Marketing is that eternal struggle that every business grapples with. It can difficult to know just how effective your plans are and make sure you’re hitting your targets. There are a lot of different marketing strategies to use. From properly analysing and planning your efforts to learning from past campaigns. Then there’s a whole slew of different marketing platforms you can use. You probably won’t have the time or funds to maintain all of them. Nor will they all appeal to your market. It’s a world full of variety, but here’s how to narrow it down.
Choosing your strategy
There’s a lot of thought that goes into creating a marketing strategy, including what kind of approach you should even be taking to begin with. Are you trying to establish a brand? Looking to provide information of the service you provide? Perhaps you’re trying to directly make customers. There are lots of ways to appeal to your audience depending on costs and size of your business. Customer segregation will also help you decide on which multiple types of marketing to use. When choosing your strategy, knowing your demographics is key to making effective choices.
Finding your demographics
For almost all products, there’s a high chance that you have a particular infographics, demographic or set of demographics in your customers. These are often the best targets to market to. Broad demographics can be found in look at the generation of your customers. In more depth you can define it in gender, family and economic conditions. For example, if your market is more of a generation Y market, they may be more likely to be reached by online marketing strategies than boomers.
Social media
Regardless of demographic, most people nowadays use social media. It has become one of the most popular methods of marketing simply because of how convenient and far reaching it can be. Constant relevant content and immediate support are just two of the benefits of using a social media strategy. Moreover, unless you pay for outreach, it’s entirely free. That said, social media marketing does take a lot of time. If you’re unwilling to put that time in yourself, it’s most likely you will need to hire someone to do it for you. For this reason, many companies choose to outsource their social media messaging.
SEO
SEO is search engine optimisation. It is how you ensure potential customers will find your services without directly advertising at them. The key is to ensure your website makes consistent use of terms and words that are key to what your customers look for. The more relevant content your website or service has, the higher it is likely to appear in search engines. It doesn’t just go for your website, however. You can apply SEO to social media as well.
Blogging
Blogging is another way, like social media, to provide a stream of content. Consistency is one of the keys of successful marketing. It also allows you to go into more detail than social media. There are less bloggers than social media users, but they tend to be more dedicated. Blog posts are more likely to be seen from other sources, as well. Bloggers will often be open to sharing campaigns and cross-promoting. A relevant, oft-updated blog on your website is another way to hit your SEO goals as well.
Video marketing
One of the key ways of advertising has always been the video advertisement. There are lots of different ways you can use video marketing depending on your budget. Free platforms like social media and your blog will allow you to share it as much as you like. From local television to online marketing on sites like Youtube, there are lots of ways to distribute them. Many companies choose to create themselves. If you have the budget, companies like Suite Spot production services can help you meet a more professional standard. The key to video marketing, above all else, is repetition. Make sure It’s distributing often, not just that your money goes to airing it once on a bigger platform.
Events
Do you work in an industry that works within interest groups or with other businesses? The business event might be the smartest option for you. It allows you to develop specific, detailed marketing and information. It’s also a great way to build image with hospitality and professionalism as its focus. More importantly, it gives you a lot of one-on-one time. This is great for talking to potential customers. It’s also great for networking and building partnerships.
Sales calls
If you’re the kind of business that’s great at building leads and scouting customers, it might be best to target them directly. Sales calls are an art that combine tact with aggressive sales tactics. It has the benefits of getting you one-on-one time with prospective clients but you have to be smart about it. There are many who don’t like being contacted for the purpose of marketing. You need to develop a strategy to keep them on the phone and turn them into customers.
Inbound marketing
Inbound marketing is the tactic of marketing those who are already paying attention. It could be visitors to the site, customers or subscribers to your e-mail. It is a key way of building a repeat customer and an advocate for your brand. Free guides related to your business. Being constantly available for questions and support. These are two examples of great inbound marketing. You’re more likely to sustain yourself as a business if you focus on keeping the customers you have instead of solely finding new ones. For that reason, inbound marketing is something every business should practice at one level or another.
Measuring your impact
Launching an advertising campaign is great but how do you know it’s making the goals you’ve set for it? For videos and social medias, you can use analytics tools. For e-mails, use trackers that tell you how many people have opened it and gone on to click it. Lots of businesses use point-of-sale questions to find out how people learned about their service. Pay more attention to measuring your impact to better learn how to adapt your next strategy.
