So, how was 2013 for your business? What marketing activity did you undertake? What worked and what didn’t? Did you try anything new?
For Bath Marketing Consultancy 2013 has been a year of sustained growth as we’ve seen demand for more strategic marketing increase. By this I mean that the clients we work have been open to the construction and implementation of more of a long term plan of attack which has strategic deliverables rather than maybe coming to us for one-off “projects” such as website design and/or updated marketing collateral.
In general I feel that marketing seems to be on more radars than in previous years and it has moved up the “to do” list for a lot of companies! We’ve also seen growth in more vocational sectors such as leisure, financial and recruitment showing that confidence is improving.
In terms of the initiatives themselves, “online” is still is at the forefront of marketing requirements certainly for the SME. In addition, more clients seem to be embracing emarketing as a marketing tool as it can offer a very cost effective route to maintaining brand awareness as well as driving traffic to dedicated areas on websites…..providing the recipient database is clean and up to date!
What do we predict will happen in 2014?
We think that demand for online solutions will increase i.e. having a website that performs well in search and actually engages customers as well as provides an online brochure. We also think that video will come into its own in 2014 as a marketing tool not only as a way of allowing prospects to “see” the companies they are considering working with, but also as a way of companies showcasing their staff, case studies and posting updates from key people within organisations.
When you sit down and plan your marketing for 2014, do remember that marketing is a process and not a singular event. In order to have an effective marketing platform you need to test new initiatives and, if possible, have 5 or 6 activities running together on a monthly basis. These can be keeping your social media platforms up to date, picking the right networking group to attend, submitting press releases to local media and of course, reviewing what you do on a regular basis.
Try not to see marketing as a cost. See it as an investment in the company and bring in someone if need be to audit everything and work with you to achieve your goals.
