Communication and marketing counselling

Communication and marketing, in this day and age of ours, superintend every business function, in every market, even in small businesses, even in the smallest action.
Marketing, in this day and age, represents the orientation of an entire business organization. At the center of production processes is the customer, not the product. And today we produce what can be sold. Marketing, in fact, as Kotler said, is more of a social process than a managerial one, because the focus is on meeting people’s needs. There are five important steps:

• Understanding the customer’s needs, and consequently, the market. These are feelings that may stem from a feeling of deprivation or from social culture;
• Delineate a custom-oriented strategy, which is, select the most suitable customer target so that the company’s value proposition is perfectly aligned with market demand;
• Define the operational marketing plan;
• Building relationships with consumers and meeting their expectations;
• Fostering loyalty, that is, making sure that customers are satisfied.

In every marketing principle, the customer is at the center of the company’s strategy and policy. Today it is a customer who changes the point of view and needs according to cultural, social, personal and contextual factors.

In any marketing action it is necessary to set specific goals to be achieved and, above all, that they are measurable. To do this it is necessary to define the promotional channels through which to reach your customers and it needs to assign ‘a weight’ to each channel Google Analytics lists seven of them:

• Direct: you type the direct URL of the website into the search engine;
• Organic search: web page reached through a search query;
• Paid search: you land on a landing page through paid ads;
• Referral: backlinks to one’s own site;
• Social: the user reaches the online business through social network searches;
• Display: you reach the page through paid ads display format;
• Other: alternative channels such as email marketing.

Once the channels on which to act have been defined, it is necessary to define KPI for each channel, that is, to assign performance indicators that can return us valuable information on the performance of each promotional tool. These are actions that allow us to constantly monitor the results achieved by the various channels and make the right changes where necessary.

Once this more theoretical part is established, we must move on to the actual action with an ad hoc marketing plan. Therefore, create detailed marketing actions distributed over time, because marketing activity is a sequence of heterogeneous actions that can be divided into three phases:

1. Analytical;
2. Planning;
3. Operational.

In the analytical phase is the part of the study of the company (organizational structure, business model, and SWOT analysis), study direct competitors, trends, market leaders, channels used, and the ecosystem external to the company; then move on to the knowledge of the users, and then to their habits, needs, and the information channels they use, and then establish the goals to be achieved with the corresponding timeframes and resources to be used.

In the planning phase, it is necessary to define the strategic model of action and then figure out how to promote it and with what language; this is followed by a business development plan that involves the entire company with the goal of providing a unique identity that follows the company’s values and principles; channels must then be identified, create a narrative that can express the company’s values and at the same time emotionally engage the customer by making them feel part of a community; define, then, goals, content and timeline and, finally, a plan that includes a budget distribution for each action.

In the operational phase, there is an initial moment in which we ‘prepare’ the audience for the launch or restyling of the platform; we then move on to the commissioning of the prepared channels; we move on to the execution of the editorial plan; and we monitor and maintain all those actions related to the previous activities that have proven successful.

Every marketing action carries with it the company’s own communication. These are two areas that travel on parallel lines and cannot be split.

Also in this case, the experience I have had over the years allows me today to be able to follow projects independently and autonomously.