There’s no doubt that creativity is critical in marketing. But art must also be accompanied by science. Your marketing strategy needs creativity, but that creativity needs to be integrated with a solid foundation of data.
The creative part of any marketing strategy is a lot of fun, and you might be tempted to think that the data side is just something you have to get through in order to do the fun part. But you might find digging into data a bit interesting, and there are three critical areas where you should begin your analysis:
Your Competitors: A little investigation can tell you what’s working for your competitors and also help you avoid a look or campaign that’s already been done. Here are three specific things to check out:
- Digital Marketing: What keywords are your competitors trying to use for ranking purposes? Look at landing pages and promotions to see what’s being offered.
- Website: Dig into your competitors’ websites to see what pages are the highest-ranking and most-visited. Check out their domain authority and the meta tags they are using for SEO.
- Social Media: Make note of what platforms are being used, how often your competitors are posting and which types of posts produce the most engagement.
Your Industry: Take some time to get familiar with what is changing in your industry. Are there new regulations or compliance requirements that have affected businesses like yours?
You can also do a little social listening to find out whether there are any common complaints among customers in your industry. For instance, if you search and find that the return policy seems to be a problem, it may offer you an opportunity to further differentiate yourself with a more flexible return policy.
Your Target Audience: There’s no area where data is more critical in your marketing strategy. If you are pressed for time, short on budget or simply losing interest and can’t wait to start creating logos, then this is the place to focus your energy.
You should be gathering as much information as possible about your target audience. Here are a few data points you should consider to be priorities:
- Age, gender, marital status, life stage
- Income range and job roles
- Social media platform preferences
- Hobbies and interests
- Content format preferences
As you gather more information on your target audience, you’ll be better equipped to tailor your creative efforts to match their preferences.
If you skip the data analysis step, you could end up creating content for a target audience that you’re assuming is made up of stay-at-home moms that love to read and go for walks before they hang out on Facebook, when your true target audience is working women in their 20s that mostly use Instagram to post pictures of their favorite yoga class.
Before you jump into the creative stage, be sure you’ve got solid data. And we know where to get it. Contact us at SJC Marketing for help with your marketing strategy and the data analysis that should be fueling it.