Improving your marketing strategy is far easier than you may expect. Mostly, it’s all about considering which aspects of marketing are the most worthwhile for your business. So, this short guide will walk you through some of the key things we believe you should focus on, while also touching on some areas that maybe aren’t worth your time or attention.
Create A Strong Digital Strategy
Arguably the most important thing to do is to create and build a strong digital marketing presence. The world has pretty much gone full digital, which means the majority of your customers are online in some capacity. To reach them, you must think about things like search engine marketing, SEO, social media, web design, and so on. If you click here, you can learn a lot more about all these digital methods and how they can be applied to help your strategy and create more leads for your business. If you think your business isn’t a digital business, then you’re probably wrong. Even small local companies benefit from digital marketing in the form of local SEO.
Inbound and outbound marketing are like two brothers that strongly dislike one another. This is because one is nice and perfect, while the other doesn’t really get along with anyone. Inbound is the perfect brother as it represents a strand of marketing focused on grabbing people’s attention and getting them to notice you. This is in stark contrast to outbound marketing which is pretty much a case of just forcing your business in peoples faces, usually by a bombardment of ads, cold calls, or spam emails. If you want to improve your marketing strategy, then you need to use inbound marketing techniques, with a firm focus on content marketing. Let your content do all the talking as it sparks people’s interest in your business, and they stumble upon you without having anything forced down their throat. This tends to lead to a much better conversion rate.
Build Specific Campaigns
The last piece of advice is to ensure you build specific marketing campaigns as part of your overall strategy. What we mean is that you should have a marketing campaign to promote a new product, and then one to promote certain offers, and so on. Each one should be built around certain themes and ideas that help grab the attention of your target market. You can also create your campaigns around specific events as well. One very easy example is season-themed marketing campaigns. Companies will alter the way they advertise and promote themselves at different times of the year – summer marketing is vastly different in its town to winter marketing. So, create your specific campaigns to help generate interest when the time is right.
It’s not rocket science, and keep in mind there are many marketers out there right now who can help you! All it comes down to are three simple rules; go digital, focus on inbound marketing, and build campaigns for specific product launches, services, or events. Do all of this, and your marketing strategy will be improved.
So, you’ve come up with an idea, you’ve learnt how to grow your company, and you’ve made a product that you think is going to go the distance. What happens next? Are there ways for you to get your product to the general public and for you to make your millions? Well, it’s not that simple…
Finding Your Audience
Hopefully, this has been at the back of your mind, but if you have a product that is for a specific type of person, it makes no sense to try and fit a square peg into a round hole, as far as making it appeal to more people than is necessary. In this incredibly competitive world, it’s far better for you to find your niche with regards to the right marketplace. Finding your audience is quite a challenge, but there are so many tools for budding startups out there to find the right target market. Market research is one of the most useful components any business can leverage because you can find out if there is a demand for your product before you spend so much money manufacturing it.
And when you’ve undertaken sufficient research, and have obtained satisfactory results, it’s now time to tailor your marketing efforts towards the right target market. From social media to email marketing, finding the one true method to communicate with your audience is essential. Many businesses make the mistake of employing a blanket campaign, but this is a very foolish method to adopt, because it’s the equivalent of playing Battleships- it’s a very blind way to get concentrated results!
Choosing The Right Marketplace
Depending on your product, you may be better off choosing a specific marketplace. You may want to go it alone and sell the products through your own business website, and control the entire process yourself, or you may want to embrace the online marketplaces like Amazon. An Amazon sponsored products campaign is something that can benefit some businesses when they don’t know how to get the product out there effectively. And you can learn how to set up an Amazon sponsored products campaign online, but with this approach, you are getting the exposure. This follows on directly from the target market, if you pick the right marketplace, you know you are heading in the right direction.
Continuing The Marketing Machine
Once you’ve discovered your niche, found the right way to market your product, and uncovered the secret to make it connect with the right audience, it’s merely a case of lather, rinse and repeat. Once you’ve got to a comfortable point, this isn’t where the journey ends, it’s now time to modify your product, or to create new products. In essence, this is what happens when you’ve got a killer product, but know that it’s not just the product you need, it’s getting the audience to buy it, but also the right marketing practices to get that item to the correct market. Getting these three things in place is paramount.
Have you ever heard or read this phrase in relation to business marketing?
Unfortunately for business owners, this myth spreads around quite frequently, deterring many inexperienced entrepreneurs from taking full advantage of their email list.
While email is an “old” and maybe un-sexy technology compared to the more flashy social media world, email marketing is one of the most effective tools you have for turning leads into sale.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the truth.
#1 More People Use Email Than Social Media
Ipsos recently did astudywhere they found that 85% of people who actively use the internet also use email. Only 62% use social media platforms.
#2 Email Has Much Higher Click-Through And Open Rates Than Social Media
Click-through rates are generally much higher using emails than social media posts. According to a 2016studyby GetResponse, email open rates across all industries averages21.73%.
This is a stark difference from social media where less than 10% of people will even SEE your message (due to constantly changing algorithms) and even less will click-through.
Data from twitter shows average click-through rates of only1.64%. Facebook rates can be even worse at only.14%unless you pay for ads.
More clicks lead to more conversions. According to Litmus, emails have a 4.16% conversion rate, whereas social only has a .48%.
#3 Email Has Higher ROI Than Social Media Ads
According to data compiled by an email marketing analytics company, Litmus, email brings in a much higher return on investment per dollar spent. The numbers they reported are as follow:
Return On Investment (ROI)
Email : $40 for every $1 spent
Keyword ads: $17 for every $1 spent
Banner Ads: $2 for every $1 spent
As you can see from the data above, email marketing can be an effective way to increase your revenue.If you are not giving it much attention, it might be time to rethink your business priorities.
Feeling discouraged about your email marketing strategy, or another aspect of your company?Let’s chat. You can sign up for a complimentary business strategy session with mehere.
“You need a list,” they said. “The money is in the list,” they said. “You need an autoresponder,” they said. So you purchased an autoresponder; you added an opt-in box on your website; you have a couple of subscribers; now what?
Now, you sit down and plan out what you’re going to send to your list. The money is in the list ONLY if you stay in contact with the list. If you send out random emails every few months or every few years (yikes!) chances are you’ll have several unsubscribes and maybe even a few spam reports. Simply because you weren’t consistent in your communication and your subscribers probably don’t remember who you are or how they got onto your list.
Know Your Subscribers
Your subscribers should also be your ideal clients. You may have a few who don’t fit that ideal description and maybe they subscribed because something about your opt-in offer intrigued them but basically, speak to your ideal clients.
What do they need? What are their pain points right now, this minute? How can you help them? What products or coaching packages can they use in their lives right now?
Knowing the general details of your subscribers’ lives and their needs will naturally tell you what kinds of offers to make. Of course, offer your own services and products first but also investigate affiliate programs of products that compliment what you offer.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions
In this social media age, people are gung ho to offer opinions on absolutely everything, so don’t be afraid to ask open ended questions about what your subscribers need. This is market research and shouldn’t be construed as an invasion of privacy. You want to fill their needs and guessing isn’t a productive way to use your time.
Get Used to Planning
Consistency is key to developing loyal followers so plan your emails to correspond with your other content efforts during the month. Decide how often you will email your list then pick a specific day of the week. Mark it in your calendar so it’s official (yes, you should consider yourself a client). At the very least, tie in your weekly blog content with your email theme/offer or get adventurous and choose a monthly theme. Write it all down so nothing falls through the cracks.
Your Clients Want Your Content…Are Your Producing?
Email marketing is just one small part of content creation that every online business owner should be doing. If you’d like some more tips for creating content your clients want, join my free webinar, “5 Tiny Content Tweaks that Boast Big Benefits.” We’ll talk about how to create content, how to repurpose content, and mistakes to avoid when creating content. Don’t miss it!
Today I have a little tip for you about how to improve your relationship marketing.
This SINGLE tool can take a mediocre marketing strategy and make it wildly successful.
First, it’s important to understand what relationship marketing is.
“Relationship marketing is a marketing strategy in which a company seeks to build long-term relationships with its customers by providing consistent satisfaction.”
When you use relationship marketing you are aiming to form a real, loyal, long-term relationship with a customer.
So what is the ONE tool that can turn a mediocre strategy into one that will literally make you money for weeks, months and even years to come?
It’s this: emotion.
Try something with me. Think of a memory from your childhood. Something you remember vividly. Whatever memory comes up, what emotion comes with it? What were you feeling during this memory?
When you are able to remember something from many years ago, it’s because the memory is attached to a powerful emotion.
It’s true, isn’t it? Your most vivid memories are from your most emotional moments. Both negative and positive emotions have the ability to lock something in our memory for decades.
How can we leverage this in our relationship marketing strategy?
Unless you pull your potential customers emotions to the surface (hopefully positive ones) your message just become noise in their life.
To create brilliant marketing strategies that create positive emotions in your audience, I suggest the following:
Know your target audience.Who are you trying to reach with your advertising, and what do they care about? What problems are they likely facing? What trends does their demographic gravitate towards? What will SPEAK to them deeply? Make them sit up and take notice?
Tell their story.This could radically affect the success of your business if done well! Your message should tell the story of your audience. It shouldn’t be about you 90% of the time. And when it is about you, it should be in a way that resonates and relates powerfully with your audience. Talk about them. Represent them. Tell THEIR story.
Speak into their dreams.Tap into the dreams of your target audience. Show them how your product or service can help them live the life they’ve always wanted. Make sure you are genuine and authentic.
Connecting to your readers through creating real emotion (and memories!) has the potential to dramatically impact the success of your business.
Remember, it is imperative to be authentic and genuine when doing so. If you aren’t, people can feel it, and they won’t trust you.
In 2 weeks I will be launching a new, comprehensive workshop on relationship marketing. I will walk you through everything you need to know to get started with your own relationship marketing strategy, so you can build genuine connections and learn how it can be used to transform your business.
Keep an eye on your inbox!
Have a great week.
Robyn
P.S. If you don’t want to wait two weeks, you can sign up for a complimentary one-on-one call with me to discuss your business goals and strategies. Let’s dive deep and figure out what will take you to the next level. Sign up here.
Posting on forums, online groups and online communities can be a great way to generate free traffic to your website. Members of these forums (who’ve seen your posts) will often already be pre-sold by the time they land on your website. Many top personal brands got their start from reputations built in online forums.
So, how do you use forum and group marketing to build traffic?
Find the Right Group or Forum For starters, make sure you’re putting your time and energy into the right forums. Look for forums that have a lot of activity. It should have at least 2,000 members and 20,000 posts. Look for the biggest forum in your industry. That’s a good place to start.
In addition, it may be a good idea to post in a lower traffic but more “buyer heavy” forum. For example, let’s say you own a web hosting company. You’ll want to have a presence in the big online business forums. But you’ll also want to have a presence in smaller forums dedicated just to web hosting. Both are important.
In addition to industry specific forums, look for groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. LinkedIn groups are fantastic for freelancers, speakers and other service businesses. The right Facebook groups can also be a great resource and a great source of traffic.
Once you’ve found the right forums and groups, the next step is to …
Focus on Your Reputation A lot of forum marketers try to focus on raw traffic generated. In the beginning, this is not a good indicator of success. Typically, people on forums are rather skeptical. They can be fantastic customers in the long run, but in the short run they’re unlikely to click on links. They’ve seen too many scams and too many spammers.
Instead, focus on adding value and solving problems. Share your knowledge. Answer questions. Build your reputation. Position yourself as an expert. Then, the selling will become easy.
Write Detailed, Experience-Based Posts Most posts people write on forums tends to be shallow posts. It might be a couple paragraphs long, or a short question. That said, when someone does post high quality content backed by personal experience, they tend to do very well.
Writing for forum readers is different from writing for websites. It should be personal and shared from a first person perspective. Don’t write a traditional how-to in a teaching tone. Instead, write from a “sharing my story” or “here’s what I discovered” point of view. Don’t be afraid to write and share long content.
Getting Traffic to Your Website Once you start building a reputation, it’s time to start linking back to your website. The easiest place to link to your website is from your signature or your byline. People who like your post are likely to click on your signature and go to your site.
You can also look for specific sections in the forum for promotions. Many forums have one specific area for people to post promos. Once you have a reputation, the posts you make here can do really well.
Finally, leverage your connections. Once you have a reputation, people will be very open to you when you reach out. Reach out to website owners for deals, list owners for mailings and blog owners for guest blogging opportunities. Forum marketing isn’t limited to direct clicks – often the connections you can leverage will be an even more powerful source of traffic.
May I suggest that you Join a few high quality, high traffic forums or groups within your industry. Regularly contribute helpful, valuable information based on your experiences. Work on making connections with other members and find ways to leverage those connections to help you increase your traffic.
