It doesn't matter if you have the best products in the world. If you don't have a marketing strategy in place to reach your ideal customers, you aren't going to get any business.
Unfortunately, many businesses fall into this trap. Reports show that 50% of companies don't have a marketing plan that works for them.
If you're going to start ramping up your marketing efforts, there are some things you can start with that will make a significant impact. Below are seven tips to help you make the most of your marketing campaigns.
1. Learn About Your Market
If you want to figure out how to improve marketing, look no further than the people you plan to advertise to. You need to understand more about them if you hope to have successful marketing campaigns.
Start by creating buyer personas of the people who will be buying from you. Ask yourself the following questions:
• How old are they?
• What gender are they?
• What are there interests?
• Are they regular consumers?
• What positions do they hold in companies?
The more precise you can be about your persona, the better you can create marketing materials. You want the language in your marketing material to appeal to the people who are most likely to buy your products.
Of course, you don't have to stop with one buying persona. Create several customer personas and create marketing material that's unique to each of them.
2. Examine Your Competition
The chances are that you aren't in your market on your own. You have a lot of competition that is out there to take your customers from you.
While having competition does make things harder, you can use this to your advantage. If your competition has a large marketing budget, they might have done a lot of your research for you.
Spend time to look at the marketing materials that your competitors are using. You want to figure out the people they're targeting, and the type of messaging that's working.
Try to find ads that have run for an extended period. These are the messages that people are likely resonating with.
3. Stay Aware Of Trends
People know when you pump out the same marketing materials over and over again. While this might work short-term, people start ignoring what you have to say. You need to keep things fresh if you want to keep eyeballs on your company.
One way to do this is to stay up to date on current trends. These trends include things happening inside and outside of your industry. If you can provide a unique viewpoint that people want to read, people are going to become more aware of your company.
There are also new techniques and tools being created all the time in the marketing world. Stay up to date on them, so you have the tools you need to reach new customers.
4. Get Direct Access To Consumers
It's hard enough to get eyeballs on your business. You need to pay marketing dollars or invest in large organic campaigns if you want to attract people to your business.
Things are much easier when you have direct access to people who are interested in your products. Now when you launch a new promotion, all you need to do is message people who have already shown an interest. You don't have to pay to get their attention again.
Two of the best ways to do this are SMS and email lists. Once your customers subscribe to your list, you can send content out to everybody with a push of a button.
5. Track Everything
It's hard to launch a great marketing campaign if you don't have data. Even if you make more than you spend, how do you know if it was a fluke or not?
Tracking data will give you the ability to make data-driven decisions. You'll be able to see who bought your product, where they came from, and their chances of buying again.
Even if you launch a failed marketing campaign, you'll be able to use your data in future promotions. This information will improve the chances of creating a successful advertisement.
6. Create A Website
If you don't have a place for potential customers to go to see what your company is about at any time, you're missing out. Building a website will give you a way to provide this information to your customers.
Your website is like a salesperson that's available every hour of the day. You aren't limited by marketing space, so you can provide as much information as you want.
Your goal with your website is to provide potential customers with an easy way to see your most critical products. You want to make the information easy to access and do a good job of explaining why it solves problems.
The other great thing about a website is the ability to build a blog. You can use your blog to add information-rich content that will help you establish authority in your industry. You can also research keywords to write about so that you can improve your rankings in search engines.
7. Brochures
You might not have much time to speak with a lot of your potential customers. You can't possibly fill them in on all the products and services that your business offers.
Not only that, but you can't go into every detail about what makes your products better than your competition. This is where a brochure comes into play.
If you want to transform your marketing strategy, you need to develop materials that tell potential customers why they need to do business with you. Your brochure will fill people in on everything your business offers. Potential customers can read up on your company on their own time and reach out if they have any questions.
Always Test New Ideas In Your Marketing Efforts
There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution in marketing for lean startups and bootstrapped businesses. Every company is unique, so they need to come up with a message and strategy that fits with what they offer. Use the tips above to start taking your marketing efforts to the next level.
If you're looking for more ways to improve marketing for your business, there's no better place than the internet. Head back to our blog to learn how to step up your digital marketing game. Visit the Digital Marketing section of the Bootstrap Business Blog right now to learn more about online advertising advice.
