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In this article, I will explore a couple of fundamental components in every marketing campaign. The two things I wish to discuss are communication methods and market research. I find that these two things don’t get as much attention as they need from many businesses. Neglecting these two important things can lead to a marketing campaign that fails to deliver.

Read the information below to find out more about these two ever so crucial things:

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Communication Methods

There is a multitude of ways in which your company can communicate with consumers. Finding the best methods is key to establishing a productive marketing campaign. You need to look for methods that have high success rates and help you connect with consumers and get your message out there. These days, face-to-face communication is pretty much obsolete in the marketing world. Everyone is turning to digital methods as they’re far more effective at getting the job done. If you try and approach people in the street, they can easily ignore you or say they don’t have time to talk as they’re in a rush. With many digital methods, this isn’t as much of an issue.

By using social media and emails, you have a chance to get your message directly to consumers. All it takes is a few seconds to compose a tweet or send an email to some of your customers. These are quick ways of opening up a channel of communication between your business and other people. It opens the door for them to respond and dialogue to begin. Consumers are more likely to respond to you through digital communications as they don’t require much effort.

As well as these two methods you should also consider text messages. Texting is heavily underrated in the marketing world. They’re an easy way to get your messages seen by loads of people in a short space of time. Some stats show that text messages have a 98% open rate, which means only 2% of the time they aren’t opened. So, the majority of people you message will see what you’ve written. The drawback with texting is that it’s difficult for consumers to respond as they can on social media. However, it’s a great method of promoting your business and shouting out about new products/deals. Plus, many companies conduct surveys via text as they’re easy for customers to complete. Surveys bring feedback, which helps you improve your marketing strategy.

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Market Research

Before you start any marketing strategy, you need to conduct plenty of research. It’s amazing how many companies think they can take shortcuts with their market research. Some get suckered into thinking finding their target market is the only research they need to do. Yes, this is a very important part of the research process, and it does need to be done. Plenty of time should be spent finding out who the target market is for the marketing strategy you’re developing. You’ll need to take a look at your company and see what type of people you appeal to the most. Marketing is a lot easier when you’ve found your target market and can tailor your strategy to their needs and interests.

However, once you’ve found your target market you can’t pack in the research. What you should do is start looking at other factors that can help you out too. For example, the best idea is to research your competition. Spend days pinpointing your biggest rivals and then study them. See what they’re doing and what their marketing campaigns consist of. This will help you in a couple of ways, for one, it lets you see what they’re enjoying success with. Your research may show you that a strong social media marketing strategy is very effective in your chosen market. Secondly, it allows you to see what’s not so effective. You can see what isn’t working so well and then avoid putting a lot of effort into that with your strategy.

The bottom line is, you can never do too much research. There have been plenty of examples of marketing strategies that fell apart because not enough research was done. In an ideal world, you’ll have all your research conducted before you begin your marketing strategy. This will help you tailor it to your target market and produce content that works and avoid wasting time with methods that won’t yield results.

You can’t have a good marketing campaign if you aren’t using the most effective communication methods. Likewise, research is essential for helping you find your target market and scope out the competition. If you want the best strategy around, then give these two things some extra thought.

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