AGASW, Your Marketing Swag

Marketing is not a singular tactic. Marketing is a strategy built on consumer behavior and systems used to move you from a product/service to a sale.

NEWS FLASH:

"Systems beat goals every time." -Che Brown, The Happy Entrepreneur

Now, you may waste time employing single tactics outside of a structured plan, but until you take the time to create and employ your marketing via a working system, you will not get the results that are possible and that you desire.

CLASS IS NOW IN SESSION

Beyond employing various marketing and promotional tactics, your marketing must be administered through a strategic framework, a system. I've developed a system, a flow. Though top-heavy, once mastered this system/flow/swag will help you achieve greater results. AGASW will help you get sales! Think of AGASW as your marketing swag, your marketing flow. Your AGASW creates a flow for your marketing and makes it easier to measure what works and what doesn't as well as keep you focused on your audience and goals.

CONSISTENCY and FLOW

This section is self-explanatory. You have to be or become consistent with your marketing efforts. You need a plan that addresses the full circumference of marketing (online/offline, advertising, promotions, research, PR, email, events, and sponsorship).

Productivity tools will help you with your consistency and flow. Strategically, I recommend a trifecta; ingest and implement Brian P. Moran's The 12 Week Year audiobook and hard copy study guide along with Darren Hardy's The Compound Effect audiobook. These tools will help you zero in on what's most important and effective, taking you from your big vision down to daily tasks with a focus on habits and execution. Of course, consistency may not be an issue for you. You may just need a working system that maximizes your efforts and return.

Read on as we break down the S-AGASW system, the six cornerstones to build an effective marketing campaign.

S-SALVATION

what hell are you saving an audience from or what heaven are you putting them in?

This is an update>>> All campaigns need salvation. From the onset answer, what hell are you saving an audience from or what heaven are you putting them in? What's the solution? Good chance your salvation may be multi-fold. First, there is the solution that your product and/or service already provides. Then, there's this specific campaign's solution... a sale on specific items, savings, membership (belonging), exclusivity, being in the know (awareness), relevancy (applying what we know), advocacy (rewarding superfans), etc.

For example: Noir Girl Magic™, a cultural travel accessory brand, had inventory it needed to unload. This inventory was part of the brand trying out different items. This inventory didn't move and it wasn't in the dropship channel, thereby taking more effort to get to the customer. So, Noir Girl Magic™ decided to have a sale. But, what would make this sale special? It was October and the items lend more to summer and beach wear. On the East Coast people were looking to bundle up. 

Again, what salvation does summer beach wear provide in October to a United States and Canada audience? It's off season. YES, that's the salvation and solution! Everyone knows off season sales provide deep discounts! Ok. So, who values off season sales and who would want to purchase summer wear in October???

• Sales-a-holics - you those people that can't resist a sale whether they needed it or not
• Savers and Penny Pinchers who are planners.
• People vacationing in summer climates - beaches, islands (Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Bermuda, Costa Rica, St. Maarten, etc.)

Now, except for the travelers, the other audiences are not Noir Girl Magic™'s target audience. 

A - AUDIENCE

Know Thy Audience. All roads begin and end with your target audience and existing customers. First, who cares? Who needs and/or wants what you provide? Who believes they are experiencing the problem you are solving? Who's experiencing the problem but doesn't realize it? not aware that they even have a problem? Or whose aspirations, hopes and dreams are you fulfilling?

DEMOGRAPHICS

On average is your audience men or women or both? Are they predominately African American or any combination of ethnicity or nationalities? What is the average education level achieved? Are they homeowners or renters, married or single, employed, self-employed, retired, or unemployed? What's their average age range, median household or individual income, and do they usually use cash, debit, or credit?

PSYCHOGRAPHICS

Psychographics are the behaviors of your audience. How do they normally engage online, desktop, tablet, or mobile? Are they single mothers, heads of household, or parents with school-aged children? What do they like to do? Where do they hang out? What's important to them? The better you are able to answer these questions, the more aligned you are with who is your ideal customer.

Use Hubspot's Complimentary Tool to Build Your Buyer Personas

Your existing customers are the optimal resource to build your buyer personas and for new sales. Get to know your existing customers intimately. It costs six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing customer. Your current customers have purchased from you, learn more about who they are and discover what compelled them to buy.

Khalid Saleh of Invesp states, "The first rule of any business is to retain customers and build a loyal relationship with them, and thereby avoid customer acquisition costs." 

Research your ideal user’s interests, social media conversations, Google searches, the Facebook pages they like, etc. These activities will help you know how to appeal to their desires.

Review data from your online advertising, event sign-up lists, and any feedback you receive. The analytics derived from advertising with Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Pinterest is rich and will give you great insight into who your visitors and customers are. Look at your customer's purchasing habits with you, your competitors, and complimentary niches, too.

G - GOALS

You must have specific measurable attainable business goals. Your dream goals are doable, just break them down into smaller attainable goals. Knowing your ultimate goal and the goals you need to achieve to produce the ultimate goals gives you the framework to measure and structure your campaign activities.

For instance, say you decide you want to produce $10K profit this holiday season.

• Since this is profit, you need to determine how much total revenue you need to produce and what are the expenses incurred to produce that revenue.
• Are you including all costs, like administrative, physical space, employee, travel, gas, shipping, website management, marketing, etc?
• This goal will also impact what you choose to sell for the holiday season. What items or services have higher profit margins that are also a desired commodity during the holiday season?
• Once you decide what you are going to sell, then how many do you need to sell to make your desired profit? Will buying in bulk save you money? Are there deadlines for printers, manufacturers, distributors, or wholesalers of which you need to be mindful? are there price point savings based on these deadlines?

These are just a few examples of how having specific quantifiable goals will help you streamline your overall business processes.

A - ANALYTICS

Wikipedia defines analytics as the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data...to quantify performance. Organizations may apply analytics to business data to describe, predict, and improve business performance.

In the previous section, we discussed how using analytics help you drill down on your target audience. In this Analytic section, we are measuring previous campaigns, strategies, and marketing activities. What worked and what didn't work.

How do you amass data? Everything is data. Your survey of your customers and target audience. The analytical data you receive from your website analytics (like Google Analytics, SUMO, etc), from your social media accounts, from your sharing and plugins tools, from advertising on and offline, etc. The quality of data you get from online engagement, pixels, and advertising is superior and extremely affordable.

Review your data from the previous year's holiday marketing campaigns. Look at what you did, what did you sell, how did you promote it, when did you begin promotions, when did you place your orders for inventory and promotions, who did you hire, what were your strategies, how much revenue and how much profit did you produce?

The analytics will help you realize what worked, why it worked, what did so-so, and what bombed.

S - STRATEGY

Here's where 'marketing tactics' are relevant. Which tactics you employ and how you employ them are key elements of your strategy. What are the elements of your strategy's framework? The Salvation, Audience, Goals, and Analytics. This information will guide your choices from strategy content to execution.

All your amassed data will help you decide everything from what products and/or services to focus on to which colors to use, what style of design, where and how to advertise, which collaborations to engage, what activities and experiences to engage and create, and which conversations to have.

Events, video, live streams, contests, sales, specials, pop-ups, appearances, blogging new and hot product reviews, linking to reviews, how to save data, and whatever your mind can imagine that is compelling to the audience you have defined, that leverages the data derived from the analytics, and places you on the road to attaining your goals.

W - WEBSITE

Everything lands on the website. Your website should be a digital manifestation of your marketing plan. Landing pages will be the website digital asset that your campaigns. People should still be able to access the main website from your landing page and your website should have first page indicators of your campaigns. It may be linked images on a slider, it can be a side column, whatever works and your mind can imagine.

https://smarturl.it/BOGOFoldingTravelBag

Your landing page should only focus on the campaign. Nothing else. Keep it simple. Make sure you are capturing data and the landing page clearly explains the benefits of the campaigns and how to reap those benefits. Then, give people an option to explore more.

The field of data analysis. Analytics often involves studying past historical data to research potential trends, to analyze the effects of certain decisions or events, or to evaluate the performance of a given tool or scenario. The goal of analytics is to improve the business by gaining knowledge which can be used to make improvements or changes.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analytics.html

The field of data analysis. Analytics often involves studying past historical data to research potential trends, to analyze the effects of certain decisions or events, or to evaluate the performance of a given tool or scenario. The goal of analytics is to improve the business by gaining knowledge which can be used to make improvements or changes.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analytics.html

The field of data analysis. Analytics often involves studying past historical data to research potential trends, to analyze the effects of certain decisions or events, or to evaluate the performance of a given tool or scenario. The goal of analytics is to improve the business by gaining knowledge which can be used to make improvements or changes.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analytics.html

Analytics often involves studying past historical data to research potential trends, to analyze the effects of certain decisions or events, or to evaluate the performance of a given tool or scenario. The goal of analytics is to improve the business by gaining knowledge which can be used to make improvements or changes.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analytics.html

Analytics often involves studying past historical data to research potential trends, to analyze the effects of certain decisions or events, or to evaluate the performance of a given tool or scenario. The goal of analytics is to improve the business by gaining knowledge which can be used to make improvements or changes.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analytics.html

Analytics often involves studying past historical data to research potential trends, to analyze the effects of certain decisions or events, or to evaluate the performance of a given tool or scenario. The goal of analytics is to improve the business by gaining knowledge which can be used to make improvements or changes.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analytics.html

Analytics often involves studying past historical data to research potential trends, to analyze the effects of certain decisions or events, or to evaluate the performance of a given tool or scenario. The goal of analytics is to improve the business by gaining knowledge which can be used to make improvements or changes.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analytics.html

Analytics often involves studying past historical data to research potential trends, to analyze the effects of certain decisions or events, or to evaluate the performance of a given tool or scenario. The goal of analytics is to improve the business by gaining knowledge which can be used to make improvements or changes.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analytics.html