There are a lot of tips, guides, listicles, and advice out there, but the future of your marketing campaign must have a cogent communication strategy at its core. No matter the size of this business or the product and service, if your business is going to remain competitive and you can progressively build your brand, the simplest way will be to follow a set strategy suitable for the current context. The following article details some of the essential considerations for a marketing strategy suitable for the now and the future, based on effective and efficient communication.

Building a brand

The first step in any marketing strategy must be about developing and framing this brand. It’s the brand that you will then market, and as such, it must be a clearly defined aspect of the marketing strategy upon which to build and add layers of experiences and customer interactions. Brand building will form the basis for your future communication with clients and customers; it’s not just what the product does and how authentic and genuine the business is. This then needs to be related and communicated to the general public and cash-paying consumers. It has thus been essential for many in the sector to do this from a foundation of knowledge, and Saint Bonaventure University offers some great examples of the basic communication skills that can be studied online to enhance a future marketing strategy.

Use the right medium

There are numerous different mediums out there to get your marketing message across. You need to choose the medium or the means that your business uses quite carefully. Advertising has been known to be the bottomless pit, which can consume budgets at a rapid rate and yet struggle to show the requisite return on investment. Some of the newer mediums and online marketing strives to avoid this with clear analytics, tracking, and monitoring system to establish where the interest in the product is generated and whether this leads to sales or not. However, there is arguably only one medium that all business marketing strategies must and will include going forward: the internet and online marketing. The numbers are just too big to ignore, considering the number of people who now shop and socialize online.

SMM (Social media marketing)

Social media platforms have become one of the main avenues for digital marketing. As social media became social marketplaces, it has become an essential component of the hybrid marketing campaign.

• Have a clear strategy, as you may not be able to use all of the available platforms competently. The idea would be to have a strategy that allows for the addition and subtraction of marketing elements or mediums and changes to the message and target market. However, the business must ensure that whichever medium or platform is used provides for professional alliterations of the brand’s properties and virtues.
• Listen and respond; there will be no point having a social media platform or page and then not using it to communicate with customers and clients. The point of social media is to be social, and a business that has all the platforms and  has  professional content yet no option for customers or clients to get in touch, comment, review or simply  ask a few questions
• Gather the available data by the bucket load, and then use this for further customer and market analysis to constantly be able to develop the brand and marketing campaign.
• Advertise, get the message out there using the socials.

Influencer marketing and social confirmation/proof and reviews

Nothing sells and builds a brand name more than word of mouth, and in a data age, this chatter takes place on social media. Using big names brands to promote and authenticate your own brand is a terrific way to get ahead. Social proof has always been a big part of an effective marketing campaign and has proven incredibly useful over time. The general most understood example is the couple going out for a meal in a place they may now know, who always choose the restaurant with more people than the empty one. It’s about the fact that human beings would much rather opt for something that others have also opted for. This has now simply moved into the modern era of social influencer marketing. There can be a range of influencer types.

• The expert influencer, who would support the product or service from a factual point of view.
• The celebrity influencer, people want to wear and buy what their famous idols do, and this has gone a long way to making certain brands.
• User social proof/influencer are reviews of the product or service by those who have actually used the product or service and are considered to be some of the more important for prospective buyers.
• Certificates and licenses these state that the requisite legislative body has found value and agrees with the product being sold, i.e., it’s safe.

Influencer marketing is thus a real concept that should be included in all modern marketing strategies.

Quality of product excellence

Yes… it’s still on the top list of things required to build a good marketing campaign. A quality product that strives for excellence. It’s a lot easier to sell something that is actually an excellent product that will stand the test of time. The rest should be simple once you establish this as the premise for the marketing and communication campaign. However, there are a few aspects that need to be included. The products selling points and the value it brings to the buyer are key to share. One of the biggest mistakes in marketing is to assume that the product is self-explanatory. Buyers need to see the value and clearly understand why your product or service is better than the myriad of other comparable products out there.

A marketing strategy for the future is quite a complex concept in that there will be ongoing changes in technology and societal needs and wants are expected to shift and develop from where they are currently. However, the five aspects of such a plan as mentioned in this article are those aspects of marketing that a whole of the market analysis proves will still be important for the future of business online.