I was speaking at a marketing session online and someone asked me an interesting question…

I’m not an expert I can’t afford hire one at the moment, If you were to start a marketing campaign from the ground up, what would you recommand to avoid the failure ?

My first answer was to say that of course hiring a consultant isn’t always as expensive as people imagine especially if your projet is exciting enough for him or her to accept a payment plan.   But it’s not a 100 percent garantee either, sadly many people hire a consultant and think that is all they need to do. If you are not willing to plan ahead and follow his instructions where is the point ?  There are always people hyping the “No Work Required” marketing magic.  Don’t be fooled by the campaign results that seems effortless. There is no such thing. No matter what size the company is, your marketing campaigns are likely to fail if you take those keys in consideration.

Step 1 : Plan your budget

Marketing is almost always an investment in which you efforts have to be done continually, even when you are losing money in the short run, in hopes that you will make money in the long run. That the reason why you have to take the key bellow.

The key:  plan for a year

Preparing in Advance :  Use your budget planner to plan where you want your money to go. Choose a time period evaluation for each part of your campaign – for example, 1 month, 3 months or 6 months.

During the campaign : Depending on the type of marketing campaign you are planning,  when yourbudget it correctly ahead, now it’s the time to see which part you can  turned off and where to double.

Step 2 : Don’t copy what works for your competitors

How many times did I heard « I want this or that campaign, it’s works so well for my competitor, can you do the exact same work ? » Well « breaking news » my friends but what works for your competitors won’t always work for you.

The key:  Create your own campaign plan for a year

Preparing in Advance :  Obviously you have to look at your competitors but most of time,  the other side of the mountain isn’t there so get inspired but create you own campaign based on what makes you different from them.

During the campaign :  Be aware and flexible as much as possible, don’t let money be your excuse because there are always to achieve your goals by using your creativity when you don’t have a lot of cash.

Step 3 : Think inbound and outbound

Inbound marketing is awesome, but nowadays most business are still doing a mix of inbound and outbound marketing. The challenge in using both online and offline marketing tactics is integrating them in an effort to generate even better results than just one tactic would have experienced on its own.

The key:  Use mix marketing

Preparing in Advance :   focus on how to create an effective marketing mix – what type of marketing you choose to use to get and keep customers. Figure out what marketing mix will work best to grow your business.

During the campaign :  Be sure to unify the marketing mix choosen with an integrated campaign with consistent branding and a consistent message that will increase your traffic, lead and boost your conversion rates.

As Saint-Exupery used to says a goal without a plan is just a wish, so set your goals before anything else and then focus and ways to achieve them the more efficiently possible.

Do you Know any other step that could  avoid marketing campaigns to fail?