1. Your marketing strategy matters
2. Get insights from the experts
According to a study by Smart Insights 46%of brands don’t have a digital marketing strategy and 16% that do have 
not implemented it yet. That relates to 50% of businesses are not getting any exposure. They are losing customers simply because customers don’t know they exist.
It’s not that hard to design a marketing strategy yourself. These are a few simple steps to make your strategy work for you.
Know Your Target Audience
You have a great idea and you start your business, but who are you going to sell to. No good selling pet goods to someone buying a car, never going to work.
Finding out what character your buyer is helps concentrate your audience description to people who will be interested in your products. Start with making a list of the demographics that your customer falls into.:
• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Income level
• Education level
• Marital or family status
• Occupation
• Ethnic background
Determine how your product or service will fit into your audiences lifestyle. How and when will they use these products and what features are the most attractive to them. These are the more personal traits and characteristics of your target audience :
• Personality
• Attitudes
• Values
• Interests/hobbies
• Lifestyles
• Behaviour
Products
Now you have a great product, how are you going to get it into the relevant market place and get ahead of your competitors:
• Having a USP (Unique Selling Point) is highly recommended. It would will get you noticed and place you ahead of your competitors.
• Communication is going to promote your product outlining the advantages and quality of service to your target audience.
Building brand Awareness
Brand awareness is down to familiarity that customers have with a particular brand. We all know Heinz Baked Beans they are synonymous with the product and their logo. It has been a consistent and appealing product throughout our lives.
This has come about through brand loyalty, up to date marketing and consistency.
Social Media Customer Engagement
Most Social Media marketers agreed that social media was important to their business, however only 72% use social media to market their business. It is important not to be complacent but to be actively searching to increase your target audience. This will help to increase brand awareness. 85% of internet users use social media across all ages and platforms and being active you can :
• Build a better brand experience for customers.
• Improve prospective customer engagement levels.
• Help prospective customers become loyal brand followers.
• Engage in a dual conversation between your past, present, and future customers.
• Turn leads into profitable sales.
What eye experts think
Always put the customer first. They have more control and less attention. (Michelle Killebrew, Nomiku )
Don’t get stuck in a rut and rely on the same methods. Continually review and reassess your strategy, social media tools are always changing so you need to keep up with new developments. (John Rampton, Due)
Always find different ways of marketing yourself and your business. That’s where you will find tour biggest high leverage opportunities that your competition has not seen. Always have a sense of curiosity, not only in marketing but in life in general.(Hiten Shah, Quick Sport)
Do everything you can to understand your target audience. Imagine how they see things and what their needs are and then it will be easier to make the right marketing decisions. Your marketing activities will only be effective if they have a real impact on your target audience. (Michael Lykke Aagaard,Unbounce)
There are a few insights from marketing influencers who know how hard it can be to have an effective marketing strategy but have been successful in their field. This is why influencers, experts, are so important to structuring your marketing strategy.