Summertime means heating up your grill and your marketing!
Whatever the preference—hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, or fish—grilling is a summertime art form that, if done right, can be a crowd pleaser. The same is true with a great marketing strategy. If it’s done right, it can make customers ambassadors and also attract a new crowd!
Some techniques are simple, while others need time and just the right ingredients! Here are some tips to add spice and sizzle for grilling up the perfect marketing strategy.
Hot dogs or hamburgers? What do your customers actually want?
Knowing what to throw on the grill for guests at a barbecue is all about knowing the audience. Why offer steaks to a group of vegetarians! Your marketing strategy is exactly the same.
An ideal customer may respond to certain aspects of marketing much better than others. A more mature audience may be passive users of social media and prefer mailers, while millennials check their Instagram feeds way more than their mailboxes! Targeting efforts and resources to the most impactful marketing mediums can save time and money, while building the customer base that’s desired.
Time and temperature–connecting with the right audience
When it comes to grilling a steak, everyone has a preference—rare, medium rare, all the way to well done. Cook it wrong and some won’t even touch their food.
When targeting marketing messaging, make sure to match the tone to speak to the ideal customer. Certain businesses, products, and customers require a more serious tone, while others thrive on a more playful, conversational approach.
Setting a budget–and sticking to it!
It is easy to rack up a bill when having a barbecue! Serving steaks and premium ribs might not be the most friendly choice to one’s wallet – unless, of course, it is in the budget! A budget is an important part of any marketing strategy to determine how to get the best bang for the buck. Working within a budget to create a delicious, entertaining party for a small number can make a more powerful impact than inviting the whole neighborhood on the same budget that affords only hot dogs and chips. Likewise, a well-targeted, smaller audience reached with precision and frequency can produce a more desired marketing outcome with a small budget than casting too large of a net for the budget to effectively reach the intended audience. It’s all about planning to ensure the desired outcome!
Small efforts can have a big impact!
Have the right tools–some are more effective than others!
It wouldn’t make good sense to use a plastic spoon to flip a burger or use a pair of metal tongs to scoop potato salad! BUT both of those tools can be effective when they’re used correctly.
Which tools work best to incorporate into a marketing strategy? It depends! To improve website traffic, generate leads and gain community engagement, search engine optimization (SEO), Google advertising, content creation and a media relations campaign might be the best call. But if increasing engagement on social media is a goal, a contest combined with targeted social media marketing could ramp up your campaign. And of course, traditional advertising, email marketing, and direct mail still work for the right audiences.
A marketing strategy takes planning and the proper tools for a successful campaign.
Grilling up the perfect marketing strategy can take some work, but if done right, it can make for one heck of a successful outcome! Impression counts – big time! The experience is what will get talked about and remembered.