Tips for a Well-Balanced Marketing Strategy

There are many factors that make the difference between a successful marketing strategy and an ineffective one. Your marketing strategy needs to be research-based, well-budgeted, thoroughly planned, executed with craft and expertise, and effectively tracked. Having a balanced strategy and distributing your efforts well across a variety of marketing avenues is vital for success.

How do you find the ideal balance to bring in a steady flow of new business? Our Atlanta area marketing specialists at McCauley Marketing Services are here to help with tips for balancing your marketing strategy.

Choose Marketing Avenues That Make Sense with Your Target Audience

Every marketing strategy needs to use several types of marketing so you aren’t entirely relying on one medium. For example, your strategy could include a website to inform your target audience about your business; ongoing content and blogs on your website to educate readers and enhance search engine optimization; social media marketing to educate, add personality, and promote your site and bring in website traffic; search engine ads to bring in more business; internal marketing to teach staff and continually connect with existing and potential clients; public relations for branding and awareness; and other types of marketing like email marketing, print advertising, community events, and more.

The trick is to find the marketing avenues that will reach your target audience the best. You’ll need to know which social media platforms your primary demographics use, which sites they visit and what keywords or key phrases they search, what publications they read, and so on. This helps you focus in on the types of marketing that are most likely to be successful for your business. While it’s important to consistently analyze your results and there are certain methods you can only predict after trial and error, researching several marketing avenues at the start and analyzing them along the way will help you jumpstart your balanced strategy.

Portion Out Your Budget by Priority

A common mistake we see is to overspend in some areas and underspend in other areas. To invest your marketing budget wisely, you need to break it down according to your goals and priorities.

For example, you might determine that you’re most likely to get the best results from search engine marketing, followed by direct mail, then social media marketing, and then email marketing. You should put the largest percentage of your marketing budget into search engine ads, then, and divvy up the rest of your budget based on your priorities so you’re investing the most money into the most successful techniques. As you analyze your data and profits over time, you will know how to make any adjustments in these areas and others if needed.

Think Outside the Computer

As much as we are surrounded by technology today, it’s important not to rely entirely on digital marketing. We are still accomplishing strong results for our clients with traditional marketing methods like direct mail, magazine ads, billboards, and most importantly, internal marketing.

When you’re designing your marketing strategy, be sure to strike a balance between digital marketing and traditional marketing. It doesn’t need to be 50/50 but allocating some funds toward traditional marketing will help you reach a wider audience.

Keep a Close Eye on Your Marketing Analytics and Profits

There’s no singular marketing plan that works for every business. Depending on your products or services and your target audience, you might be best served with entirely different marketing techniques than the business next door. That’s why analytics are so critical.

Set up ways to measure the success of each marketing avenue you’re using and consistently track that data. Look for trends to see if some techniques are more successful or less successful than you expected. Then, make sure these techniques are actually bringing people to your business. If they are, then great. If they are not, then find out what is causing consumers to either not do business with you or not come back.

Keep an eye on this data throughout your entire cycle and watch whether it aligns with the business referrals coming in and your final profits. Analyzing all of these things along with patient or customer retention in the long term will determine what is adding to your success and what is not. With all this information in hand, you can adjust your budget and your time allocation if necessary.

Building a Well-Balanced Marketing Strategy

Creating a balanced and profitable marketing strategy requires extensive research, time, and knowledge, and it requires frequent reassessment to make sure your budget is going to good use so you are getting solid results. That’s why our experts are here to help. Call McCauley Marketing Services to schedule a meeting today and get started on your customized marketing strategy.