If Your Marketing Strategies Were Halloween Candy

Halloween means different things to different people. To some, Halloween is about costumes and scary yard displays. To others, it may mean carving pumpkins and haunted houses.

To me, it’s about candy. It’s about the only time of year that I crave and eat it. I don’t know if it’s because the pieces are snack size and you can eat several and still not feel guilty or if it’s the variety of seasonal candies like my personal favorite, the orange Kit Kat.

So just for fun, I figured I would write a blog about Halloween candy. So, savor my ooey, gooey, sticky, crunchy and chocolatey analogies for building your marketing strategy.

3 Musketeers

Identifying your key audience is a vital step in building your strategy. Whether your target market consists of three groups or 10, researching their buying habits and creating personas will be key to your marketing and communication efforts. Like this variety, often thrown in the trash by the kids, researching your audience is often a step that organizations skip, yet it’s an imperative part of the process.

Laffy Taffy

Before developing a strategy, it’s crucial to have a message that sticks and that is no laughing matter. Pull your stakeholders together and chew on your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for a while. You will be happy you did. Your message will be the foundation to developing all of your compelling content.

Twix

Known for being a layered treat consisting of chocolate, cookies and caramel, Twix is a classic. An integrated (and layered) approach to your efforts will help you deliver a consistent and seamless message in your various channels. From PR to digital and social media to traditional advertising, layering will make your outcomes more fulfilling.

Now and Later

The planning is done and now it’s time to put your strategy into action using your timeline. Some tactics you may use now, others may be saved for later. Either way, put your plan in writing so you can follow along. As with Now and Laters, like when you just can’t get the wrapper off the candy, there will be unexpected events that come up along the way, so having a plan will help keep you in check.

100 Grand

Don’t forget to measure your success using predetermined metrics based on your goals and objectives. This step will inform your future efforts. If your goal was to increase revenue by $100,000 year over year, use the appropriate system in your organization to pull that data. Analyzing your results makes for a richer marketing experience and, in the end, might puff up your profit.

I hope I have made you hungry to start building your strategy for the next year. If you need help determining what will work best for your organization, contact us. We may even serve candy.