Successful business owners/managers will acknowledge the importance of marketing. And most will agree that a solid marketing strategy is the lifeblood of a business.
Marketing. Like or not it’s your lifeblood. A well-developed marketing strategy and blueprint should be a top priority for businesses big and small. It’s what drives the sales and conversions. Re-enforces brand image and builds customers who support your business.
Advertising spend is sharply up since 2015 and specifically concerning digital which accounts for nearly 55% of all the dollars spent in the US.
A few areas worth paying attention to. Increase sales to your existing customers. Your highest return on ad spend is here. Studies show that 60%-70% of the time you are more likely to sell to an existing customer than to a new one. Not hard to figure. They already know you, like you, and trust you. How to reach them? By driving deeper offering up-sells, cross-sells, or even new products or services.
This follows the above paragraph. Today’s Referrals are different from yesteryear’s. It’s a digital world now. Stared reviews, online reviews, social reviews, that’s today’s referral system. Oh, word-of-mouth is still the preferred outlet. 63% of marketers say it’s the most effective. It drives $6 trillion in revenue, 13% of consumer sales. Family and friends drive a 90% plus trust factor in the decision making for a product or service. How do I do this? Offer referral of business incentives. A reward of some kind. And consider making the rewards stack-able, continuous, and prize-worthy along the way. Old school you might say but it still works well if marketed and implemented correctly. Create a social community of loyal followers. This can be done over time and is a very powerful marketing plan.
Video. YouTube is second only to Google for the largest search queries. In the video space, your focus should be on content, not sales pitches. Solve some problems, give some instructions or advice. A huge section of your audience wants to see it, not read about it. Put some thought to your products or services and ask a few questions that your audience is thinking about. Solve, demonstrate it.
Influencers. Not the influencers of a few years back, however, they are still effective when the strategy is aligned. Today all the buzzing sound is micro-influencers. Micro-influencers have smaller followings of around 10 to 50,000 followers. But don’t let the smaller numbers fool you, their audiences can be very niche or specialized making it a great fit for some businesses to market to. Micro-influencers have every bit as much buying or influencing power (maybe more) as the big ones do.
Concluding thoughts. You really can’t get much done, move the needle, or simply get ahead without a solid marketing strategy and blueprint to follow. The daily list of duties and responsibilities is taxing and doesn’t leave much time to consider aspects of this blog article. However, consider what happens if you don’t or consider what the competition is doing to outplay you? Might I suggest rest, but not too long.