Hoping to take your brand position to the next level this year or gain a competitive advantage in your sector? This guide showcases expert advice from James Williams, Wonga Online’s Head of Marketing, to set you up for success.
Williams leads the marketing division at the online loan provider, which involves managing an international team of marketing colleagues and collaborating with partners and agencies, as well as strategic marketing planning and brand management.
Tip One: Don’t Disregard the Basic Principles of Great Marketing
Trends emerge all the time, and while it can be a great opportunity to set your business apart, if you lose sight of the fundamentals, you could be heading for disaster. Cast your mind back to your marketing studies, and you’ll recall the four P’s:
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
No matter the focus of your marketing campaign, the demographic or deliverables, all of these factors need to be in place to achieve good results.
Even if you have a loyal clientele, if your pricing is uncompetitive, or if your product doesn’t meet the needs of your customer base, you aren’t going to see any upticks in revenue or profitability because your focus may not align with what your audience wants to see.
Personalisation could be added to that list as a 5th ‘P’ – the more attentive, customised and targeted your campaigns, the more your viewers will relate to the content you show them, so never go for generic media, which can come across as disinterested or irrelevant to the recipient. If you need a recap on the marketing principles there’s a great summary over on Investopedia that we recommend checking out.
Tip Two: Monitor Your Key Brand Competitors
Staying in your own lane doesn’t apply in business because if you’re behind the times or haven’t noticed a competitor creeping up and nabbing some of your market share, it might be too late to respond.
Examples include tracking keyword placement, brand positioning, promotions and new launch events. Getting on top is one thing, staying there is quite another, so make sure you’re committing research time to broader market analysis to see if there are areas where you can increase your activities and continue to scale.
Tip Three: Engage in Active Reputation Management
Customers rely on third-party data as social proof rather than depending on marketing materials to help them make informed decisions about the brands they choose to do business with.
In fact, Boast reports that 63% of shoppers will buy something because the product includes reviews and ratings. Regardless of how amazing your reputation is now, it’s your responsibility to maintain that status with your customers and keep proactively putting time and effort into maintaining positive engagement and dialogues.
Never assume that a good standing will tide you over – you need to work on outreach, asking customer opinions, responding to issues, and monitoring things like product ratings to analyse whether there are any problems you can resolve.
Remember – good press and bad press can both give you exposure, but dealing with any challenges in a transparent and upfront way can turn a negative into a positive and pay dividends in long-term brand perceptions.
