How to research for a marketing campaign

Marketing doesn’t start (or finish) with a fully-formed advertisement out in the world and making money. There are important steps to take even before brainstorming, including relevant, in-depth research. 

Research gives you a clear idea of what is trending in your industry, who your competitors are, and the type of messaging that will be most effective for your audience.

This is important for all businesses, but especially small businesses, who lack big budgets and experienced marketing teams. Thorough research must be completed for every marketing campaign to give it the best chances of success. You need to have a clear idea of what your product or service is, who your audience is, what competitors are doing, and how to make your marketing as impactful as possible. Otherwise, you could waste a lot of money.

Here are five steps to researching for your next marketing campaign:

1. Determine what you want to sell 

Although some marketing campaigns are based only on awareness or building trust for your business, often you’ll pick one product or service to market. It’s important to choose one product at a time (or stick to one group of similar products), so your marketing can be as specific as possible. You might also be promoting a sale or promotion, but you still need to be clear on what it is you’re wanting people to buy.

Knowing what it is you’re trying to sell through your marketing campaign is the first step to your research, because it helps you establish what kind of further market research you’ll need.  

  • What is your product?
  • What problem does it solve?
  • Who is it for?
  • Where is it sold?
  • What does it cost?
  • What is it made of, and how is it made?
  • How does someone buy it?
  • Why should people buy it?

2. Research your target audience 

Without an idea of who you are marketing to, you won’t know how to even start forming a successful marketing campaign.

You may have a broad target market for your business already, but when creating a marketing campaign, it’s important to decide on a highly specific niche. Choose an age range of no more than 10 years, a location (if relevant), income level, etc. and think of the specific character traits and interests of the target. Read our blog post How to define your ideal customer for more advice on this topic.

Once you’ve chosen a target audience, find ways to gather information about them that can help with your campaign. Survey them to see which types of marketing they respond to best, and what they currently think of your product. This allows you to determine the channels you will use for the campaign, and the message you need to convey. Collect as much data as you can and organise it into an easily understandable report. 

 

3. Search for competitors

Research companies that are already marketing similar products or services. What are they doing well, and where could they improve?

Your research should include both direct and indirect competition.

  • Direct competitors are businesses with the same (or a similar) offering as you, and are usually targeting the same audience. 
  • Indirect competitors sell a different product that impacts your sales because it provides the same outcome or fixes the same issue (i.e. if you’re selling a novel, indirect competition could be movies – both providing entertainment).

List your competitors and evaluate their marketing, then brainstorm ways to market your product or service in a way that stands out from the competition. How does your product differ, and why is it better for your potential customer’s needs? How can you do what the competition is doing, but better? Is there a different niche you could target to reduce competition?

4. Determine how you’ll evaluate the campaign

When the campaign is complete, what will you do to evaluate its effectiveness? 

To work this out in the research phase, determine what you want the campaign to achieve, in both broad and specific terms. If the goal of the campaign is to increase sales, can you narrow down your aim to a specific number?

Knowing these parameters will help you to create the campaign more effectively, because you’ll know exactly what you want to achieve. You’ll be able to better evaluate what went wrong if you don’t reach your goals. You can also determine what went right, and use the strategy again in future.

You can read more on evaluating campaigns in our blog 6 Steps to Evaluate your Social Media Campaigns.

5. Put your information together

Lastly, gather all of this information together into one document. Use headings, tables and graphs where relevant to make the information easy to find and understand, and use this as a base for forming your campaign!

Have you tried using Search Engine Optimisation as an organic marketing tool? If you want more traffic on your website, make sure to pick up Georgie Hope’s book SEO Course for Beginners

By Poppy Solomon

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