No marketing strategy will be effective without properly planning it out before implementation. Companies who market on the fly or "throw it out there and see what sticks" rarely find marketing success. They also spend a lot of money with minimal results. Don't make this mistake. With a few simple planning strategies, you'll be on your way to marketing success. Let's take a look. 1. Define Your Target Market Who exactly are you trying to reach? Very few products or services are a good fit for everyone between 13 - 99. Even if you wish that was your target audience, chances are it's not. Be realistic about what population segment will actually spend money with you. Then focus your strategy at that segment only. 2. Conduct Product Focus Groups It's tempting to ask a few friends and family what they think about your product, then try to build a marketing plan around that. The problem is that you won't get much genuine feedback from the people closest to you. Although they want you to succeed, they also don't want to upset you with negative feedback. Instead, offer a small fee to strangers within your target market to review your product or service and provide genuine feedback. Ask them what they liked about it, what they disliked, and what would cause them to buy it. You'll get a wealth of knowledge to use in your marketing campaign. Then let them keep the product when the study is complete. 3. Start Small, Then Scale Up Don't launch into a $10,000 social media ad campaign without running tests first. Budget a couple of hundred dollars and start A/B testing different marketing ads and approaches. Take your time with this. Sometimes an entire campaign can fail or succeed due to a few minor changes in words or images. When you find the sweet spot, that's when to start investing real money into the campaign. It's a fun and interesting process to see what consumers react to. The results will surprise you. What you think is gold might be a dud and vice versa. Market like an Expert Marketing doesn't have to be difficult. But it does take patience and an open eye. If you'd prefer to trust your marketing campaign to an expert, you can always choose that route as well. Good luck with your campaign!