Eight Testaments to Successful Marketing

Every marketer has their own set of rules to follow. Some like to keep it simple; some want to take a plunge at it, and some go with their gut feeling. But there undoubtedly remains a handful of things they all have in common. Below are seven testaments for successful marketing, that every marketer will agree.

1. Know Your Product and Your Customers

Rule of the thumb-know your product/services inside out. It is imperative to understand what you are selling and who you are selling it to; know your client's pain point and what will they benefit from your product/service. This will eventually help you hit the right chord. If you have this sorted as a first step, a majority of your task is classified.

2. Know the Market You are Competing in

Having an overview of the industry and the market (segment, demography, region, etc.) is another critical aspect of marketing your product. One needs to be prepared since a customer's taste, need, and requirement will be different in differing markets. This also helps in prioritizing your customer segments.

3. Define Your Goals

Any marketing strategy has to ensure a good ROI; else it is a waste of time and resources. Goals can be sales, leads, conversions, visibility or just reputation management. Craft out your goals and draw measurable metrics. Monitor and revisit strategies and align with successful outcomes.

4. Never Ever Sell

The key to selling your product is "don't sell,' rather build testimonials, case studies or just communicate the outcomes. Remember, your customers are not interested in what you can sell, they are interested in how can you solve their challenge.

5. Rule of 80/20

Marketing requires a lot of money, and often companies look at their marketing division as a cost incurring wing (unless it's purely B2C, where the direct mandate for marketing is revenue). It is essential to focus and analyze the metrics of your offering (BCG matrix) and spend 80per cent of your time and money on the ones giving you the maximum ROI and 20per cent of your budget and time working on new techniques, strategies and procuring new tools of marketing.

6. Regular Analysis of Your Marketing Plan and Analytics

Analyzing your marketing efforts and the impact of the same should be part of your daily work regime. There should be a regular analysis of every marketing collateral and communication which goes out and how have they have performed. This helps in making sure mistakes are less, the real communication goes out, analyzing how the customer or audience is reacting to what message they have received and how impactful it was.

7. Personalize the Engagement

One size never fits all. Make sure you have a well-defined customer journey for every category of prospects and customers. In today's time, this is not a big challenge anymore. The use of a marketing automation software, helps a marketer to create well-defined customer journeys for desired actions. One can set the communication points at the start of the campaign while investing the rest of the time in monitoring the analytics and tweaking the campaigns.

8. Be Open to Feedback

As a marketer, there is nothing above and beyond your brand. It is always advisable to keep all your senses open. And we should know which conversation to avoid or ignore, but at the same time, it is essential to understand how to be open to receiving feedback. Although it is great to hear positives, it might not be the case always. Constructive criticism should always welcome as it would only make the brand stronger.

We all have our own set of rules and different ways in which we market our product and services. What matters the most is the right attitude, and following the proper measures to be successful.