How to level up your business’s marketing game.
Whether you run a small, home based business or a larger business with employees and a higher demand, one of the most important things to consider is your marketing strategy. Marketing is what brings more customers to your company, which is in turn what allows your company to profit and grow.
With this in mind, here are a few tips to help you level up your marketing strategy and create campaigns that work.
Market Research
Getting customers for your business can be a bit like fishing. When you go fishing, you want to entice the fish to your hook, often using bait and other strategies. You might fish at certain times, in different areas, or with specific techniques, all depending on the type of fish you want to catch. To catch the most fish, you need the right bait and strategy.
People are different and, just like fish, if you want to aim for certain demographics, you need to change your strategy to appeal to them. The first step is to find out which demographics to target. Market research can help you work out who would be interested in your product, as well as how to brand your company to appeal to specific demographics.
Sometimes, this is fairly obvious. If you’re a landscaper, for example, there’s no point in targeting teenagers. But it would be worthwhile to target homeowners, as these people are more likely to require your services.
As well as helping you identify your target audience, market research will help you to better appeal to that audience. It can impact product design, marketing strategies, and other decisions that can improve your likelihood to sell your product to your customers.
Hiring Marketing Experts
Another way to improve your marketing strategy is to outsource your marketing needs to another company or freelancer who has the skills and expertise you don’t. Rather than hiring a full-time marketing employee or trying to effectively market your brand and product without the appropriate skills, you get the best of both worlds.
Marketing experts can work on a short or long-term basis. They will engage in market research, work out the best strategies, and implement them in a campaign. You can also tailor your marketing to specific needs and markets.
For example, if you want to get more repeat customers, you can engage in a marketing campaign that targets people who have used your product or service before. A marketing expert will ensure that these campaigns are far more effective, so you get a lot more bang for your buck.
New and Repeat Customers
Speaking of repeat customers, one of the best ways to improve your marketing strategy is to reach out to these people. Marketing to new customers is useful as it allows you to grow your business and increase demand. However, it’s a lot more expensive and time consuming to win over a brand new customer than it is to encourage an existing customer to return.
You can do this by encouraging loyalty. Send special offers and exclusive deals to people who purchase from your company. One good way to do this is to provide a limited voucher for people who make their first purchase, which encourages them to make another purchase sooner rather than later so they don’t miss out on a deal.
You can also encourage people to spread the word about your business and recommend you to friends and family by offering incentives like discounts or even free products when someone makes a purchase through a referral.
People generally like to deal with companies that they feel familiar with, so make sure to focus on customer service and satisfaction as well as your marketing strategy. Essentially, you don’t want to give people a reason to leave.
Personalised Marketing and Branding
When coming up with a brand and a marketing strategy, one of the most important things you need to do is stand out from the crowd. Give people a reason to buy from you rather than your competitors. This reason might be better quality, cheaper prices, better customer service, or simply because your brand has a personality that they remember.
Think about MacDonald’s or a similar fast food restaurant. Do they sell the best burgers? No. Are they the cheapest burgers? Again, not necessarily. Do they have the best customer service or the fastest service? Not really, as this can depend on the store. So why do people buy MacDonald’s?
Simply put, they know the brand. They recognize the golden arches and they immediately think of a burger. While you might not be a household name, you do want a brand that immediately makes people think of your business.
Use things like personalised posters that are immediately recognizable as being from your company. This way, they will stand out from any other posters in the area so people know where to go.
Social Media and Digital Marketing
There are dozens of different marketing strategies and techniques that could boost your company’s growth, but digital marketing has taken off in a huge way. Whether you run an online business that can provide services to people around the world or you run a local, service-based business, it helps to be online.
A website will make your business seem a lot more professional and it gives people a way to learn more about you and your business. You can even sell things directly from your website or use your website as a portfolio of past work, complete with testimonials and photo examples.
When engaging with digital marketing, make sure to take full advantage of social media marketing. Different platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Linkedin all appeal to different audiences, so make sure to use your market research knowledge to know where to have your online presence.
Use social media to show off your work, tell people about events and business expos, and to tell people about special deals and promotions. You can also use influencer marketing to spread your reach even further.
