Marketing, like any other aspect of business, requires careful planning to be effective. However, depending on the type of business, there are many different types and styles of marketing, ranging from traditional marketing to digital marketing that can be used to help a business grow. However, regardless of the type of marketing used, there are several basic steps that must be followed in order for it to be successful. This blog will briefly highlight the basic steps that all marketers should follow before beginning development of any marketing activity.

1. MARKETING 101 – DON’T FORGET THE BASICS
OVERVIEW
Marketing, like any other aspect of business, requires careful planning to be effective.
However, depending on the type of business, there are many different types and styles
of marketing, ranging from traditional marketing to digital marketing that can be used to
help a business grow. However, regardless of the type of marketing used, there are
several basic steps that must be followed in order for it to be successful.
This blog will briefly highlight the basic steps that all marketers should follow before
beginning development of any marketing activity.
GETTING STARTED
Regardless of the type, size, or scope of your marketing campaign or activity, there are
certain steps that must be done first in order for it to be successful. Unfortunately, many
marketers often skip these steps. They seem to think that marketing doesn’t really
require any planning, so they jump straight into the development process. Then when
their marketing fails, they blame it on anything other than their own lack of preparation.
That’s a sure formula for failure.
In order for any marketing activity to be effective, there are some basic steps that must
be taken to help provide the foundation for that activity, as well as to help inform the
marketing strategy development. To make that process easier, I’ve developed a simple,
three-step method – the RTM Method.
RTM stands for Research, Targeting, Metrics. Here’s how it works:

2. STEP ONE – RESEARCH
The development of any marketing activity begins the same way – doing your research.
Depending on what exactly your marketing goals are, there are different areas of
research that will need to be done.
In general though, there are several standard areas that should be included in all of
your marketing research:
 Understand the business goals you need to accomplish via marketing
 Know what the sales expectations are
 Know who the target/desired customer is
 Understand the customer’s business/infrastructure/IT environment
 Know the customer’s pain points and concerns
 Know the customer’s buying process and lifecycle
 Understand where/when/how the customer does research
 Understand in what format the customer prefers to receive information
 Know the market
 Know the competitive situation
This type of research provides you with the necessary insight and knowledge of your
customer and their situation. This information also helps you clarify and understand
exactly what it is that your marketing needs to accomplish.
Without this basic level of information and understanding, your marketing will fail.
STEP TWO – TARGETING
Once you’ve gathered the above information, use that information to take the following
next steps:
 Develop your segmentation plan
 Develop personas for your targeted customer
 Develop your targeting
 Develop your positioning and messaging
 Develop your CTAs
These steps are necessary to help you understand who your targeted customer is, what
is important to them, and how best to reach and engage with them.
Without this type of information, your marketing will not be focused.
STEP THREE – METRICS
Finally, before you begin developing any marketing actions, you need to:

3.  Decide what you will track and how you will measure your marketing results
 Establish the OKRs, analytics, metrics, and KPIs you’ll need
 Determine when/how you will analyze the data
 Plan what your response will be to the results (e.g., keep doing what you’re
doing, tweak/make a change to what you’re doing, do something else, stop)
Doing this ensures that you’ll be able to track your marketing activities to see if they’re
hitting the mark or not, along with taking the appropriate data-driven action(s). While it
seems obvious to do this, sadly, this is typically what most marketers fail to include.
Without supporting metrics data, you won’t know if your marketing worked or not.
SUMMARY
The above steps are not complicated. They are, however, critical to marketing success.
By following these basic steps and taking time to do the necessary research, you’ve laid
the proper foundation to develop your marketing activities. Your planning will be easier
and more effective, as you’ve clarified who the customers are that you’re targeting, what
their pain points are, and how you need to engage with them. Most importantly, you’ve
clarified what you need to accomplish via marketing, how you will measure it and how
you will adjust it if necessary.
This makes your marketing better positioned to deliver successful results for your
business.
© 2021 – Richard Hatheway / Catalyst Strategic Marketing
#marketing #marketingbasics #marketingfoundation #marketingplanning
#marketingresearch #marketingtargeting #marketingmetrics