Top tips for Social Marketing

Professor Jeff French PhD, MBA, MSc, Dip HE, BA, Cert.Ed. CEO

Strategic Social Marketing Ltd,

Attabara, Conford, Liphook Hants GU307QW, Tel: Mob 0788 389 4802 Land line: 01428 751 4
www.strategic-social-marketing.org jeff.French@strategic-social-marketing.org,

10 TIPS for developing and implementing a social marketing programme

1. Active engagement of individuals and communities: Engaging communities in the development
delivery and evaluation of solutions.
2. Focus on behaviour: Set explicit objectives and tailored interventions to achieving measurable
behavioural goals.
3. Segment and succeed: Use behavioural and psychological data as well as demographic and
service data to segment target audiences
4. Use combined approaches: Use an array of interventions including information, service change,
policy , education, enforcement and design to bring about change
5. Sustained and appropriately funded. Deliver programs that can be sustained over time at an
cost effective level to bring about measurable improvement
6. Integrating action: Develop strong coordination between international, national and local
efforts.
7. Harnessing all possible assets: Develop interventions and co-delivery through a coordinated
coalitions and effort on the part of the public, for profit, and NGO sectors
8. Theory and science informed interventions: Have a clear and consistent model of practice that
is informed by research based theory and best practice.
9. Learning culture: Develop a learning culture that invests in capturing what is learnt from
interventions both positive and negative.
10. Coordination: Ensuring synergy between intervention strategies and broader policy aims and
policy drivers.
 10 TIPS for things to include in your Social Marketing plan:
1. Explicitly define the problem. Set out the challenge (Challenge / Problem Statement) and context (e.g.
SWOT STEP Gap and Competition analysis.
2. Mobilise all your assets Set out the human and financial resources and assets required / available,
including contributions from stakeholders and partners.
3. Target and segment the audience. Select and set out the primary and secondary audience describing
how you have segmented them.
4. Undertake behavioural Analysis Identify key influences, benefits, rewards, blocks and barriers to the
desired behavior
5. Set out clear behavioural goals Set out aims and behavioural objectives for the work, and SMART
objectives for the programme.
6. Define and describe the proposition Set out what you are offering (the core benefits) and how this will
be delivered.
7. Develop and test. Set out how you will pre test or pilot your proposals and how they will be monitored
and evaluated. Also, address any ethical issues, how to coordinate stakeholder and partner’s contributions
to the programme.
8. Implement. Set out the final aims and objectives for the programme. Describe the elements of the action
you will take and the period for this action. Spell out who will do what and when. Set out how you will
monitor and review progress; manage you stakeholders and partners and finally what action you will take
to capitalise on opportunities that arise or manage risks or threats that arise
9. Evaluate . Undertake process, (measuring the efficiency of the programme) , impact evaluation ( short
term effects of the intervention) and outcome evaluation ( the change in behavior that you wish to
measure)
10. Learn and improve. Set out a plan for how you will share your findings with others within your
organization, area and more widely.

4 TIPS about things to avoid

1. Let people think that Social Marketing is just about flashy promotional events, materials
development, mass or new media promotions.
2. Develop material that is driven by what ‘experts ‘think people need.
3. Undertake actions that are not informed by market research or client insight.
4. Run programmes or projects that you don’t evaluate.

Final tip:
Remember the first duty of a Social Marketer is to market Social Marketing to non marketers. We need
to ensure that a marketing mind set is embedded within all our organisations so that they can become
more effective and efficient.

Professo r Jeff French PhD, MBA, MSc, Dip HE, BA, Cert.Ed. CEO Strategic Social Marketing Ltd,
Attabara, Conford, Liphook Hant s GU307QW, Tel: Mob 0788 389 4802 Land line: 01428 751 4
www. strategic-social-marketing.org jeff.French@strategic-social-marketing.org,