mapping Approach

What Are the Benefits of Content Mapping?

Get Started with Content Mapping

Content Mapping Steps

Are There Tools to Create a Content Map?

Getting the Most from Your Content Maps

Using Maps to Aid in Tech Decisions

Chapter 6: Step 6 - Appeal to Your Customer-Base

How Much and How Often

A Simple Framework to Follow

The Content Marketing Funnel

Where Does Each Type of Content Go?

Chapter 7: Step 7 - Distributing Your Content

Content Distribution Process

Content Distribution Plan

Make Smart Channel Choices

Conclusion

Book 7: Business Development

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Step 1 - Identify Your Target Market

Understanding Current Customer Base

Who’s Shopping the Competition

What Is Your Service or Product?

Considering Demographics to Target

Decision Evaluation

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Identify the Type of Business You Are Running

Understanding B2C and B2B

Chapter 3: Step 3 - Setting Goals

Prioritizing Goals

Discuss Goals

Making Goals SMART

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Good Habits Achieve Goals

Chapter 4: Step 4 - Generating Leads

Understanding Lead Generation

Chapter 5: Step 5 - Increasing Website Traffic

Considering Traffic

Online Advertising

Chapter 6: Step 6 - Using Sales Funnels

Understanding a Sales Funnel

Sales Funnel Management

Developing a Sales Funnel

Qualifying Leads Within the Funnel

Engaging Leads Through the Funnel

Automation of Moving Leads Within the Funnel

Key Sales Funnel Metrics

Chapter 7: Step 7 - Viral Marketing

Understating How Viral Marketing Works

Examples of Viral Marketing

Commonality in Viral Marketing Campaigns

How to Start with Viral Marketing

Conclusion

Book 8: Mobile Marketing

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Step 1 - Developing a Mobile Strategy

Defining the Audience

Considering Your Audience

Customer Lifecycle

Defining Goals

Developing Key Performance Indicators

Integration into the Overall Marketing Strategy

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Using Push Notifications

Push Notification Key Strategies

Personalized Offerings

Abandoned Cart Recovery

Order and Shipping Information

Increasing Reach

Delayed Popups

Exit-Intent Popups

Visual Overlays

Services for Push Notification

Optimizing Approach of Push Notifications

A/B Testing

Content

Chapter 3: Step 3 - Using Apps for Marketing

Mobile App Marketing Funnel

Awareness

Conversion

Retention

How to Tell If Your Mobile App Is Good

Pro-Tip 1 – Know the Daily and Monthly Active User Average

Pro-Tip 2 – Length of App Session

Pro-Tip 3 – Segmenting Acquisitions by Source

Chapter 4: Step 4 - SMS Mobile Marketing

SMS Customer Engagement

Considerations for SMS Marketing

Permission

Shortcode

Don’t Abuse Your Privilege

Keywords

Real-Time Responses

Measure Success

SMS Marketing Foundation

Chapter 5: Step 5 - Using Location-Based Marketing

Importance of Location-Based Marketing

Key Types of Location-Based Marketing

Using Location-Based Marketing

Location-Based Marketing Benefits and Disadvantages

Benefits

Disadvantages

Chapter 6: Step 6 - Getting Social with Mobile Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Optimizing Social Media for Mobile Marketing

Mobile friendly Social Media Page

Power in Short Videos

Customer Check-Ins

Chapter 7: Step 7 - Using Quick Response (QR) Codes

How Do QR Codes Work

Marketing with QR Codes

What Can QR Codes Do?

Are There Different Types of Organizations That Can Use QR Codes?

Additional Advantages to Using QR Codes

Properly Using QR Codes in Mobile Marketing

Ultimately It Is the Consumer Experience That Matters

Shopping Experience

Access to Additional Information

Aesthetics Matter

Conclusion

Introduction

Welcome to Marketing Strategy; whether you are trying to run a business or just up your marketing game, you have made a great choice. The seven steps shared within Marketing Strategy will provide great value to enhance your success. Every business, regardless of size, has to have some type of strategy for marketing. Simply going about marketing without a plan can be very costly and honestly might even hurt your brand.

One of the most important things businesses and brands need to understand is marketing. A marketing plan that is sold can make a difference between increasing cash flow and bankruptcy. When just getting started with understanding marketing strategy, it can be a bit overwhelming. There are many different moving parts and things to consider.

Understanding how to develop a marketing strategy is a great way for you to achieve your goals. The following chapters use a seven-step approach to marketing strategy and will help you ultimately develop a full marketing plan for your business.

Developing a marketing strategy is essential for any brand. It provides the research and tools needed to connect with the audience the brand is looking to connect with. Ultimately it can also show how the business is growing and opportunities for future growth. Without marketing, a brand is simply not going to be seen or grow. Marketing provides the spark for amazing brands to flourish and be known within the industry.

However, this does not mean that brands should market without direction. Marketing is a strategic part of the business, and all brands should have a clear plan to achieve the ultimate goals they have for their brand. The tactics and results can look different from brand to brand, which is why there is not a cookie-cutter approach to marketing. Brands must spend time and effort to develop a strategy.

Many brands miss out on the opportunity for growth through marketing because they do not see the importance of marketing strategy. The fact is, having a strategy for marketing is very useful, and brands should think of it as a roadmap to success. The strategy is a guide to help in many different aspects of the business that some would not have previously considered.

The following seven steps will provide you with a highlighted path that you can use to achieve your specific objectives and goals. While Marketing Strategy has made every effort to simplify the process, there are many different aspects to consider, and questions to be answered as a brand creates a marketing strategy.

There are some real consequences for not having a marketing strategy, and it would be remiss of us not to bring those to light. The biggest reason small businesses and companies fail in the first five years is that they fail to have a plan. Brands that do not recognize the importance of strategy and integrating it into a plan will often face the following consequences—losing market share to competitors and losing market share to other new brands in the same space and failing to retain or gain a new consumer base, as well as, missing out on opportunities for more specific targeting and optimizations.

Remember that knowledge is power, and by growing your understanding of Marketing Strategy, you will be able to provide your brand with a wealth of knowledge to build success. With all the knowledge you will gain from Marketing Strategy, you will be able to overcome many hurdles that your competition may not have seen coming. Let’s get started.

Chapter 1: Step 1 - Understating Customers

As a person looking to learn more about marketing, the number one thing you want to feel is a success from the plan or actions you are taking. Success in marketing can look very different to different people or groups. Some associate success with analytics, others with follower count, some with the number of visitors reaching your site, or walking through the doors. Yet, how do you really know when you are successful?

The honest answer is there is only one single judge to see if a marketing campaign was successful or not, and that is with your customers. This is the most basic part of marketing. If your audience is not connecting with your marketing strategy, it will not matter how beautiful, cool, or even innovative the strategy seems. Even you see something that is killing it with another company, that does not mean that it will work for you and your customers.

Know Your Customer

The best method to follow for a truly successful marketing campaign is to know your customers. You already know that you have a great product; it is more of finding ways for you to connect with those who will see value in your product. This means that you have to identify people who would love your product fully. When you do this, you can focus in on a customer-centric approach.

This will allow you to personalize messages, product applications, content, and so much more to reach your customer. People do not want to be sold to. They want to be shown what value a product or service can provide them. For an organization to truly find success in today’s marketplace, they have to update their marketing techniques and look at the organization as a whole. Is the organization focused on the customer?

Putting the concept of providing value to your customer needs to be a top priority. In doing this, the company will improve relationships and see more repeat customers. Why? Because customers want to feel like they are getting special treatment. They want to feel like they are more than their credit card number to a business.

Actually, a study of consumers found that 90% of customers felt the idea of personalization was appealing, and 80% surveyed prefer a more personalized approach. As business shifts their thinking to a more customer-centric approach, you will stop telling customers what they need, and start showing them the value the product has for them. It is a total shift in the way traditional marketing has been done. It is a good shift; consumers who feel like they are being sold to feel often less connected, less trusting, and ultimately find it spammy or unappealing.

A staggering 8 in 10 customers are turned off purchasing from the traditional marketing method used in online ads. This can make it very difficult for brands and businesses to reach potential shoppers.

Rather than simply pushing your products and hoping someone will buy them, you need to shift the focus and create a message that shows how the products provide a value to the customer.

Why Knowing Your Customer Is Important

So why is knowing your customers well important? Think of it like this: there are well over 82 million posts to blogs each month through WordPress's popular service. Every month, companies are growing the use of blogging as part of their strategy. However, customers are busy and will not waste their time on low-quality content that they do not connect with. Honestly, they do not have to with the sheer number of available options as our world becomes more and more digital.

Standing Out

So how do you stand out? It begins with developing unique content that is relevant to the needs of the consumer. More specifically, the needs of your target audience. Audience relevance is one of the most important factors when driving success through marketing, closely followed by engaging storytelling.

Creating Content

By creating content that is uniquely designed to fit the audience's needs, you build trust with your customer and the brand. In turn, your customers become more loyal to your brand or company. Loyal customers are the ones who share your brand and make repeat purchases.

Customer Loyalty

One key thing to remember about loyal customers is that they help you secure a foundation for your business. A loyal customer will end up being worth greater than ten times whatever their original purchase was. This is because loyal customers already know, like, and trust your brand, so they are far easier to sell to. This group also dramatically reduces the amount of time you need to convince them to buy.

As you pay attention to your customer's needs, you can greatly reduce the cost you spend on marketing or spend your marketing dollars in more profitable ways. Loyal customers are also great avenues to help you grow. When a customer is happy and connected with a brand, they will share that experience with others. They are 10X more likely to generate recommendations for your brand and bring new leads to your brand.

Recommendations from friends and family have a huge impact on buying habits in the United States. Approximately 82% of Americans make purchases based on recommendations from a friend or family member.

As a brand, it is important to stop trying to guess what customers are looking for and start listening to what they tell you. As you build relationships with your customers, you will see that cultivating a long-term relationship to offer solutions to their pain points will create a win-win environment.

Getting to Know the Customer

So, the next burning question has to be how do you get to know your customers? Well, this is the part where you have to really be ready to do the work. Chances are you will not be able to know your customers overnight, and honestly, their needs change, and you as a brand change. So, allow yourself the grace to know that it will take a bit of research and time to begin to understand your customers and their needs. However, to shorten the learning curve, here are a few tips the pros use.

Pro Tip 1 – Buyer Persona

You need to understand the type of buyers you are trying to attract. This could be one ideal type of customer. You want to dive in and understand their background, demographic, communications styles. So, you might create an outline, if you will, of what basic information you are trying to target would look like. The more detailed you get with your buyer persona, the greater your understanding of their needs. You may consider using all of these categories as you develop your persona.

Background

Finances

Online Behaviors

What they are looking for

What influences her

Brand affinities

Hopes & Dreams

Worries and Fears

What makes life easier

You may find that some of these do not apply to your brand, and you may find that you need to layer in other categories. The point here is to get to know your customer to really know them. Knowing your customers allows you to be able to develop more meaningful and real connections. It is not recommended just to pull a customer from thin air and start creating a basic analysis. With technology today, we have so much information at our fingertips. That with a quick search on Instagram, you can gain a vast amount of information from your customer base with just a few clicks. It’s also a great idea to pull a few different personas that can coexist together. This will give you greater flexibility within your brand and marketing strategy.

Pro Tip 2 – Social Media Listening

A customer's social account is a journal into their life. Often it is out there in the public for everyone to see. When you properly listen to your audience or target audience, you can learn a lot about their pain points and how they feel about different brands, including yours. Specifically, you need to dig in deeper than just looking for mentions and comments on posts that are directed to your brand.

Social listening is a process of gaining insights about how you are meeting or missing opportunities to meet customer expectations. To be able to get an idea of your target audience's expectations, you need to dive into their habits where they live. If they are on twitter, then go there. If they are on Instagram, then go there. You need to know where they are digitally living so that you can begin to research using keywords or hashtags. Next, simply start making simple searches of your brand or company name on the platform.

As you are searching, this lets you see how your brand is being represented across different social spaces. Another great thing is when a brand is not directly mentioned in a post to join in on the conversation as the brand. This is crucial to help with building your engagement and connection to your audience. Get connected, ask questions, and get to know your audience.

Pro Tip 3 – Surveying

There is nothing wrong with asking questions of your audience. Want to know something specific in this digital world? You just need to ask. Surveys and polls can provide you with direct insight into opinions that you otherwise may not have been able to get.

Sometimes it can indeed be hard to get people to participate in surveys. However, as technology changes, so do the methods to get them to engage. Start by making the survey simple and quick. One way to do this is with a simple poll of two options.

The shorter the survey, the more likely your customers are to participate. As social media has evolved, brands can now drop polls right into the content of their stories and other posts. This makes it very easy for consumers to vote and engage with the brand. If you do decide to go with a more traditional type of survey, make sure at the bottom the consumer knows how close they are to finish. This will make them more likely to complete the survey than quit before it finishes.

Pro Tip 4 – Content Engagement

There are many different ways that consumers engage with content, from blog posts, infographics, to images, to video customers, and are constantly giving different options for forms of engagement.

Start by looking at the content that you share and see what they are connecting with. What is working for you? Are they liking and sharing your posts? Are they interacting with your stories? What behaviors are you seeing as it relates to the content you are already putting out there.

Next, go back to our social listening and see what type of content and engagement they are doing with your competition or with someone who is targeting a similar audience. What is the competition doing which posts are getting the most likes, shares, and comments? Why are they getting these reactions? This is not to say, hey, go copy what is working for your competition directly. But if it’s working for them, then how could you make it your own and make it work for you. How can you make it better?

As you grow in your insights, you can create better content to provide more service or value to your customers than your competitor did. Always thinking about what will provide value to my customer.

Ultimately when it comes to your marketing plan, the better you know your customer, the more success it will have. The days of telling our audience what they need are far behind us. Now brands are tasked with showing them how products can enhance their lives, make it easier, or provide some kind of value. As you become more well-researched and willing to embrace this new way of thinking, your brand will benefit greatly from your marketing strategy.

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Navigating Market Analyzation

Every successful brand, business, or product on the market has been through a substantial analysis of the market with competitors and customers. Market analysis is one of the first steps any brand uses to develop its marketing strategy. The process of market analysis is collecting data and choosing whether the service or product attaches to a specific need of a customer. The most effective market analysis provides insight into competitors, market trends, demographics, shifts in the economy, and customer expenditures. This information makes a market analysis a vital component to help brands and businesses make intelligent business decisions.

Why is Market Analysis Important

There are many reasons that a market analysis is important; one of them being to improve brand or business growth. As a brand conducts a market analysis, they are gaining information to understand their customer needs better. Much like creating a persona from Step 1, brands use the market analysis technique to profile the ideal customer. This process allows the brand to gauge the size of the market for the product and service to the customer base and brand. It also allows brands to focus in on the specific age, income, gender, and location for a specific product. Knowing this information helps the brand to be able to create a more specific marketing campaign for new product launches or relaunching products.

Competitors

The next part of market analysis is competitors. The best brands and businesses are always aware of what competitors are doing in the marketplace. Through market analysis, brands can examine the competition, see where they are gaining market share or where gaps exist. Furthermore, brands and businesses should also be aware of when competitors introduce new products or services into the marketplace. This allows you to find the weaknesses of a competitor and strategically find ways to capitalize on these weaknesses.

The most successful brands and businesses have a solid understanding of the market they work within; this includes knowledge of customers and competition. Through the use of market analysis, they research the market and gain a greater understanding of the opportunities, threats, and how to prospect customers that will engage with specific products or services.

The process of market analysis can be very in-depth and require the employment of specialists who seek to cover as many aspects as they can. Brands can also alternatively adopt a more simplistic approach and use data that is readily available. The following are some examples that a market analysis can include:

Size and Competitiveness of Market – With this, the brand is assessing the market's size and how much competition is in the marketplace. As well as gaining a clear picture of who the players are within the market.

Growth of the Market – Depending on if the market is growing or shrinking, it will often determine if the product is a good investment for the brand. Brands often look to see what the history of the growth is or trends for growth.

Market Trends – This is where brands look for changes in the market? What are customers finding important? How should the brand react to trends and the value a trend could bring to the brand's product mix.

Segmentation and Demographics – These are the people you are selling to; this could include sub-categories within the larger market. This is where you will find if your brand has room for multiple product lines.

Profitability in the Market – Many factors contribute to profitability, and each industry has its individual margins. This is where a brand or business will consider the profitability of the market and how attractive your brand will be within that segment.

Success Factors – This is where brands are looking for opportunities for success in the market. This could include advances in technology or access to resources that may fill an existing gap.

Distribution – It is also important for the brand to assess the potential distribution process. How will distributing your service or product affect the business?

4Ps of Marketing

A market analysis should begin a foundation for your business plan. Once you understand the market, you can then plan out how to best get ahead of your competition and develop the best marketing strategy for reaching consumers. E. Jerome McCarthy’s 4Ps provide the map for how to plot a course. These factors are known as the marketing mix. The 4Ps include product, price, place, and promotion.

Product

When brands consider their product offering, they typically look at how the product can be improved based on the market trends or what gap the product can fill within the consumer's life or in the marketplace. This is a great time to review the products that competitors offer and offer alternative solutions within the brand's product line. Reaching the brand's specific market segment is a key factor to success with any product or service.

Price

The next factor that brands must consider is the price. What is the cost and potential for profitability? This also means getting into a more detailed understanding of the competition. Setting the right price is important to keep shareholders happy and consumers purchasing.

Place

Brands cannot underestimate the place part of the 4ps. Place is about understanding distribution models and the