Welcome back to our guide on crafting a killer marketing strategy. This is part 2 in our 2-part series, so if you haven't read the first blog, you should do so before going ahead.
In the first part, we covered why you need to align your aims, how to get to know your audience, and why it's vital to know what your competitors are doing.
Today we're discussing how to choose your channels, put together a coherent plan and finally get the right tools in your belt to help you succeed.
Choose your channels
Review the platforms you're using carefully. You may not need all of them, depending on your client base. Assess engagement analytics, and ask yourself if you're truly meeting your customer where they are, or whether you're targeting the wrong crowd.
Each platform serves a different purpose:
- Written content for professionals? LinkedIn
- Visual content for consumers? Instagram
- Video content for GenZ? TikTok
- Quippy comebacks for competitors? X
These are generalisations of course, but you get the picture. Use your findings from your audience research in part 1 and compare these with your current activity to streamline your 2026 social presence.
And don't forget, there are plenty of other digital channels you can reach your audience on. The likes of Reddit and Discord are a gold mine for specific fan communities and consumers who like to give in-depth feedback on products and brands. They're also great places to have meaningful, direct conversations with your audience.
If your business is more focused on visuals, or targeting demographics like graphic designers, artists, photographers and other creative fields, you might want to take a look at Pinterest. It's full of people looking for their next inspo, and if you've got the product or service to give them that, why not share? Take a look at our Pinterest for some examples (shameless plug, we know!).
Put your plan together
And breathe... the research is over! Now it’s time to piece the jigsaw together from your findings. On a spreadsheet, a document, or a big A2 poster pinned to the wall of your office – bring your detailed marketing plan together in whatever format works for you. Stuck on where to start? Here’s a few key considerations to kick you off...
- Write a social media strategy and calendar, including what you're going to post, when you're going to post it, and how frequently you're going to post it.
- Do the same for other written content such as blogs, reports and whitepapers.
- Plan for reactive and topical content, i.e. Black Friday, holidays, company events.
- Set your budgets and schedule for paid ads.
- Schedule campaigns and plan for what collateral you need to deliver it, i.e. an Easter campaign with 5 blogs and 10 social media posts.
Ultimately, only you can decide what should be included in your marketing strategy. In the meantime, here's some more inspo, this time from Surreal:
This ad is eye-catching, a little cheeky, but will make any passerby have a little chuckle.
Surreal has been dubbed 'marketing for marketers' and we can see why. Their LinkedIn is full of marketing professionals praising their witty posts and large scale ad antics.
They consistently strike the balance between trend hopping, relatable discourse and sales content. And as natural and free-flowing as they make it look, you can bet your life that there will be a meticulously constructed marketing strategy driving it all.
As well as looking at competitors, as we mentioned in the previous part, look around at brands that you like to see how they market their products and services. A few of our faves (although we probably shouldn't have them!) include Monzo, Surreal, and Duolingo.
Find the right tools
Now, this is the point where you accept that your wonderful ideas and plans, as brilliant as they are, might not all be achievable for you and your team alone (if you even have one). But that’s no cause for panic, because this is where the robots come in.
As a busy business owner you’ve got fingers in all kinds of pies – so while you focus on not burning them, enlist the help of a few highly intuitive digital assistants to automate manual tasks. This will save you A LOT of time and hassle, while the truly creative decision making is left to you. Here’s a few suggestions to get you going:
- Buffer – to streamline your post scheduling
- Google Ads – for keeping track of PPC campaigns and search patterns
- ChatGPT – to help you brainstorm
- Fasthosts Online Marketing Suite – for everything in between!
Identify your most time-consuming, tedious tasks that get in the way of executing your creative advertising plan. Research to see there's an AI tool or nifty automation that can help you overcome them. If you're looking for somewhere to start, check out our blog on tools to help optimise your workflow.
Can we help?
The answer is yes, we can! If you've not seen already, we have a whole suite of tools to help you craft an incredible marketing strategy – our Online Marketing Suite in fact. Here you'll find intuitive tools that you can use in tandem with one another, or as standalone assistants.
Marketing Radar
Discover how your business is seen online and keep tabs on what the competition is up to.
SEO Manager
Find the best keywords for your audience, attract more visitors and increase traffic.
Ads Manager
Get ads automatically suggested to you, easily view all of your stats, and monitor ad performance.
Listings Manager
List your business on over 34 online search engines, and keep customers updated with your opening times and contact info.
Our January sale is packed full of deals to get you online! Until 31st January, you can get Website Builder for just 50p/month for 6 months, Professional Email for 50p/month for 12 months, and a domain for £1. Grab these deals now because once it's gone, it's gone!
Ready to roll? We're here if you need us. Get in touch with our support team, who are available 24/7 to help with your products or services. You can give us a call on 0333 0142 700 or message us via live chat.
