Intent is what brands want to do, but it’s possible they're not accomplishing that goal. Impact is the success of a business in terms of its marketing goals. Understanding these two marketing aspects is an important step in being successful. Know your intent, establish set goals, study and track your impact, and evaluate, are you reaching those goals?

What is Intent?

The goal of marketing is centered around intent. If you don’t know what you want to achieve, there’s no way of knowing how successful your efforts will be.

Make sure you identify your intent before executing any type of marketing strategy. A lack of intent means you're wasting time and money on your marketing strategy without understanding your purpose. Clearly identify what it is that you want to achieve by setting goals.

To avoid confusion among consumers while still achieving results for your marketing campaign, define your different goals and the metrics you will use to measure them. With this in place, the audience will be able to understand where they fit into the process. This in turn leads them to brand engagement.

Answer these two questions: What is your mission statement? What do you hope to do or inspire?

What's the Difference?

Marketers may have many goals in mind when they set out to create an effective marketing campaign.

Take for example, a clothing brand who wants their customers to think of them if they need some new clothes; to be a part of their life. Marketers for the company would use strategies like emailing and advertising online in order to bring people in. Yet what happens when the customer receives the message and they can't or won't purchase the clothes?

Maybe their skin doesn’t match the fabric, the garments are too expensive, or they need a different size than what is offered in the store.

Marketers want their desired audience to engage with them. To do this, they need to look closely at intent versus the actual effect that their messages have on potential customers. There may also be other factors at hand, like the brand's level of experience or consumer sentiment.

There are countless strategies for how to create a successful marketing campaign, but there is one thing that should always be considered - the impact it will have on customers.

This means looking at analytics data or researching customer sentiment before starting any campaign. If you skip this step, your message could backfire and hurt your brand's reputation instead of helping it grow.

How to Create an Impact

The goal of marketing is to create an impact.

In today's consumer-driven society, it is essential to have an emotional connection with the customers you are trying to reach. With so many ads reaching eyes on Facebook, Google and other platforms, it's difficult to stand out.

That's why emotional connections are so important.

To create them, share stories about what your company has achieved or the people who work for you. Create content on Facebook or other social media platforms that resonates with potential customers on a personal level.

Marketing should be a dialogue and outreach rather than an advertising campaign because the customer wants something tangible from the business interaction.

In advertising, marketers often spend money on commercials that run during primetime TV shows or billboards at sporting events because they want as many eyes as possible seeing those ads.

The intent behind these campaigns might seem noble - but they are often less impactful than anticipated. This can be due to factors like poor brand recognition, the quality of ad placement in primetime TV shows vs. low-quality commercials during a show with lower viewership or viewers simply not relating to the content.

Create a Strong Brand

Creating a strong brand is important because it can help solidify your intention. This can be achieved through intentional messaging.

To begin, determine if you have a message that matches what you want to achieve with your marketing campaign. If the goal is promoting, consider both social media where people can share and like content without even speaking to each other, and interactive events that allow for face-to-face engagement while organizers share information about products and services.

Brands need to take note of whether their customers' needs have been fulfilled and if their marketing tactics match customer desires. Doing this will show that a company has taken the time necessary to understand its audience's wants and needs. This builds trust between customers and the brand.

Evaluate

Evaluate who is receiving the message, where they are located, and when they will see it.

This will give you a better understanding of the impact of your messages, which should align with the intent. Maybe the intention is to get a customer through the door, but if people receive the message on their phone while at work, then maybe that message is not reaching its intended audience and should be reconsidered.

Social Media with Impact

If you have a brand new service or product, define and target the users who want that solution in their life. Think about what will make them stand out from your competitors and remember this: it's not always money!

If you aren't getting traction with your marketing campaign, try new strategies. Communicate with your customers to keep them up-to-date on the latest happenings and build relationships that will last for years.

Building a relationship with your customers may not be your intention, but it's certainly impactful!

Remember that intention in marketing is necessary but on its own it is not always enough. You can do everything right on paper and still fail in execution because there are many factors outside of what you can control.

Companies set out goals and milestones at the beginning of the year based on this idea; they understand the intent must be coupled with actionable milestones that will lead to real impact.

Examples of Intentional Marketing Techniques

A company's brand image is sometimes more important than the product itself.

Successful companies use intentional techniques like advertising, branding, and public relations to create a positive impact. Companies want to be noticed by as many people as possible and tie their products with who they are. For example:

Nike has increased their revenue by $12 billion in less than 20 years because they've marketed themselves as a brand fueled with innovation and creativity through cutting-edge design techniques.

When they come out with new products, they're not only expanding their brand but generating a buzz among consumers as well. Nike even uses social media outlets like Twitter as a means to stay up to date on what's happening in pop culture so they can quickly adopt these trends into their product designs.

GE Healthcare Systems is able to quickly put out breakthrough technologies because they collaborate with different brands. This led them to be recognized globally for excellence in healthcare engineering services.

Google offers free products like Gmail and Chrome for download and even provides helpful tutorials on YouTube to show users how they can use the product. As a result of this innovative approach, it has become one of the largest companies ever built with an estimated net worth of $125 billion - built on a free product.

In order for this innovative approach to work, there needs to be something in return on both ends, or else neither side will benefit.

Tips

Before I conclude, I'd like to share some tips on implementing intent and impact in your own marketing.

• When it comes to intent, be clear about the goals of your marketing. If you're unclear or vague, customers will not respond.
• When you're clear about what your goals are for marketing, customers will react positively because they know what to expect from your brand and how that will benefit them.
• Think critically and really focus on what is going to make a difference in achieving those goals. And when doing so, think not just from a brand perspective but also from a customer experience point of view as well.
• Remember that there are always unintended effects or outcomes that may occur once something has been done, so take care with how much time you spend following up after a product's initial launch. Often, we don't see these things coming for years down the road!
• Try being proactive instead of reactive - while some people might find this easier said than done, it's a good way to be profitable in the long run.

Conclusion

Creating a great marketing campaign for your business is not easy. It takes time and careful consideration to make sure that you are incorporating the right message, tone, and strategy into each aspect of your marketing efforts. In order to create an impactful marketing plan, it’s important to look at how people react to both intent (what they say) and impact (how they feel).

When creating any type of communication with customers or prospects it’s critical to consider their feelings as well as what they actually say. This will give us insight into where the focus of our messaging should be in order to have the most effective outcome – whether we want more sales leads or increased brand awareness. If you need help developing a strong branding message, contact us today!