Marketing Cheat Sheet

Marketing is full of semantics which include hundreds of terminologies, frameworks, tactics and methodologies. It's rather time consuming trying to remember, search on Google or reach your notes.

I built a cheat sheet to approach marketing to help me get started. Listing every item for a complete list of all things marketing. This list will help anyone who is planning to develop a marketing strategy. It's your idea basket to help build your campaigns.

Please note there will be some overlap between the lists. Think of it as an item under traffic acquisition can also help with customer retention. So on and so forth...

Some of the listings have definitions to clarify the terminology and expand your vision to develop your ideas for marketing.

Growth funnels

AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)
RACE (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage)
DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results)
SOSTAC (Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, Control)
Pirate Metrics (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue)
Bowtie (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action, Loyalty)
Flywheel (Attract, Engage, Delight)
Customer Journey (Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, Advocacy)
See-Think-Do-Care (STDC)
McKinsey Consumer Decision Journey (CDJ)

Customer retention tactics

Personalised communication
Loyalty programs
Referral programs
Exclusive offers and discounts
Customer feedback and surveys
Social media engagement
Email marketing campaigns
Upselling and cross-selling
Customer service excellence
Product bundling
Gamification
Community building
Retargeting ads
Content marketing
Anniversary and birthday rewards
Free trials and demos
Educational resources and tutorials
VIP treatment
Early access to new products or services
Partnering with complementary brands or businesses.

Growth strategies in marketing

Market Penetration
Market Development
Product Development
Diversification
Horizontal Integration
Vertical Integration
Joint Ventures
Strategic Alliances
Mergers and Acquisitions
Brand Extension
Franchising
Licensing
Co-branding
Customer Retention
Customer Acquisition
Geographic Expansion
Niche Marketing
Product Line Extension
Price Skimming
Price Penetration
Bundling
Cross-selling
Upselling
Loyalty Programs
Referral Programs
Content Marketing
Influencer Marketing
Affiliate Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Social Media Marketing
Email Marketing
Direct Mail Marketing
Event Marketing
Public Relations (PR)
Sponsorship Marketing
Guerrilla Marketing
Viral Marketing
Experiential Marketing
Cause Marketing
Celebrity Endorsement
Product Placement
Trade Shows and Exhibitions
Sales Promotion
Telemarketing
Door-to-Door Sales
Direct Response Marketing
Mobile Marketing
Gamification
Chatbots

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube
Reddit
Quora
Tumblr
WeChat
Weibo
Line
Viber
Telegram
WhatsApp
KakaoTalk
VKontakte (VK)
Xing
Renren
Sina Weibo
Douban
Youku
Baidu Tieba
Zhihu
Meituan-Dianping
Toutiao
Naver
KakaoStory
Cyworld
Mixi
Ameba
Line Blog

Search engine optimisation list

Keyword research and optimization
On-page optimization (title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, etc.)
Content creation and optimization
Link building (backlinks, internal links, etc.)
Mobile optimization
Site speed optimization
Social media optimization
Local SEO optimization
Schema markup implementation
User experience optimization
Voice search optimization
Video optimization
Image optimization
Guest blogging
Influencer marketing
Broken link building
Competitor analysis
Google My Business optimization
Google Analytics and Search Console setup and monitoring
Technical SEO (robots.txt, sitemap, canonical tags, etc.)

Top website KPIs to measure

Traffic: The number of visitors to a website.(sessions)
Unique Visitors: The number of individual visitors to a website. (often measured with the "users" on GA)
Pageviews: The number of pages viewed on a website.
Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page.(Some prefer to define it as landing on a page and leaving without doing anything on that page ie: clicking, typing etc)
Time on Site: The average amount of time visitors spend on a website.(Although we like the time to be longer, in some cases it would not be great.)
Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action on a website, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. For instance, 10 out of 100 visitors subscribe to a newsletter, the newsletter subscription conversion rate is at 10%.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of visitors who click on a specific link or call-to-action on a website.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA): The cost of acquiring a new customer through a traffic channel. Such as Facebook, Google etc.(Imagine if I launched a marketing campaign and spent £1500 on Facebook to acquire 100 new subscribers while Google campaign for the same number of subs did cost me £2000. This would make CPA for Facebook £15 while Google was £20.)
Return on Investment (ROI): The amount of revenue generated for a campaign. If we deduct the cost of running it and the result is positive then we have a positive ROI. So let's say we spent £2000 on Google to attract 200 subs. Those 200subs then made a total purchase of £10k, our gross ROI is £8000. We would then look at the cost of operating the service and net profit we make per sale to calculate a net ROI. It's often acceptable to have a net ROI close to 0 and sometimes even below 0.
Engagement: The level of interaction and involvement visitors have with a website, such as commenting, sharing, or liking content.Engagement can expand more depending on what actions and events you define on your website.

Customer satisfaction scoring (CSAT) methods

Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Likert Scale
Semantic Differential Scale
Binary Scale
Multiple Choice Scale
Open-Ended Questions
Customer Loyalty Index (CLI)
Customer Delight Score (CDS)
Customer Experience Index (CXI)
Customer Churn Rate
Customer Retention Rate
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer Complaint Rate
Social Media Listening
Online Reviews and Ratings
Customer Feedback Surveys
Mystery Shopping
Focus Groups
Customer Interviews
Customer Journey Mapping
Customer Persona Development
Customer Segmentation Analysis
Customer Behavior Analysis.

Marketing automation

Lead scoring and nurturing
Email marketing campaigns
Social media automation
Web personalization
Dynamic content
Landing page optimization
A/B testing
Behavioral tracking and segmentation
Triggered emails and workflows
Drip campaigns
CRM integration
Sales funnel tracking and optimization
Marketing automation analytics and reporting
SMS and mobile messaging automation
Retargeting and remarketing campaigns
Chatbots and virtual assistants
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Predictive analytics and lead generation
Event and webinar management
Ad campaign management and optimization.

Conversion rate optimisation

A/B testing
Multivariate testing
User experience (UX) analysis
Website design optimization
Landing page optimization
Call to action (CTA) optimization
Form optimization
Navigation optimization
Page load speed optimization
Mobile optimization
Content optimization
Checkout process optimization
Sales funnel optimization
Customer journey analysis
Exit-intent pop-ups
Personalization and targeting
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Social proof optimization
Trust badge optimization
Live chat optimization
Heat map analysis
Conversion funnel analysis
Cart abandonment analysis
Email marketing optimization
Retargeting and remarketing
Customer feedback analysis
Pricing optimization
Offer optimization
Product page optimization
Upsell and cross-sell optimization

Mobile app marketing

App Store Optimization (ASO): optimizing the app’s title, description, screenshots, and keywords to improve visibility and search rankings on app stores. Some innovative apps are also constantly optimising this space almost daily to use as a distribution channel. Smart!
Social Media Marketing: Promoting the app on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. Like, subscribe, err, how about also download?
Influencer Marketing: Partnering with influencers in the relevant niche to promote the app. We don't see this that often nowadays but surely still quite applicable especially if handed over to the creative minds of influencers.
Paid Advertising: Running targeted advertising campaigns on platforms such as Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, or other ad networks. Probably the easiest option out there for most companies.
App Store Advertising: Running ads on app store search results pages, or featured listings within the app store. Another great way to get the return for your spend.
Content Marketing: Creating and sharing relevant and engaging content such as blog posts, videos, or infographics. This is a rather long route to success but surely one of the best as always to build a strong foundation and growth map.
Email Marketing: Sending email newsletters or promotional emails to subscribers to generate awareness about the app. If done without being too salesy this method will have one of the best ROI.
App Referral Marketing: incentivizing existing users to refer new users to download and use the app. This is often a little to costly and cringey but many apps uses this method to start truly leveraging their downloads. What's best, it's also pretty good early days when your app has 100 users or so.
Event Marketing: Participating in relevant events, conferences, and tradeshows to promote the app and build brand awareness. I am a little skeptical about this but see many marketers attending events after events and try hard ot promote their apps that way.
Public Relations: Pitching app stories to relevant media outlets to generate press coverage and increase visibility. Good luck with this. One of the most painful ways to market your app!
Guest Blogging: Writing and publishing guest posts on relevant blogs or websites to drive traffic and awareness to the app. Cheap and cheerful. As long as you have a compelling story to tell and a good platform to publish, why not?
User Engagement Campaigns: Running in-app campaigns to keep users engaged and increase retention rates. If anything, this is a must to have. But, a big issue here. Don't spam! Don't piss your core users off. Always let them choose whether to receive your not so necessary pings.
User Reviews and Ratings: Encouraging users to leave positive reviews and ratings on the app stores to improve visibility and credibility. Do this from day 1. Then go ahead and respond each one of them. Pay as much attention as possible. Not just a marketing tactic but also a perfect way to build a brand.
Affiliate Marketing: Partnering with relevant affiliates to promote the app in exchange for a commission on downloads or purchases.I would start looking into affiliate marketing once I hit over 1k actives. Expanding your reach via affiliates that are a good fit to your app's market could be a killer way to push the boundaries.
App Store Optimization Tools: Using third-party tools and services to improve ASO and track app performance metrics. There are many tools available out there. If you are feeling stuck and exploring better ways to optimize, take a look at them.
Cross-Promotion: Promoting the app on other apps owned by the same developer or within a network of apps with similar audiences. This could also expand to building an alliance. Supportive apps could go like bread and butter. Help others to win while you win too.
App Localization: Translating the app into different languages and localizing it to reach new markets. An APP doesn't have to be in English. So many people speak other languages. If you are expanding globally and trying to build an international reach, don't just translate, localize it!
SMS Marketing: Sending promotional text messages to users to generate downloads and increase retention. Don't just sell it, suggest the app for a better experience.
Push Notifications: Sending push notifications to users to promote new features, updates, or special offers. Or maybe don't. Push notifications, unless sending a really important one, is utter garbage. If you are going to use it, look into finding better ways to do it. Some might prefer being a little social (ie adding humour)
In-App Advertising: Displaying ads within the app to generate revenue and cross-promote. Another great way to spend the bucks for leads.

Gamification tactics

Points: awarding points for specific actions, such as making a purchase, completing a survey, or referring a friend. People love seeing how many points they have and also good to remind them what helped them gain points.
Badges: awarding digital badges or trophies for achievements or reaching certain milestones. Points on their own is probably pointless, sorry the pun! Turn them into badges and they become a tad better.
Leaderboards: creating a ranking system that displays the top performers or most active users. By nature we humans are competitive. Most people out there won't care too much about it but there is a core group of users who secretly or openly compete and want to be on top 10.
Levels: dividing a task or process into smaller, manageable stages that users can progress through. Completing tasks to train, provide achievements etc is better structured with levels. Use them and build a long path but never make it look like an endless journey.
Challenges: setting up challenges or competitions that encourage users to compete against each other. It's great to let some people win. Although losing sucks if when losing they also win something, you are on a roller. Competition brings improvement and satisfaction.
Rewards: offering incentives or prizes for completing certain actions or reaching specific goals. At the end of the day, we need rewards. Otherwise whole system could be rather dry and useless. Factor in ways to rewards your users.
Progress bars: showing users their progress towards completing a task or reaching a goal. So for reaching badges, completing levels, unlocking new missions, a progress bar works like a charm. Use it but make sure it moves. You know what I mean?
Virtual currency: using a virtual currency or points system to reward users for their actions and incentivize certain behaviours. This could particularly fit well with platforms that have some transactional ecosystem. For instance, you can build a virtual currency within a game that allows users to exchange the virtual currency. Gamification could make generating virtual currency faster and would fit like a glove into your system.
Quests: creating a storyline or mission that users can follow, with rewards for completing each step. I love creating quests, probably comes from my gaming background. Quests can be applied to almost any business where gamification is implemented.
Avatars: allowing users to create their own virtual persona or avatar and customise it as they complete tasks or progress through levels. Without visuals we lack taste in gamification. Avatars are one of the first things that come to mind to resolve this issue. They are not just an image though. It could be a status symbol, differantiator, branding element and so much more.
Feedback and notifications: providing feedback and notifications to users to keep them engaged and informed about their progress. Gamification would not be complete with complete feedback and notification module being in place. The more cleverly you position your feedbacks the better your system will flow.
Social sharing: allowing & encouraging users to share their progress and achievements on social media platforms. If your users like it then they will want to share. Adding social share buttons is not the only thing to do here. Explore creative ways to encourage social shares and you can truly leverage your marketing.

Affiliate marketing types

Pay Per Sale (PPS): Affiliate earns a commission for each sale that is generated through their unique affiliate link.
Pay Per Click (PPC): Affiliates earn a commission for every click they generate on their unique affiliate link. The commission is usually lower than PPS, but for high traffic sites it is a good option.
Pay Per Lead (PPL): Affiliates earn for each lead or sign-up they generate through their unique affiliate link. The lead could be anything from filling out a form to subscribing to a service.
Cost Per Action (CPA): Affiliates earn for specific actions that are completed by the customer(s) they referred. Just like the PPL I've written above this could be anything from filling out a form to making a purchase.
Cost Per Mile (CPM): Affiliates earn a commission for every 1,000 impressions generated through their unique affiliate link. This is usually used in display advertising so not the best fit for affiliate marketing but I've made some deals on CPM before and some affiliates like to explore the CPM too.
Two-Tier Affiliate Marketing: Affiliates earn commissions not only for their own sales but also for the sales made by the affiliates they refer to the program. Sounds like a pyramid scheme right? Well, the context matters a lot so I will leave it here.
Multi-Level Marketing (MLM): Affiliates earn commissions for both their own sales and the sales made by the affiliates they refer, as well as the affiliates referred by those affiliates, and so on. MLM is even more controversial and yep if anything this is very very likely to be a pyramid scheme. I would ignore this model to be on the safe side.
Influencer Marketing: Affiliate marketing involves influencers promoting products or services to their audience on social media or other platforms. The influencers receive a commission for each sale generated through their unique affiliate link. You often see an influencer plugging in a product to their content and offering a temporary discount for anyone signs up. Yes, that's it.
Content Marketing: This involves creating and sharing content (such as blog posts or videos) that promote products or services. The affiliate could earn a commission for each sale generated through their unique affiliate link included in the content. Also, promoter could be paying the affiliate a set fee for the inclusion. If for instance the affiliate is the owner of a newsletter that goes out to 100k subscribers every day, for one email newsletter inclusion the affiliate could charge a set fee of let's say £2000.
Coupon Affiliate Marketing: Affiliates promote products or services by offering coupons or discounts to their audience. The affiliate earns a commission for each sale generated through their unique coupon code. This is often combined with a few of the models I listed above. So it's not necessarily one size fits all.

Marketing attribution models

Last-click attribution model: This model gives all the credit to the last interaction that a user had with a marketing touchpoint before converting. It's quite popular.
First-click attribution model: This model gives all the credit to the first interaction that a user had with a marketing touchpoint before converting.
Linear attribution model: This model assigns equal credit to all the interactions that a user had with a marketing touchpoint before converting. If you are not very sure which one to pick, this model is often the safest one to go for.
Time decay attribution model: This model gives more credit to the interactions that happened closer in time to the conversion event.
U-shaped attribution model: This model assigns 40% of the credit to the first and last touchpoints and divides the remaining 20% among the intermediate touchpoints.
W-shaped attribution model: This model assigns 30% of the credit to the first and last touchpoints and divides the remaining 40% among the intermediate touchpoints.
Full-path attribution model: This model considers all touchpoints that a user interacts with before converting and assigns credit accordingly.
Algorithmic attribution model: This model uses machine learning algorithms to determine the weightage of each touchpoint based on historical data.
Custom attribution model: This model is a combination of different attribution models, customized to suit the needs of a specific business.

Marketing frameworks

The 4 Ps of Marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion)
SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Porter's Five Forces (Threat of New Entrants, Bargaining Power of Buyers, Bargaining Power of Suppliers, Threat of Substitutes, Industry Rivalry)
The Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence)
The Value Proposition Canvas (Customer Jobs, Pains, Gains, Value Map)
The Customer Journey Map (Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, Advocacy)
The Buyer Persona Framework (Demographics, Psychographics, Behaviors, Pain Points, Goals)
The BCG Matrix (Boston Consulting Group) (Stars, Cash Cows, Question Marks, Dogs)
The Ansoff Matrix (Market Penetration, Market Development, Product Development, Diversification)
The RACE Framework (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage)
The Blue Ocean Strategy Framework (Value Innovation, Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, Create)
The Lean Canvas (Problem, Solution, Key Metrics, Unique Value Proposition, Unfair Advantage, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure, Revenue Streams)
The Brand Equity Model (Brand Loyalty, Brand Awareness, Perceived Quality, Brand Associations)
The 5 C's of Marketing (Company, Customers, Competitors, Collaborators, Climate)

Demographics data points for defining target customers

Age
Gender
Income
Education
Occupation
Marital status
Family size
Ethnicity
Geographic location
Religion
Language
Sexual orientation
Disability status
Home ownership
Car ownership
Social class
Generation (such as Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Z)
Lifestyle
Hobbies and interests
Buying behavior
Brand preferences
Experience level
Technological abilities
Frustration level
Emotions & emotional status
Buying reason(s)

User journey mapping

User persona: a fictional character that represents the target user of a product or service. You come up with a name, an image and there you go :)
Touchpoints: the points of contact between the user and the product or service.Think of it as each move a person will take before let's say purchasing a product.
Pain points: the problems or frustrations experienced by the user while interacting with the product or service. Such as clicking on a button and nothing happens then the customer clicks again and it works. So much drama!
Goals: the objectives or outcomes that the user hopes to achieve through the product or service. It's not just you as a marketer who will have a goal but your user also has one if not many.
User flow: the sequence of steps a user takes to accomplish a specific task or goal. So let's say from reading a blog post to checking the product page and making a purchase there are a few different routes the user can take. That's what you analyse under this section.
Contextual inquiry: more like a research method which involves observing users in their natural environment (not like watching them sitting on their sofas via CCTV, no) to understand their behaviors and needs.
Empathy mapping: a visual analysis that helps to understand the user's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Feelings could often be overlooked and missed which is not great for a marketer. We want to understand the why of our success or failure. Feelings/behaviours are often the reason why a purchase doesn't happen.
Storyboarding: a cool way to do a visual representation for the user journey in a series of images or sketches. I often find this to stand out the most from a journey mapping session as visuals stick to our heads better when there is a story.
Service blueprint: it might be an overkill for many while conducting a user journey mapping but this is about creating a diagram that illustrates the process of delivering a service, including the user journey, supporting processes, and service components.
Customer experience: printing an overall experience a customer has with a product or service, including all touchpoints and interactions. I prefer adding various feedback received from customers to enhance the delivery of the report.
Customer journey: put it simply, the series of interactions a customer has with a brand or product over time.
Persona spectrum: this could get overwhelming so I prefer to conduct the spectrum with a reasonable range of user personas that represent the diversity of users who interact with a product or service.
Journey stages: it's the phases of the user journey, such as awareness, consideration, purchase, and post-purchase. You could also apply another framework but still conduct a journey stage review.
Metrics: every report needs metrics so that it can be quantifiable. In order to assess the success of the user journey, such as conversion rates, customer satisfaction, and retention rates, upsell and x-sell rates you will need several metrics to work on.
Iteration: It's the process of refining and improving the user journey through repeated testing and feedback.

There is quite a bit of repetation and duplication above. However the list is to be used as a glossary & idea list when working on user journey mapping. Depending on the complexity of the requirements of user journey mapping, from the list you could pick a simplified approach or a more detailed one as you like.

Competitor research data points

Product and service offerings: What products and services do your competitors offer, and how do they compare to your own? Come up with unified categories for each and list side by side to compare.
Pricing strategy: How do your competitors price their products and services, and how does this compare to your own pricing strategy? Also work on a personal score to assign by the book to give your critique whether their product has better price/value ratio or yours.
Distribution channels: Where do your competitors sell their products or services, and how do they distribute them? Capture the size of their distro channels as well which really helps understand who dominates the market better.
Target market: Who are your competitors targeting with their marketing efforts, and how does this compare to your own target market? If you are both operating in the same market, what differences you see between you and your competitor?
Brand reputation: What is the reputation of your competitors' brands, and how does this compare to your own brand reputation? Look for both positive and negatives.
Marketing and advertising strategy: How do your competitors promote their products or services, and what channels do they use? Also valuable to find past data to see if your competitor tried and stopped an advertising tactic that did not work for them.
Website and online presence: What is the quality of your competitors' websites, and how active are they on social media? Lots of data can be captured here. Overall, you can compare traffic, page load times, touchpoints from start to purchase and more to see if your website is better or not.
Customer reviews: What are customers saying about your competitors' products or services, and how does this compare to feedback about your own offerings? Categorise reviews into relevant groups to compare the matching types side by side. Data science teams can really help with this.
Sales and revenue: What is the size and growth rate of your competitors' businesses, and how does this compare to your own sales and revenue figures? What's driving their sales?
Industry trends: What are the current trends and challenges in your industry, and how are your competitors responding to these changes? You can often find clues in social media for that. Monitor their activity on an ongoing basis and set alerts to be notified in good time.

Qualitative marketing research data points

Consumer opinions and attitudes towards a product, brand or service.
Perceptions of product quality, reliability, and trustworthiness.
Usage patterns, including how often and why consumers use a product or service.
Emotional reactions to advertising and marketing messages.
Consumer expectations of a product or service.
Consumer beliefs and values related to a product or service.
Insights into consumer decision-making processes.
Feedback on product design, packaging, and pricing.
Analysis of customer experience and satisfaction levels.
Understanding of consumer lifestyles and demographics.

Quantitative marketing research data points

Sales data, including revenue, units sold, and profit margins.
Market share data, including the percentage of the market held by a specific product or brand.
Customer demographics, such as age, gender, income, education, and occupation.
Customer behavior, including purchasing patterns, frequency, and volume.
Customer satisfaction ratings, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer loyalty metrics.
Advertising metrics, such as reach, frequency, and effectiveness.
Website traffic data, including pageviews, bounce rates, and conversion rates.
Social media engagement data, such as likes, shares, and comments.
Customer feedback data, including ratings and reviews.
Brand awareness and perception data, including awareness levels, brand associations, and customer perceptions of brand values. (particularly useful if you run brand awareness reports every 6 months)

Identifying pain points of customers

Customer Interviews: Conducting interviews with your customers to understand their needs, wants, and challenges can help you identify their pain points. So many ways to do it. Over the phone, video call, in person, live chat, social media etc...
Customer Surveys: Sending out surveys to your customers can help you collect data on their pain points and preferences. Send via email, sms, social media, by post, end of a video etc...
Online Analytics: Analyzing your website analytics can help you identify areas where customers are dropping off or encountering problems. Look for repeat actions and map the journeys.
Social Listening: Monitoring social media conversations and mentions of your brand can help you identify pain points and areas for improvement. This also helps with brand reputation monitoring.
Sales Data Analysis: Analyzing sales data can help you identify patterns and trends that may indicate pain points. You will ofcourse need to match this with other data sets to draw conclusions.
Customer Support Data Analysis: Analyzing customer support data can help you identify common issues or complaints. CS data is a goldmine. So much goes to waste. Take your time and build a good flow of data from CS. ALso make sure you value complaints you receive.
Competitor Analysis: Analyzing your competitors' marketing strategies can help you identify areas where you can differentiate and address customer pain points. Obviously competitors are working on similar tasks at the same time. Their actions will reveal their findings. Why not find the influence you are looking for?
Persona Development: Developing buyer personas can help you understand the pain points and challenges of your target audience. Evolve the personas you developed earlier by feeding the pain points you collect.
Journey Mapping: Mapping out the customer journey can help you identify pain points and areas where customers may be struggling. (ps: I've compiled an extensive list of journey mapping actions in my guides.)
A/B Testing: Testing different marketing strategies can help you identify which strategies are most effective in addressing customer pain points. I often get carried away with this and also A/B/C multivariate tests are often a great investment of your time, use it.

Marketing insights

Customer demographics: Demographics data sets can take you down the rabbit hole. For a good starter understand the age, gender, location, income, and other top relevant characteristics of your target audience.
Customer behavior: Analyze the behavior of your customers, such as purchase patterns, product usage, and engagement with your brand. Don't skip the frustration pattern in particular.
Competition analysis: Research your competitors and understand their strengths, weaknesses, and marketing strategies. A SWOT analysis would help a lot. Do it every 6 months.
Marketing channels: Evaluate the effectiveness of different marketing channels, such as social media, email marketing, and advertising. This can be automated as there are lots of tools out there that do the work for you.
Content performance: Measure the performance of your content marketing efforts, such as blog posts, videos, and social media updates. For a starter, having goals in mind gives a good target to measure against so your performance insights become meaningful.
Brand perception: Understand how your target audience perceives your brand and identify opportunities to improve your brand image.
Sales funnel analysis: Track the conversion rates at each stage of your sales funnel and identify areas for improvement. If possible, use a tool that identifies a problem as your potential customer encounters and reports. Such as, triggering 404 pages during the sales path.
Marketing automation: Implement marketing automation tools to streamline your marketing processes and improve efficiency. Some tools come as a complete package. Others are more tailored for specific needs. The good thing is, the market is full of them!
Data analytics: Utilize data analytics tools to extract insights from customer data and improve your marketing strategy. I never trust one tool to analyse. For instance GA is super popular but it has its limits and the ever growing privacy concerns and missing data made me look at analytics tools that report on server side tracking and more.
Customer feedback: Collect feedback from your customers through surveys, reviews, and other channels to understand their needs and preferences. One of the best qualitative marketing insight collecting tactic is feedbacks. Particularly if you ask the same question over a period of time and see the change in patterns.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Keep an eye on your websites SEO rankings. Tools such as Ahrefs help track performance changes and report on detailed marketing insights automatically which would save huge amount of time.
Personalisation: Use customer data to personalize your marketing messages and improve engagement with your audience. To do this, look at your insights and come up with a plan for personalization. Once done, track how persanlization affects your marketing and optimise as required.
Mobile optimisation: Ensure that your website and marketing materials are optimized for mobile devices, as more people are accessing the internet on their smartphones. Many tracking and analytics software allow reporting for mobile visitors. It's super valuable to see how mobile users are using your website. While working most of us don't use mobile so it's often a weak part of our business as we lack the ability to truly see it like our users. Collecting data and insights from mobile users helps pin point the issues.
Social media listening: Monitor social media channels for mentions of your brand and use the insights to improve your social media strategy.
Influencer marketing: Identify influential people in your industry and leverage their reach to increase brand awareness and credibility.

Brand reputation management techniques

Online monitoring: Make sure to monitor online mentions of the brand on social media, blogs, forums, review sites, and other online platforms. I also set google alerts to receive daily.
Reputation repair: There will be plenty of negativity and not everything will need addressing. However, some will need attention. Read reviews, accept and own your mistakes. Offer help and make sure you stay on track repairing your reputation. It's like a car, service it regularly and you can go further.
Crisis management: Always good to have a plan for crisis times. Why? Let it happen once and be unprepared and you will know why. There will be downtime, negative PR, major data breaches and more. If you know how to act when the worst happens, you will have a higher chance of recovery from a disaster.
Social media management: Managing the brand's social media accounts is not all about scheduling posts and asking for likes. There will be trolls, negative comments, terrible reviews, misinformation and more. Plan how to deal with these and be consistent.
Influencer marketing: Many brands try hard and fail miserably with influencer marketing to help them gain brand reputation. I think this has to come naturally. Find a great fit and float the idea with the influencer. If there is a good synergy, go for it.
Content marketing: Creating and sharing valuable content that promotes the brand and its values, such as blog posts, infographics, videos, whitepapers etc will really help establish authority in your space. That should work to help build a reputable brand from the content point of view. You could also go the extra mile and be more of a giver to help make your customers feel better. Give first, not seek.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Most people think of SEO as rank on Google and drive traffic. No, it's not just that. SEO also became a reputation channel. It's good to have an optimised site that ranks and stands out from the crowd.
Brand advocacy: Turning visitors into customers, then customers into clients and clients into brand advocates is the ultimate funnel we seek for as marketers. You will then keep a close eye on your brand advocates and engage with them regularly. They will be there for you when you need help and the more brand advocates you have the less likely tou will even need help.
Brand identity management: Working on gazillion of projects could lead to forgetting who we are. Brand has an identity but it's easily forgotten. Most famous brands care about their identity more than their revenue they generated from a product. Establish who you are and make sure nothing hurts it. (If you are a premium brand and have a certain appeal, turning into a troll of a company on social media will give mixes signals)

Benefits of field marketing

Increased brand awareness: Field marketing can help increase the visibility of your brand by reaching out to potential customers in-person, allowing them to experience your products or services first-hand.
Targeted approach: Field marketing allows you to specifically target your ideal customer base and reach out to them in a personalised manner. This can lead to a higher conversion rate and better ROI.
Direct feedback: Interacting with customers directly in the field can provide valuable feedback on your products, services, and brand image. This feedback can be used to improve your business strategy and customer experience.
Building relationships: Field marketing allows you to build personal relationships with potential customers, which can lead to increased loyalty and repeat business.
Cost-effective: Compared to other marketing channels, field marketing can be a cost-effective way to reach out to your target audience. You can focus your efforts on specific locations or events, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Versatility: Field marketing can be tailored to suit different goals and objectives, whether you are looking to generate leads, increase sales, or improve brand awareness.
Immediate impact: Field marketing can have an immediate impact on your business by generating leads and sales on the spot.
Flexibility: Field marketing can be adapted quickly to changing circumstances or business needs, allowing you to stay agile and responsive to market conditions.
Competitive advantage: Field marketing can provide a competitive advantage by allowing you to stand out from your competitors and reach potential customers in a unique and memorable way.
Brand advocacy: By engaging with customers in the field, you can turn them into brand advocates who will spread the word about your products or services to their friends and family.

Field marketing types

Event marketing: Promote your brand or products at a specific event or venue, such as a trade show, exhibition, or festival. It's also a great for networking which could open up new doors.
Product sampling: Offer free samples of your products to potential customers in order to encourage them to try them and potentially make a purchase.
Experiential marketing: Create a unique and immersive brand experience for customers, often through interactive installations or activities.
Guerilla marketing: Use unconventional or unexpected tactics to reach out to potential customers, such as flash mobs, street art, or stunts.
Door-to-door marketing: Go door-to-door to promote your brand or products directly to potential customers in their homes.
In-store demonstrations: Set up a demonstration of your products or services in a retail store or other physical location.
Field sales: Send sales representatives out into the field to sell your products or services directly to potential customers.
Mystery shopping: Send undercover shoppers to evaluate the customer experience at your own or competitors' locations.
Brand ambassadors: Hire representatives to promote your brand and products to potential customers in-person, often at events or in-store demonstrations.
Roadshows: Take your brand or products on tour to different locations or events in order to reach a wider audience.

Branding

Brand identity: The visual representation of your brand, including logos, typography, colour palette, and imagery.
Brand messaging: The words and phrases used to describe your brand, including your brand promise, tagline, and mission statement.
Brand personality: The human traits and characteristics associated with your brand, such as friendliness, innovation, or reliability. Brands often use social media to put this into practice.
Target audience: The specific group of people you want to reach and engage with your brand, including their age, gender, interests, and behaviours. WHo should be buying your stuff?
Competitive analysis: An examination of your competitors’ branding strategies, including their strengths, weaknesses, and unique selling points. Establishing your position clearly and knowing where you stand against competition is actually a good branding exercise.
Brand positioning: Speaking of positioning above, the unique space your brand occupies in the market, including how you differentiate yourself from competitors.
Brand awareness: The level of recognition and familiarity that people have with your brand.
Brand equity: The value and loyalty that your brand holds in the minds of your customers.
Brand experience: The overall impression and feelings that people have when interacting with your brand, including your products, customer service, and marketing communications.
Brand consistency: The degree to which all of your branding elements are aligned and consistent across all channels and touchpoints.
Brand reputation: The perceptions and opinions that people hold about your brand, including your reputation for quality, reliability, and customer service.
Brand loyalty: The degree to which customers continue to choose your brand over competitors, and how likely they are to recommend your brand to others.
Brand partnerships: Collaborations with other brands or organisations that can help to strengthen your brand and reach new audiences.
Brand extensions: The expansion of your brand into new product categories, services, or markets.
Brand guidelines: A set of rules and guidelines that govern how your brand is presented and used across all channels and touchpoints.

Marketing orientation types

Production orientation
Product orientation
Sales orientation
Market orientation
Societal orientation

Email marketing campaigns

Newsletter Campaigns
Promotional Campaigns
Welcome Campaigns
Abandoned Cart Campaigns
Post-Purchase Campaigns
Re-Engagement Campaigns
Birthday Campaigns
Seasonal Campaigns
Event Invitation Campaigns
Survey Campaigns
Cross-Sell Campaigns
Upsell Campaigns
Referral Campaigns
Social Media Campaigns
Lead Nurturing Campaigns
Product Launch Campaigns
Educational Campaigns
Milestone Campaigns
Feedback Campaigns
Loyalty Campaigns

SWOT analysis

Strengths:

What does the organisation do well?
What advantages does it have over competitors?
What resources does it have that are valuable and unique?
What is its competitive edge?

Weaknesses:

What areas does the organisation need to improve?
What disadvantages does it have compared to competitors?
What resources does it lack?
What obstacles does it face?

Opportunities:

What external factors could the organisation take advantage of?
What emerging trends could it benefit from?
What new markets could it enter?
What partnerships or collaborations could it pursue?

Threats:

What external factors could negatively affect the organisation?
What are the current or potential competitors doing?
What regulatory or legal changes could impact the organisation?
What economic or political factors could affect the organisation?

Final words

I hope this cheat sheet helps you find the influence you need for marketing. If it was helpful, please consider mentioning it on a post, blog article, social media share etc. Crediting the author is a great way to show gratitude and I very much appreciate it. Also, if you would like to follow me, I am on Linkedin

Thank you.

Traffic acquisition channels