How to… manage your marketing

DIY Marketing

We know that people are doing their own marketing. So we’ve been sharing our knowledge and helping them to do it well.

This week, Luma Operations Manager Sarah Childs shared gave us the inside track on how to manage your own marketing campaigns.

Whether you are creating a single piece of content or orchestrating a full campaign, most effort lies in the preparation.

In the words of a very clever American president, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” (Benjamin Franklin).

Objectives.

We are strategists and always start with the objectives.

What is that you want to achieve with your marketing?

Are you seeking exposure, new business, to retain your current clients or staff, attract new team members or simply to look alive in difficult times? And in what order of priority? Being clear about this at the very beginning will help you to structure your project management and prioritise effectively as you go.

Offer

What is it that you’re actually selling here? Be clear about your offer and how you want the audience to react to your marketing activity.

At this stage, you also need to step out of yourself and think properly about your audience. What is it that they want to hear or engage with (rarely a sales message)? Where are they and what are their pain points?

Done your thinking and shared it with your team? You are ready act.

Content

What material do you need to bring your campaign to life? What have you got that you can repurpose and what do you need to create from scratch?

Are you creating a case study, assembling a company newsletter, creating a new brochure or making a podcast?

Think carefully. And also think about time. When does this need to happen, and how much time have you got to invest?

Planning

Post-its, a whiteboard, a spreadsheet or a project management tool such as Asana or Trello. Doesn’t matter. Break down your deliverables, set the timeline, assign responsibilities. Allow extra loops for proofing, checking, sign offs etc – this bit always takes longer than you think.

Think carefully about who in your team has the skills for each deliverable. Who is good with words? Who’s a dab hand with your social media account? Who likes leading and organising?

There’s a reason that we have proper writing, graphic design, social media, digital and project management professionals in our team. Doing these things well takes passion, training and experience. And each piece of work is touched by every member of the team. If you need help, just ask.

Publish

Brilliant content needs to be out in the world for your audience to engage with.

Get that case study on your website, and then share it on social media.

Issue your newsletter, and think about how to grow your engaged audience.

Conversion

Publication is not the end.

When people engage with your marketing activity – a social media like, an email click, a phone enquiry – how are you responding?

It is the responsibility of the person leading your marketing project to make sure that the results are handled as well as the marketing itself. The person who will receive the responses needs to know what has been issued and how they should respond. Are you expecting a massive influx of responses or a slow trickle?

Keep your interested audience engaged.

Measure and review

Make time to think about the process and the reaction you received. How does it tally with the objectives you set at the beginning?

What did you gain from the process that has further value? For example, new connections or a fresh conversation with a client as a result of securing their sign off. What content did you gather that could be repurposed?

What did you learn that would help you deliver your next campaign differently?

Prop tips from Sarah

Nominate a leader. Every project needs someone to drive it.

Delegate. Empower other members in your team – and give them your trust.

Understand skills. Use your team to the best of their abilities and stretch the skills they have.

Regroup. Communicate, discuss, check in on your milestones.

Give recognition. If your planning, legal, engineering or design professionals are also delivering your marketing, they are out of their comfort zone. Acknowledge their contribution, celebrate success. Praise your team and let them know their input is valued.

People are adapting, learning, doing it themselves. And we are pleased to help.

If you find yourself attempting to write articles and newsletters, manage your company social media, make videos and deliver a campaign… and have never done it before, get in touch and we’ll include you in our sessions.