The right marketing strategies will help you to not only reach that target audience, but also engage them with appealing content. Over time, you can leverage the internet to build a brand identity and relationship with clients and potential clients, thereby growing your business.
But how do you do that, exactly?
A recent article on Business.com named the four primary marketing strategies used by businesses today. Your approach will likely involve a combination of the following…
Content Marketing
With content marketing, you create online content that specifically appeals to both current clients and potential customers. This content nurtures them and coverts them into repeat business, first time business, and referrals. It is most often accomplished through blogging (on your website), but also involves newsletters, videos, podcasts, pictures, graphics, e-books, and more.
The content you create can drive steady traffic to your website while improving your website’s search engine rankings.
Social Media
Did you know that 70 percent of people are more likely to choose a business if the company maintains a social media presence? What was once a “nice to have” option has now become a must.
Social media allows you to connect directly with customers and leads, answer their questions, respond to concerns, provide useful information, and sometimes just entertain them. You can also use social media to feature the content you’ve created on your website, helping to drive traffic.
Remember to choose a platform that is popular with your target audience. With social media marketing, you should consider where your audience is already concentrated, and go to them.
Email Marketing
Email marketing provides the most direct line of communication between you and your clients. In fact, 80% of professionals say that this form of marketing is their number one customer retention tool.
As with social media, you can utilize email marketing to deliver your content straight to your contacts. These three marketing methods work in sync with one another, so that you wring every bit of value from your overall marketing campaign.
Keep in mind that about half of all emails are opened on a mobile device, like smartphones, so your messages should be friendly to this screen format.
Paid Advertising
Marketing is all about building relationships and getting to know your target audience. Having done that, at times you might want to directly advertise to them.
If you have already gathered information on your audience, such as demographics, location, and their preferred online platforms, you can generate effective advertisements that add value to your overall marketing campaign. Facebook, in particular, provides all the information you need to draw more leads into your marketing funnel, because they have already done most of the demographics work for you.
What approach is best for your business?
Each business is unique, so no two marketing strategies will be identical. Having said that, we find that a combination of content, social media, and email marketing work together like three legs on a sturdy stool. When each form of marketing is used to full advantage, you build a solid base upon which you can build for years.
From that point, using the information you have learned about your audience, advertisements can be used to directly target certain audience members and drive your results in the right direction.
For more information on combining these four methods into one, comprehensive and long-term marketing campaign, contact us with your questions and concerns. We can help you put together a plan to create the relationships you need, and grow your business to its full potential.