Since the advent of the pandemic, businesses across the globe have started to adjust their marketing strategies to accommodate this evolving digital landscape. While rapid advancements in technology have shifted businesses towards a more digital approach, COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns have accelerated this approach.
As consumer behaviour changes, so too must businesses look at ways at improving their marketing strategies to keep up with the times. While there is a clear need for businesses to increase their visibility, each business must aim to improve its strategy according to its own unique circumstances. While one size does not fit all when it comes to your marketing strategy, the fundamentals of sound business practices must be evident for your efforts to be successful.
Maximise social media
With social media dominating an enormous part of our daily lives, there’s simply no way that businesses can afford to ignore it. Many have established their businesses purely through social media, such is the power of digital marketing strategies. If you have an existing social media presence for your business, consider creating content that appeals to your target audience.
Since different social media platforms appeal to different types of users, you must make sure that your content is relevant to that specific platform and its users. While it is tempting to use the copy and paste approach across different social media channels, this would ultimately diminish the value of that content if it does not reach the right type of audience. If you are on Instagram then your content must be tailor-made for each platform to maximize its effect. Exercise your creativity to make your business appeal to your audience. Alternatively, you may try to find sources to buy Instagram views. But it is better to have organic growth.
For those businesses that don’t have any social media presence, it can appear quite intimidating at first. Once you get the hang of it, however, posting social media content becomes second nature. Have a look at your competitors’ social media pages and observe some of the content that they are posting to get an idea.
The main thing to remember is that your content must be authentic, relevant and useful. By coming across as sincere in your interaction with your online community, you establish trust and users are then inclined to learn more about your business, products and services. There are many businesses competing on social media, so you must make sure to be responsive to your online community to set yourself apart from your competitors. Including clear calls of action in your social media content is critical as it compels your audience to engage with your brand.
Align marketing strategies
It is important to note that marketing strategies that are successful for one type of business may not necessarily work for other business types. There is no specific template that can be used across the board with different industries. In order for your business to create and execute successful marketing strategies, they must be aligned with your business strategy.
How so, you may ask? You must create strategies for the functional areas of your business that align with your marketing strategy for it to be effective. When your business and marketing strategies are aligned, your business is in a better position to achieve its goals as they both are pulling in the same direction. Always consider how your products and services add value to your clients when creating your marketing strategy, and that will guide you with the alignment process.
Analyse your competition
It is important for businesses to understand what their competitors are doing in order to be ahead of the pack. While scoping your competitors’ products, services and marketing efforts may provide some decent insight, you must delve deeper with your research. It is vital to communicate with your existing client base and get their perception of your offering compared to your competitors. Their feedback is invaluable in helping you to improve your own marketing efforts.
Moreover, you can run a competitive link analysis, observe your competitors’ brand terms, do some mystery shopping with your competitor brands, and add competitor URLs into a keyword tool to gather some content ideas. All of these techniques will help you to understand what your competition is up to and this will help you to improve your own marketing strategies to gain the upper hand.
Build genuine relationships
While great marketing strategies can be quantified with an increase in sales figures, successful marketing strategies seek to build and nurture long-term relationships that are established on trust. This trust will lead to your customers returning to you and giving your brand preference. A key element of building trust is displaying sincerity to those who engage with your business, and showing existing and potential customers how your products and service add value to their lives.
Garner reviews
A great marker of a successful marketing strategy is the reviews that your clients leave for you on digital platforms. These reviews are powerful and play a dual role in your business growth. Firstly, it provides valuable feedback about your business, products and services, and this enables you to make improvements to your marketing strategies – where necessary.
Secondly, potential customers will undoubtedly be attracted to your brand if other customers have generally said great things about your business. A great idea is to get existing customers who have engaged with your brand to leave you a review. This will help to build up your review catalogue and help to showcase your business offering to potential customers.
Final thoughts
In an ever-changing landscape where businesses appear to be competing more than ever, it is important to constantly re-evaluate your marketing strategies and make the necessary improvements to maximise their effectiveness. Always stay abreast of new opportunities and be open to new ideas that will help to improve the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.
Remember to stay consistent in your efforts and don’t give up on the first hurdle. Using the services of a virtual marketing company is an excellent idea as they use specialists with the requisite skills and experience to take your business to the next level with tailor-made marketing strategies. Whether you choose to do it on your own or go with the experts, always remember to stick to the fundamentals of your business and your marketing strategy will succeed!