The high risk of marketing failure is one of the major reasons small businesses do not embark on digital, print and other marketing campaigns. So how do you ensure your marketing will deliver good returns? The answer lies in ensuring that your marketing campaign is integrated and aligned to all the different aspects of your business.

The three key areas that are critical to consider when planning your marketing are:

1. Customer Acquisition - New customer acquisition activity will form the cornerstone of your marketing plan. If you need to capture new leads and enquiries from potential customers, then you need to look at search engine optimisation (SEO), pay per click (PPC) advertising, social media and content marketing.

2. Customer Retention - Once you have a new customer on board, you need to ensure you keep them as a customer for a long time and even turn them into promoters. Marketing should always be aligned to customer retention by offering loyalty programs, special offers to existing customers and so on.

3. Branding - Your brand is what sets you apart from your competitors and needs to be communicated across all marketing channels. A strong branding strategy will ensure that customers recognise and remember your business, even if they haven't used your services before.