All great businesses rely on a great marketing campaign. We all know what the purpose of marketing is, but how can you do it effectively? In this piece, I have a few secrets that can help you market your business like a pro:
(Source: https://flic.kr/p/7Hc1yF)
Define Your Target Market
The first step in marketing like a pro is to define your target market. This is something that a lot of small business owners forget, particularly if it’s their first time. You have to understand that you can’t market your business to everyone. It would be nice, but it would also be a waste of your time. There will always be some people that don’t like the idea of your business; it simply doesn’t appeal to them. And that’s fine! It doesn’t make your business bad; it just makes it a normal business. Everyone has different tastes.
What you need to do is focus on those people that do like your business. Find your target market before you start implementing any marketing techniques. It’s important you do this because it will have a major impact on your marketing campaign. Once you’ve found your target market, you can think of the best ways to promote your business to them. The design of your adverts will be made to be appealing to them. The things you post on social media will have the aim of hooking your target audience in. Even your website will be designed in a way that appeals to your audience. They will also help determine the keywords you use for SEO purposes. Your target market will pretty much help shape your marketing campaign!
(Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/qk1k4b)
Increase Web Traffic
Another key part of your marketing strategy should be focussed on increasing traffic to your website. It’s not good enough to have a website that doesn’t get many visitors. If your business website gets few visitors every day, it’s not going to be doing much for you. But, if it starts to get loads of visitors every day, you’ll start to see the benefits. Your customer base will soon increase, and sales should shoot up. A website is just one of the many digital marketing techniques you should be using!
So, what are some of the ways you can increase web traffic? Well, you could take the easy way out and look for a company that offers web marketing services. They’ll find the best ways to drive traffic to your site. It’s a good idea because they’re the professionals, they’ve been there and done it all before. So, in theory, they should know the formula for success. But, some people prefer to figure things out for themselves and maybe save a bit of money too. My top tip for increasing web traffic is to use search engine marketing. SEM will put all your focus on how well your site does in search results. So, when someone looks for something in Google, you want your business to be near the top. The two main players in SEM are SEO and PPC. Yes, I know, that’s an awful lot of letters! SEO focuses on improving your website’s performance in the organic search results. Whereas PPC will focus on the paid search results. In my view, you need to use both of these if you want to see complete results and drive as much traffic to your site as possible. You should also look into link building to help boost your SEO even more.
(Image: https://flic.kr/p/mdchd1)
Don’t Neglect Traditional Techniques
Although digital marketing techniques are important, you can’t neglect traditional ones. There’s still a place in the marketing world for some of the older techniques out there. I find that for small businesses, traditional methods are still super effective. You should use digital ones as well; I think they have to come as a pair. You can’t use one without the other. Well, you can, but your marketing campaign won’t be anywhere near as effective.
What traditional techniques should you use? In my eyes, there are a couple that have the biggest impact on your business. The first of which is print advertising. For years, creating adverts has been one of the best ways to market a company. It has proven success, and that’s why the pro’s are still using this method. A print ad is an advert on any form of print media. You usually find them in the form of posters or in newspapers. The aim is to grab people’s attention with the adverts. Also, the aim is to get these ads seen by as many people as possible. Which is why having them printed in newspapers and magazines is a great idea. In fact, magazines are probably the best place for your advert. Simply because you can ensure your target market is seeing your ad. Find magazines that you know your target market are likely to buy, and get your print ads in them. A great way to promote your business.
(Image Link: https://flic.kr/p/bH1gD8)
Use Your Budget Wisely
I’ve noticed that the best marketing campaigns are ones where the business uses its budget wisely. You have to understand that there are certain things worth spending money on, and certain things there aren’t. There are lots of free marketing techniques that can have a big impact on your campaign. Always keep a lookout for ways you can save money. If you’re not savvy with your budget, your campaign can quite easily get out of hand. Before you know it, you’ve spent way more money than you intended. This can end up negatively impacting your business.
However, you will need to spend some money; you can’t do it all for free. As I mentioned, spending money on some outside help for web marketing is a good idea. Spending money on PPC is also a good idea. Paying a little cash to get your print ads in the right places is also a good idea. The key is making sure you don’t overspend on these things.
By following this advice, you’ll have an incredible marketing campaign. In a few months, your business will leave the rest in its wake and enjoy great success!
Featured image credit: ShutterStock
