Best Marketing Tips
Marketing is a critical component of any company‘s long-term success, and it’s always changing. This can make it difficult to keep up with the latest strategies marketing leaders are using to stay ahead.
The most effective marketers know how to use techniques to connect and convert prospects — but you shouldn’t need to reinvent the wheel to do so.
1. Never forget inbound marketing: Inbound marketing centers around meeting consumers on the channels they’re already on. Employing the strategy follows the “attract, delight, engage” model, helping you create content tailored to your different audience segments at their respective place in the buyer’s journey.
2. Integrate inbound marketing tactics to build an online community and empower your employees: By encouraging your team to document and share their processes and customer interactions, you not only see a significant increase in traffic but also enhanced internal understanding and communication.
This practice goes beyond mere marketing tactics; it‘s about embedding these strategies into your cultural DNA. It empowers your staff, gives them deeper insights into your operations, and significantly boosts your online presence.
By transforming these authentic experiences into engaging content for blogs, social media, and press releases, you’re not just attracting an audience — you’re building a community around the brand. This holistic approach has been a game-changer in how to connect with your customers and position yourselves in the industry.
3. Double-down on understanding where your audience spends their time: You need to identify how someone is going to find you. Therefore, my top tip is to double-down on understanding your audience and where they spend their time.
Digital channels are saturated, and content gets washed away quickly. Using a multichannel approach that surrounds your target is essential. Utilize digital alongside traditional mediums such as print, events, and direct mail to reach your target through a combination of inbound and outbound methods.
4. Be active on LinkedIn:Not just using your company’s LinkedIn account, but your personal profile and the personal profiles of company leaders, as well.
Post regularly (but not too much) and cross-promote with your company, colleagues, and partners to help build brand awareness.
According to LinkedIn, B2B marketers rate LinkedIn as the most effective platform for content marketing, with 94% using it to distribute content.
5. Don’t just put out fluff content – put out content that educates your audience and answers their questions thoroughly: A top tip for inbound marketing success — regardless of what industry your company is in — is to answer the questions that your audience is asking, even if they’re not questions that anyone in your industry really wants to answer.
That means providing content on things like pros and cons, comparisons with competitors, pricing, issues, alternatives, industry education, product education, expectations, and more. That is the kind of content that converts.
The companies that will continue to be successful with inbound marketing are the ones that don‘t just put out fluff content (and there is A LOT of fluff content out there). You need to put out valuable content that helps to educate your audience — even around topics that your industry avoids.
6. Collect as much information about your ideal buyer as you can: Inbound marketing is more than just a single tactic, strategy, or channel. It‘s marketing that’s centered around your buyer. So, take a step back from the detail and understand your buyer’s preferences.
A foundational understanding of how your potential customers purchase should underpin everything you do. Without it, you could be wasting marketing efforts and budget on things that don’t engage your audience.
So, to get that crucial information you need to either conduct or obtain qualitative and quantitative insights from your ideal buyer.
7. Focus on the 3 M’s: Market, Message, and Media: Focus on the 3M‘s…your Market, your Message and your Media. Fancy ways of talking about these three pillars of marketing often make some people lose sight of them.
Essentially, they’re the absolute bread and butter of any strategic communications. The big difference today is that your target audience is increasingly difficult to pin down, and it‘s tougher than ever to successfully compete for people’s attention. Plus, media channels frequently feel saturated.
The best way — and the only way — I know to navigate these challenges is to treat your marketing campaigns and activities with the rigorous project management they deserve. From inception and ideation to delivery and evaluation, be bold, persistent, critical, and creative in how you navigate this simple 3M formula.
If you need help with your company’s Marketing, give us a call. We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation!
Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes. Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.Creating a SWOT analysis is an important strategic exercise. It gives everyone involved a clear picture of the environment your business is working in and how it is doing within it.
It’s like a quick therapy or wellness check-up for business. You see where you’re at and perhaps even get to vent a bit before taking steps to improve things.
Business Initiatives: What is your marketing team working on? What do you want to work on?
Document them in your marketing plan under business initiatives. This section sets the tone for the rest of the document and its strategies.
Be careful not to get bogged down by big-picture company initiatives (i.e., opening a new location in X city or recruiting new talent via the Y platform), which you’d normally find in a business plan.
This section should outline the projects specific to marketing. You‘ll also describe those projects’ goals, which will be measured.
Target Market: Next, consider your target market, or the audience you are trying to reach with your marketing messages. This includes your industries and buyer personas.
Competitive Analysis: Your buyer persona has choices regarding solving their problems, the types of solutions they consider, and the providers that can administer those solutions.
A competitive analysis will detail the companies or brands you’re up against, which should be considered in your marketing strategies.
Consider who your competition is, what they do well, and where the gaps are that you can fill.
Market Strategy: I know what you’re thinking, isn’t this whole plan our marketing strategy? And you’re right to a degree, but this section focuses more on outlining what a brand needs established to go to market.
The market strategy in your marketing plan is where all the pieces come together. Your market strategy describes how your company should present itself in the market, keeping in mind its SWOT, competitors, consumers, and goals.
Budget: When I created my first marketing plan, I confused the marketing budget section with my product’s price and other financials.
This section describes how much money the business has allotted for the marketing team to pursue the initiatives and goals outlined in the elements above.
Marketing Channels: Your marketing plan should also include a list of your marketing channels.
While your company might sell the product using certain ad space, your marketing channels are where you’ll publish the content. This content educates your buyers, generates leads, and spreads brand awareness.
A marketing plan is crucial to your greater marketing results, but don’t let this importance intimidate you.
Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just getting started, with all of the marketing plan templates, examples, and advice shared, you have everything you need to set your marketing planning process up for success.
If you need help with getting your marketing updated with the latest trends, give us a call. We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation!
Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes. Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.