Proven marketing tactics boost your business
June 28, 2023
In today’s competitive environment, business owners need to use all available strategies to stand out from the crowd. Because even with the most comprehensive business plans and the latest technology, your business will only grow if your advertising and marketing strategy is effective.
As a business owner actively running your company day-to-day, some of the vital activities needed in order to have an effective advertising and marketing strategy may seem out of reach due to time constraints, lack of knowledge or both. Worse yet, some of your efforts may not be delivering the best results possible, resulting in wasted time and money you can’t afford.
To grow your company, you need effective and proven marketing tactics to help boost business. Here are some of the most effective options and how you can employ them to increase website traffic, engage with potential customers and drive business growth.
Define Your Target Audience
Your target audience is your desired customer – loyal and profitable. Defining your target audience is a proven and effective way to tailor your marketing and advertising efforts to effectively engage with these customers to gain sales and long-term profit. Once you identify and understand their needs and wants, you can ensure your brand message attracts their attention and ensure your advertising placement appears where they will be most likely to see and engage with it.
To start defining your target audience, consider the:
Demographics of your desired customers such as age, gender, location, education
Psychographics like values, interests, lifestyle they may share
Behavior patterns of times they are most likely to purchase and where they spend their time and attention
Tip: An easy way to start identifying your target audience is to go through your existing customers. Ask which of those are your desired customers and try to determine common characteristics from the list above they may share.
With this analysis, you can create effective marketing strategies with an increased likelihood of capturing their attention and interest.
Content Marketing
Once you have defined your target audience, you can use content marketing to attract their attention.
What is content marketing? It’s the creation and distribution of information your key customers will find valuable and relevant to their needs. When you use content marketing, you indirectly promote your product or services, focusing on providing useful information, entertainment and educational value over time. This establishes trust in your business, brand and products over time.
Tip: Using different types of content in your content marketing tactics, like blog articles, podcasts, infographics, social media posts, and videos, helps gain attention and increase things like search engine optimization and website traffic to generate leads and ultimately ensure your products are seen by potential customers.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a crucial and proven marketing tactic to boost business sales and growth. From platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and more, you can offer different messages and content to target the needs of your customers.
Tip: Depending on your goals, you can opt for paid or unpaid social media marketing.
- If your marketing objective is to increase awareness, drive sales, or generate leads faster, paid social media marketing may be your best option.
- If you want to drive brand awareness, creating unique and engaging unpaid social media posts can be effective as well.
Email Marketing
As the name suggests, email marketing involves sending messages to your target audience in a place most people already spend a lot of time – their email inbox. It is a cost-effective marketing tactic since it allows direct communication with your potential customers. You can also create automated email sequences so similar customers receive important information based on their interactions with your business, such as new customer emails or product and service information and tips.
Tip: To start, you need to develop an email list. You can do this through sign-up forms on your website or on social media along with ways to opt in during your check-out process. Be sure you are using emails that customers give you permission to use for marketing purposes as there are data protection regulations you will need to follow.
Online Reviews & Testimonials
You may have seen pictures of past customers or celebrities on the walls of some businesses. Once you recognize them, you get a sense of trust and credibility toward that business. The same concept applies to online reviews and testimonials to build trust in your business.
When a new customer sees positive feedback and opinions about the product, service, or brand, it creates social proof that others have had a positive experience. This increases their confidence of also having a positive experience, increasing the likelihood of a sale.
Tip: Reach out to your loyal existing customers asking for positive reviews and feedback on your products or business. Let them know how you will be using this information. Use those pieces on your website or in other marketing efforts such as social media.
Referral Programs
Referral programs are one of the most effective marketing tactics to help your business grow. This includes leveraging your current customers and rewarding them if they refer your business to a new customer. This strategy increases brand awareness and creates the same social proof as online reviews and testimonials – only stronger.
Tip: Decide how you will track referrals and the reward you will offer to those that refer to your business. Overall, your referral program needs to be easy to manage with minimal expense and increase profitability with new customers and sales.
Collaborations & Partnerships
You can attract new customers and increase brand awareness by collaborating and partnering with different businesses or industry influencers that mutually benefit from the relationship. From co-hosting events or conferences to guest blogging and cross-promotional marketing, both businesses can benefit from each other.
Tip: Think about the following when developing your collaboration strategy:
- Are there complementary businesses that would benefit from being associated with your business or vice versa?
- Is there a well-known person in your industry that you could partner with for increased visibility?
- What kind of collaboration would you benefit most from? Placements on their social media channels or co-hosting an event? What would attract the attention of your potential customers?
- What can you offer them in return for working with your business?
Local Marketing
For many businesses, especially small businesses, much of your target audience may be located in your local community or region. Good news! Finding and engaging with local customers with your marketing and advertising strategy is often highly rewarding since it is often more cost-effective and profitable.
Tip: Some proven local marketing strategies you can employ include:
- Sponsoring local events that align with the demographics and interests of your target audience
- Engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) events that bring value to the community and generate a positive impact for your business
- Increasing brand awareness through using local media and developing positive relationships with news reporters and radio stations.
Analytics & Measurement
When it comes to marketing and advertising strategies and tactics, one size does not fit all. You may find that email marketing is highly effective in targeting your customers, while another business may find that social media marketing works better for their goals. That’s why it’s crucial to constantly track and analyze your marketing and advertising efforts through analytics to measure their effectiveness in achieving your business goals.
Tip: The most important part of measuring your marketing and advertising efforts is to know your business goal. Do you want more website traffic or social media engagement? Do you need to gain additional customers for more sales – or sell more to your existing customers? Some of the most effective analytics and measurement tools include:
- Google Analytics to track your website traffic and interactions
- Facebook Insights to see your social media engagement
Whether you are a small or large business, it is important to effectively use your resources to get the most out of your marketing and advertising efforts. Your growth and profitability are at stake.
Small business owners can often feel overwhelmed with the complexities and time needed to effectively advertise their products and services and market their overall brand. Even larger businesses with internal marketing teams may struggle with some of the more technical aspects of SEO and email marketing as well as analytics. It is often a good investment to partner with businesses who specialize in these areas to allow you and your team to focus on your strengths.
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