Marketing is the glue that binds consumers to companies, creating first impressions and long-lasting relationships. Implementing a marketing strategy will help to make customers aware of the products and services that you have to offer, however, a good marketing strategy will also attract and engage your target audience, influence their buying decision, and position you as marketing pro in your business.
Traditional Marketing VS Digital Marketing – What should I be doing? What are the differences?
The simple answer for this, is both! Both these marketing methods allow exposure and brand awareness. However, when creating your marketing strategy, you should consider who your audience is, and the best way to reach them.
When trying to reach a specific target demographic, digital marketing allows you to target them directly. For example, digital marketing advertising can specify audience groups based on key information that you know about your target customers e.g., location, job type, age range, interests and more. Essentially you choose who sees your adverts. However, if you’re a local business looking to increase your brand awareness and recognition, then traditional marketing may be the way to go. Local billboards, newspaper coverage, radio and even bus stop adverts can help to hit local audiences.
More importantly, a multimedia approach will most likely be favourable for marketing your business. There are pros and cons for all options so taking the time to research and really understand your target audience will help you develop the most effective marketing strategy.
Should I post on Social Media?
It will come as no surprise that we are living in a digital era. Embracing your online presence is a fundamental to reaching your audience and spreading awareness of your brand There are a number of reasons why your business should have a social media presence:
- Community
The most advantageous aspect of social media is the ability to reach new customers, and give them the opportunity to reach you – at any time, from any place. As your brand gets established online, new customers are likely to stumble across your page. When they do, make sure that they can learn more about your products and services in the aim of increasing your customer base. From there, you can build a community of people who favour your brand, are interested in updates or promotions, and want to stay updated.
- Competition
It’s more than likely that your competitors will have their own social media, and targeting the same audience. By making sure that you’re on social media, you have an advantage of reaching this market first or giving yourself the opportunity to show them how you stand out and why they should choose you. By not being on social media only gives your competition a head start, and with that extra exposure to the target market, will quickly leave you behind! We recommend you are innovative to get your social media ahead of the race with creative content, regular posting, and staying up to date with current marketing trends.
- Building brand personality
Having a social media presence gives you an opportunity to get creative but also consistent with your brand. This helps to develop a brand personality and ensure your brand is recognisable, creating a better experience for the viewer as well as making it your own. Your brand personality can also be shown via the content you create, such as having blogs centred around themes in your industry and showcasing your expertise, posting weekly useful content as well as staff and business updates and developments. These factors make your business more personal, making clients and users feel that your organisation is a trusted source.
Do I really need a blog?
Businesses often look past the importance of a blog. A blog serves not only as a source of information regarding projects, company updates and industry topics, but they also work to drive people to your website…amongst many other things!
- Search Engine Optimization
Having a blog with optimised content for search engines is an extremely powerful way to drive qualified traffic to your website, by positioning your website as a relevant answer to your customers’ questions. Using key words and “long-tail” keywords in blogs can help direct customers to your website via a search engine. Long tail keywords are particularly effective in blogs, as they can consist of four words or more, and may relate directly to a user’s question submitted through a search engine.
A blog is also a great way to showcase your expertise and skills within your industry. Writing insightful content that is helpful and valuable for your audience will not only attract them but will make them want to learn more about your business and browse your website for more information. Having a blog also gives a sense of realism to your website, highlights that you are passionate about your work and helps to share updates and information with potential clients and your community. This can make your website feel less robotic and remind users that there are real people behind the cogs of your business!
- Brand visibility
Another important reason to have a blog is to increase your brand awareness. Getting your content in front of an audience of potential customers is a very efficient strategy that may bring great results in the long run. Interesting and good quality content can speak volumes about your business. Branded blogs have the power to boost your reputation and convince potential customers that you’re the best choice. After all, even if your reader doesn’t purchase from you right after reading your blog post, you are adding one more reason that may bring them back again later, this time with the possible intention to buy.
Is email marketing still effective?
Email marketing is a way of directly contacting individual customers with company promotions and updates, industry news and more, why not utilise it!
With email marketing, you can customise your campaigns and create targeted content. Personalisation can be as simple as including a contacts name in the email. In fact, emails that include the first name of the recipient in their subject line have a higher open rate than those that don’t.
Email marketing is also extremely cost-efficient, in terms of both time and materials. You won’t need printers, photoshoots, location fees, or paid ads online! All you need is someone to write the content, and usually this doesn’t take days of planning or a large team of people, be clever with your resources!
Mailers also give you an opportunity to send out surveys or questionnaires that can ultimately benefit your business. These will let you establish areas that your audience feel need more attention, see where your highest rates of customer satisfaction are, and develop FAQ’s for your website with commonly asked questions that you receive. This will generally give you an idea what is working, and what isn’t working, which is a powerful tool when trying to keep your business successful.
How Can You Measure Your Customer Experience?
As previously mentioned, measuring your customer experience is one of the most important actions you can take as it provides you with extremely valuable information to excel your business. Finding out more about customer retention, loyalty, satisfaction, and brand advocacy can help you to forward plan your business strategy.
Other than the use of surveys and questionaries, you can monitor customer experience through analysing the customer journey and identifying friction points, such as areas that would be a possible obstacle or confusion (putting yourself in the shoes of the customer offers great perspective!)
If you have any reviews, through social media, your website, or a separate review platform, it is a good idea to track and monitor to identify if there are any areas in your business that needs improved. Looking at customer retention is also beneficial – for example, purchase frequency, repeat orders, order volume, contract extensions, loyalty program participation, and return rates. This not only allows you to identify your loyal customers, but will help you to understand the products and services that perform well. Finally, a fairly obvious yet crucial method, is to check your social media engagement. Understanding which type of content performs well is essential for your digital marketing strategy and you can do this by tracking interactions, engagement, shares and comments each post receives.
By understanding the frequently most asked questions of 2022 in the marketing world, you can begin to plan your next moves for marketing success and strategise for the upcoming year. If you want to pick our brains even more and find out how your marketing strategy can boost your success, contact us now!
