why its important to have an effective venue marketing strategy

 

Why it's Important to Have an Effective Venue Marketing Strategy

Posted on 25 March 2022

Marketing

       

As a venue, you want as many people through your doors as possible. It's about expanding capacity, increasing revenue streams, and building an engaged client base. But how do you get people through your doors? A well-planned marketing strategy is a good place to start. 

A highly important part of this is to make sure that you're active on multiple platforms. But that's not to say that you should post for the sake of posting, always think "what is this post trying to achieve"? This means making sure that the content on your accounts is relevant and up-to-date. Not only will this help to get the word out about your venue but it'll also help to create a connection with potential customers  and build brand awareness.

 

What is a marketing strategy and why does your venue need one?

 

A marketing strategy, in simple terms, is a plan of action that details how your business will achieve its marketing goals. It outlines the specific steps that you need to take to achieve these goals and who will be responsible for each step.

A well-crafted marketing strategy is essential for any business, regardless of size or industry. It helps you focus your efforts and make the most of your resources, while also helping you stay ahead of the competition

If you're looking to increase patronage, a solid marketing strategy is a must. The same goes for boosting revenue streams or building brand awareness. With the right plan in place, anything is possible.

 

The different types of marketing strategies

 

There are a number of different marketing strategies that a business can use (ideally you should use all of them in one way or another), but the most effective ones are those that are tailored to the specific needs of the business. Here are four of the most common types of marketing strategies:

 

Advertising

Advertising is one of the most traditional forms of marketing, and it involves using various forms of paid media to promote a product or service. Advertising can be expensive but it can also provide you with fast results. Do your research then plan this out carefully and you can have a lot of success when you combine it with organic marketing.

Organic

Organic marketing is essential and arguably the most important aspect of long term marketing success. A nuanced marketing strategy requires creating various types of content, such as blogs, SEO, case studies, infographics and video content to establish yourself as an expert or thought leader in your field.  This strategy will take the longest to develop but it'll also provide you with the most success in the long-term. 

Public Relations

Public relations is all about building positive relationships with the public. This can involve things like press releases, interviews, social media outreach, and more. Establish relationships with key publications and use them to push out especially important pieces at key times. This can help you greatly expand your reach but it can also be expensive.

Marketing Events

Events are a great way to engage with potential customers face-to-face and as a venue, you should be more than familiar with these. They're a great way to create word-of-mouth marketing and social proof. Content from these can be shared by everyone there so be tactical with how you approach them. 

 

How to develop a marketing strategy for your business

 

There are many things that need to go into making a solid strategy for your venue marketing. But if you get it right, you can achieve incredible growth. When you're planning your marketing, consider the following early steps:

  • Know who you're trying to attract. Study your ideal customer and create your buyer personas
  • Defining your goals, make them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely)
  • Measure progress against goals
  • Create your unique market positioning statement (and keep it consistent)

After this decide what topics you want your marketing to revolve around then begin planning and creating content. 

 

Implementing your marketing strategy

 

Creating and distributing marketing materials

Once you have a marketing strategy in place, the next step is to actually implement it. This will involve a variety of different actions, depending on the specifics of your plan. In order to promote your venue, you'll need some marketing materials. This can include things like print ads, website banners, social media posts, blogs, videos etc. Once you have your materials created, you'll need to distribute them to the right people. This is why it's important to have your buyer personas, they will help you create relevant content and then send it to the right people. Ensure your mailing lists are up-to-date and clean or you'll have a lot of difficulty with this. 

 

Measuring the success of your marketing strategy

 

One of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy is measuring the results. Don't just set goals at the beginning and then forget about them. Make sure to track your progress throughout. There are a number of different ways to do this, including: 

 

Web Analytics

Web analytics is a process of collecting and analyzing data from your website to see how well it's performing. This can include things like traffic levels, page views, and more. However, your minimum focus should be on time on page, bounce rate and click-through rate. This can be done relatively easily through Google analytics once you have it set up.

Social Media Analytics

Social media analytics is the process of analyzing data from social media platforms. But what should you focus on? Many brands will focus on vanity metrics such as impressions and the number of likes they have. But focusing on engagement rate, clicks, and click-through rate will provide you with much better information. These are the true tells of whether your content is engaging or not. These are all trackable through each social platform's analytics tools. 

Reviews

Reviews are an excellent way of measuring how successful you are in business, but they're also fantastic marketing tools. People are more likely to listen to someone who's in the same position as they are compared to a brand. By having social proof you're more likely to get future customers across the line. 

 

Wrapping Up

 

Once you've been through this process it's time to decide what worked and what didn't. This isn't a do once then set-and-forget scenario. You need to constantly be making tweaks and updates to your content depending on what's working and what isn't. This will help you be more strategic and stay in the front of your customer's mind. Remember it takes 6-8 touch points for someone to remember who you are, so you better make those touch points memorable. 

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