Kari K Bennett
Marketing / Branding
Process. Probably the most important piece of the puzzle is the process...
This is the "HOW" you accomplish your goals. There are many great ideas, but without proper execution these ideas will amount to nothing. Every marketing campaign needs a strategic plan and a process by which team members can execute against. This is where I truly shine.
Strategic Planning
​The first step in any marketing campaign is strategic planning. In order to be effective in your marketing strategies you MUST look at research & develop a plan of action. Some of the questions you may ask include:
​
- What are your brand attributes? Your unique selling proposition? Create a "voice" for your brand. Document guidelines to keep your positioning consistent when communicated from others (staff, sales reps, agency partners)
- Who is the target market? Identifying customer demographics and behaviors will help you know where and how to reach them.​
- What are competitors doing? What are you doing differently (and better) than the competition? Price comparison?
- ​Market Trends? What is happening in your industry? What are consumers demanding? How are things changing in the marketplace? Be sure your product/service is relevant and staying up with current trends.
Work In Progress Documentation
​Once you've conducted research and established goals, you'll need to create a process to accomplish your goals. Deadlines should be set and then timelines reverse-engineered in order to meet these deadlines. Creating monthly themes and setting milestones will help keep your messaging consistent and your team on track.
​
Some process documents I use include:
​
- Messaging & Brand Guidelines
- Editorial Calendars
- Work In progress documents to track status & action items of current work
- Timeline & Milestone tracking
- Results Reports on marketing project accomplishments​
- Evaluation Reports: ROI, Google Analytics, etc​
It's important to plan out months ahead. this includes choosing a theme for each month and then making sure your message is consistent through all channels (web, email, promotions, events, PR, advertising, etc.)
This calendar track initiatives for the calendar year by monthly theme and identifies goals, product developments, promotional announcements, press outreach, SEO/blog content, etc.
Here is an excel spreadsheet with budget entries for marketing initiatives including: collateral, advertising, events, point-of-sale, etc. (this is one section of the budget & does not include international, cap-ex, agency or employee fees)
It's important to plan out months ahead. this includes choosing a theme for each month and then making sure your message is consistent through all channels (web, email, promotions, events, PR, advertising, etc.)