Marketing is a wide field, so many things that you are currently doing may fall within this category without you ever realizing it. Yet, it is vital to step back frequently and think about what marketing activities are affecting your company’s bottom line the most. Here are some key takeaways that you need to consider.
What Makes Marketing Effective?
The first part of effective marketing is to develop a brand story that will make customers care if you succeed or fail. After all, most purchases are made from an emotional appeal, and your brand story needs to play on the emotions of your customers. You need to coordinate your message across different channels while at the same time considering their idiosyncrasies. Your marketing should focus on helping your customers solve their problems and not on selling your product. You can trust automation to show you a lot of different things about your marketing efforts like the number of people that you are reaching and their geographical location. At the same time, you must trust your gut instincts sometimes as you learn more about your customers and their likes and dislikes.
Target Audience
In many cases, your target audience may not be the people that you think are buying your products. For example, you may be selling children’s clothing, but children are not your target audience. It is the mothers and grandmothers who buy the clothing for children to wear. The more that you understand your target audience, the more that you can market directly to them, but that takes a lot of time. You can call customers and ask them to describe themselves. You can also develop a random survey and send it out with orders. While the data collected is vital, it is a time-consuming process. One advantage that franchisees have is that their franchise often does a lot of this research for them. In fact, many franchises will often handle this research themselves, which can be tempting to new investors or business owners who are looking to get started in the industry. In the end, you need to target the people who aren’t yet using your service.
Connect on Social Media
Social media needs to be an important part of your marketing because of the amount of time that people spend engaging with it. It is vital that you post things to Facebook that will drive engagement. The more that someone comments on your posts or hits the like button, the more that you will show up in their feed. Facebook ads are a terrific way to engage with people who fit your demographics but have not done business with your company yet. Quotes, statistics and questions are a great way to get people to engage with your content on Twitter. Since you only get about 140 characters, make sure that you make each one count. Creating valuable content on YouTube is a great way to engage with customers. Since this platform is owned by Alphabet that also owns Google, creating great video content often helps you be found in organic listings.
Network
Your marketing efforts need to include networking as it allows you to interact with people that you do not currently know. There are many ways that you can network. If you are a local business, think about joining a local civic club. Consider organizing an event in your local community. Often sports teams and other youth organizations are looking for sponsors. If you are an online business, then consider guest blogging. Trading blogs with someone else allow you to get introduced to another audience. Additionally, look for opportunities to donate your products or services to a nonprofit in exchange for a plug on their website.
Your Website
Everything you do in marketing should drive people toward your website. You need to make sure that it is hosted on a reliable domain as having your website go down frequently reflects on your trustworthiness as a business. Your website should be responsive and load quickly on many different devices. Writing a blog is a great way to educate your customers to your way of thinking. Make sure that each part of your website includes the latest studies and fill your website with reliable information. Try to incorporate different styles so that your website may be chosen for inclusion in one of Google’s features. Keep your website updated frequently.
Pay-per-Click Advertising
The advantage of marketing with pay-per-click advertising is that you get to choose your budget ahead of time. Then, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. It is vital to use all the space available to connect with viewers in a way that will show them the benefit of using your products. Be sure to incorporate words indicating to create a sense of urgency. Create dedicated landing pages so that people know that they have arrived at the right place after clicking on your ad. Know why you are using pay-per-click marketing allowing you to measure the results. Try different wording to see which ad delivers the best results.
Reviews
People trust online reviews almost as much as if a friend was making a personal recommendation. Therefore, you need to gather as many online reviews as possible. Start by claiming your Google My Business so that when someone enters your business name into a Google search, your reviews instantly appear. Then, claim your business on other review sites so that regardless of where people look, they find your business. Interact with people leaving both positive and negative reviews. Make sure to spend part of your day reading these reviews as your customers often have great ideas that you will want to capitalize on. Additionally, they often will show you where your company needs to improve to turn customers into your biggest fans.
It is important that you are consistent in your marketing efforts. Connecting with your target audience through social media, your website and networking is vital to getting your products and company name in front of people you have not met yet. Additionally, utilize your customers to help you spread the word by making it easy for them to leave reviews. The result will be that your business will thrive.
