How to Create Successful Marketing Strategies
Quickly identifying the optimal marketing strategies for different business situations is an invaluable skill. Stay tuned for tips on creating marketing strategies that will produce results.
Brad Nakase, Attorney
Email | Tel 800-484-4610
Marketing Strategies: An Overview
From entrepreneurs to CEOs, everyone in the business world is constantly searching for the best ways to market their companies. When the goal is to generate more leads and drive up more business, many of us depend heavily on marketing. However, many of us also look at our current marketing plans and wonder if they are working well for us or if they can be improved. According to Investopedia, “A marketing strategy refers to a business’s overall game plan for reaching prospective consumers and turning them into customers of their products or services.
Here, we will take an in-depth look at the marketing strategies that produce effective growth for many businesses. Of course, unique marketing and advertising tactics work differently from business to business, but this should help individuals identify what combination of strategies will work for their companies. From content marketing to search engine optimization, our research has identified a wide range of approaches, from the new to the tried-and-true.
Inbound Marketing: Effective and Flexible
Inbound marketing emphasizes attracting leads through content created by the business. When inbound marketing is working well, customers come to the company as opposed to the other way around. Inbound marketing is meant to use that customers are already searching for products and services on the web and turn them towards a specific business.
Marketing experts recommend inbound marketing because it is flexible: it usually works for companies in various industries and of different sizes. Inbound marketing also does well in creating knowledgeable prospects, and it can be managed with a CRM system, otherwise known as a customer relationship management system. For example, a content management system, Hubspot, can also be used with this brand of targeted marketing.
Inbound marketing is efficient because it draws on the strengths of many different marketing approaches to bring in customers and also keep clients engaged. Marketers considered “inbound” first grab the attention of consumers and then use that attention to bring customers to the business’s website through the use of unique, exciting content.
When relevant, concise, and engaging content pops up at the right time, in the right place, site visitors will follow. Inbound marketing is known for avoiding the annoyances of traditional marketing schemes, which, let’s face it, can be intrusive and interrupt our searches, reading, and entertainment.
Research tells us that over 75% of businesses are in favor of receiving brand information through a blog or series of articles, as opposed to ads. This is where inbound marketing comes in as a valuable and rewarding strategy if used correctly.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a broad term for creating content and sharing it, along with pertinent brand information, to inspire clients, new and old.
This approach places emphasis on the education of customers and prospective customers, as opposed to selling. The goal here is to stimulate and guide the behavior of the buyer, so this type of approach focuses on coming up with material that is relevant to the client’s needs. The strategy is to highlight whose needs and desires are reflected in the brand and then target that audience, so one must be familiar with their customer base.
As companies learn about their clients, they can further change and specify the content they create. Content marketing, when done effectively, will grow the company brand, educate the company about its target market, and draw in prospects with unique and memorable content. This content can come in many shapes and sizes but commonly appears as:
- White paper
- eBooks
- Blogs
- Videos
- Web pages
- Infographics
- Podcasts
Content marketing depends on the strength and variety of the content produced to create leads. Still, it is essential to point out that it does not include other marketing strategies and is not tantamount to inbound marketing. However, when used correctly, content marketing is a practical approach, and research tells us that a whopping 9/10 of consumers attest to the fact that online content impacts their purchase decisions.
Social Media Marketing
Would this list be close to complete without discussing social media? We think not. Marketing that is done through social media platforms has emerged in recent years as a powerful and convenient way for companies to target consumers. This approach sets its sights on providing platform users with valuable, shareable content. This results in higher brand visibility and, ideally, more traffic for the company website.
SEO marketing can be intertwined with this approach because as videos and other content are shared, search results’ visibility and relevancy increase. This can occur in two categories: through search results within the major platforms of YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and more, and within search engines such as Bing, Google, etc.
The social approach has been known to create dialogue and conversation about brands while using unique, funny, and inspiring content to make brands seem more human and connect user experience to the brand’s products. This is obviously a massive plus for sales and revenue when content goes viral. Another plus to this approach is that it is affordable for companies.
When social media marketing is done right, it can significantly increase lead generation and also provide easy-to-digest metrics regarding conversion rates. Research tells us that over 80% of marketers today use either YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram to tell their stories. The overall point here is that social media marketing, while a relatively new addition to this list, can be a lucrative and lasting approach when employed by your brand and business.
Search Engine Optimization
Referred to as “SEO” for short, the search engine optimization approach has been used by numerous companies for years, with top results. SEO increases traffic to a specific website by ensuring that it appears within the top “natural” search results on engines such as Google and Yahoo. The SEO approach will also increase brand awareness through these productive searches when done correctly.
Many think of SEO as a singular approach, but this tactic is actually a result of many forces working together. When companies are able to combine banner ads, email campaigns, social media marketing, and more to produce website visits, SEO marketing becomes even more essential. This is because search engines such as Google are still the number-one way that prospective customers search the internet. When SEO is utilized well, a company’s audience will increase, but in a targeted manner, since individuals have already expressed interest in your specialty or service.
Inbound marketing strategies often include SEO because it is intuitive; it continually evolves and stays relevant in mobile and local searches. It also makes long, arduous Google and Yahoo searches easier for customers and is generally affordable. Research tells us that SEO is widely used by a variety of companies these days, even more so than email marketing or social media (though, as we’ve said, SEO can work well with both of these strategies).
Search Engine Marketing
SEM, also known as search engine marketing, is an effective and popular tool used to increase website traffic through the use of paid online ads. You have probably heard of pay-per-click links (also known as PPC links), and this area is predominantly where they are used. SEM features companies that first decide to buy a link to an ad that will appear in search results when customers search for services or products of a similar vein. When this ad is selected and clicked on, the search engine receives a small payment from the company. Hence, “pay per click.”
While it might not sound cost-effective, this small fee is usually worth it because the SEM marketing approach can increase a company’s adaptability to and recognition by various diverse audiences and markets. This tactic can also increase the reach of online tools and is a reasonably cost-effective way of increasing brand visibility. While some business owners still shy away from using pay-per-click ads, research does inform us that individuals who click on a PPC link are more than 50% more inclined to actually carry out their purchase than those who came to the site another way. All in all, SEM is a vital tool for companies to explore and use.
Account-Based Marketing and Retargeting
ABM, or account-based marketing, is a reliable tactic that targets a specific set of accounts that use very personal campaigns. Using personalized and individualized campaigns gives a company’s sales and marketing team a range of advantages. The use of ABM is recognized as efficient and productive use of marketing resources and usually can be counted on for a quicker process of sales. It can also help with cost-effectiveness and affordability. While this all sounds outstanding from a business standpoint, it is critical to remember that ABM is very different than outbound marketing that is targeted. ABM uses unique tactics such as online retargeting in order to further individualize its campaigns and is therefore much more strategic and particular than the targeted outbound approach.
If you are not familiar with the concept of retargeting, how about a quick refresher? Retargeting identifies consumers who visited the company website but then clicked away from it before conversion or transaction occurred. Through the use of cookies, new, targeted advertisements then begin to present themselves in those consumers’ searches and web interactions, thus increasing the chance that they will go back to the site to make a purchase.
Retargeting is an excellent outlet for tailored messaging and typically generates high click-through rates while bringing in customers who usually are content to browse. When a marketing tool can present your brand to the audience repeatedly, its power is evident. The beauty here is that your brand is being shown to people who have already visited your site, so conversion, sales, and revenue should increase with this tactic. In addition, research reports that retargeted ads produce a higher click-through rate than more traditional display ads.
The Earned Media Approach
Also known as “free media,” earned media is simply publicity that is created through channels other than paid advertising campaigns. Made media is used in a wide range of arrangements and systems, for example, within a newspaper article, in a testimonial on a social media platform, and even through the good old-fashioned word of mouth. However, whether it is an editorial or a mention on the radio, free media must be only achieved through organic means. This implies that free media is “free” because companies do not actively search for it, and it is unable to be bought, owned, or commodified in the traditional ways that advertising normally is.
Free media, despite its restrictions, can be very effective for companies when used correctly. Taking advantage of what are usually no-cost outlets is never a bad idea. Instead of pay-per-click, targeting consumers, or even social media, there is an element of trust inherent in free advertising. A mention in a newspaper editorial, for example, can provide a brand with a sense of customer trust and credibility. According to research, free media is also responsible for a surprising 25-40% of lead generation and web traffic across all industries. If your company is looking to raise customer awareness of its valued educational content, look no further than earned media.
Referral Programs
In this case, a referral program is an orderly, structured approach that businesses use to create product incentives. We have all been asked to fill out surveys or recommend businesses to others in exchange for a discount on our next order or something to that extent. Incentivizing people to spread the word about a company’s brand, services, and products is smart, but how is it done?
Some companies implement partner programs within their existing marketing structure. Others find that affiliate programs or referral programs that are specific and targeted work best for them. An important note: referral program is a term that is often exchanged with “referral marketing.” In any case, referral programs can be effective because they are popular with customers. Everyone enjoys receiving a discount or a promotional rate, especially if the process is simple. Also, referral marketing works on a system that highlights a customer’s loyalty and then targets it, yet also reinforces it. The translation here is that your customers will want to come back for return site visits and repeat purchases—and they may even tell their friends. Lastly, whenever a company receives positive reviews, they are happy. However, this approach can use those reviews and recommendations to find and create more satisfied customers.
Plus, new customers who come to your brand via a referral create a much higher (over 15%) lifetime value for your brand. So, all in all, referral programs simply make good business sense.
Industry Events
Especially when used in conjunction with inbound marketing approaches, in-person events still account for a large amount of effective networking, brand awareness, and sales. Although the Covid-19 pandemic stymied these events, tradeshows are coming back in force, and many are currently still available online, making for easy customer availability.
Essentially, industry events gather companies from a specific industry in one strategic location. Whether the event is held virtually or is able to be held in person, these events allow businesses to showcase their new goods and services among like-minded companies. In short, these events are not focused on the public at large, especially since trade shows are not normally open to everyone. Instead, industry events provide an opportunity for industry leaders as well as newcomers to network, communicate, and connect.
Many successful companies are well aware that trade shows provide something that much of the approaches we have already discussed do not: the chance to work on their relationships with industry partners and customers, both established and prospective. Wise and eager companies also use these events to pinpoint new trends, find new prospects, and see their competition in a different light. Sometimes, unique partnerships and market shares even present themselves.
While online trade shows have their limitations, virtual events can still foster solid attendance, create opportunities for companies, and lead to educational and meaningful interactions. There is also an excellent sense of community that is quickly established at events like these since companies of all different experience levels and sizes have access to the same valuable information.
Trade shows, while very different from some of the other approaches and tactics described here, reliably produce leads for businesses, and that is why they are one of the oldest marketing strategies in existence. Our recommendation is to attend industry events and trade shows, whether online or in-person, as often as possible, with a goal of making it to about four or five per calendar year. You will find it is not only a boon to your business but also an enjoyable diversion.
Conversational Marketing
Marketing that is considered conversational in nature relies on something ubiquitous—you guessed it—conversation. However, this may not be the type of conversation that you are envisioning. Employing the use of a messaging system usually features a live chat with a chatbot, an employee, or a mix of the two. The goal of this type of real-time interaction with customers and prospective buyers or clients is that it instantly places the preferred company information into view. This type of instant dialogue is also helpful in answering questions from curious consumers.
Conversational marketing has transformed business communications over the last decade or so, and many companies and their customers prefer it, though the opinions of chatbots are a bit more diverse. When conversational marketing is working well, it helps to form a personal and reliable customer experience and creates a channel of clear, reasoned communication between a business and its clients. When a platform exists in which buyers can clearly state their needs and companies can respond immediately, this creates an authentic sense of dialogue—almost as if the interaction is in-person. Plus, through chat, bots can quickly provide new information, therefore strengthening the relationship between customers and the business. When customers feel as though their concerns are being met and their questions answered, the company is in good shape.
Conversational marketing is easy to build into your business, especially if you already have an interactive website that uses a chat option. If you are hunting for a way to improve user experience and increase the percentage of referrals you get, this may work for you. This approach can also translate to quicker conversions because customers trust that the chat is steering them the right way, and therefore a relationship with the business is more quickly established. Chatting also lessens the time spent on hold on the phone, which can lead to hang-ups. Lastly, our research dictates that customers actually prefer messaging as a form of communication since 90% of customers have stated that they prefer access to a chat option when contacting businesses directly.
Web Marketing
We’ve discussed social media marketing here, but we also want to briefly note the power that internet marketing has as a whole. Online marketing is, in many ways, a blanket term that relies on email and the use of the web in various ways, all to drive sales. While this might include social media marketing, it also encompasses online reviews posted on websites such as Yelp, recommendations in friends’ or family members’ chats, posts and messages, and recommendations penned on websites pertaining to your business. For example, if you are running a hotel, you will be familiar with a website such as TripAdvisor, and a robust review there could increase business.
Internet marketing is also notably useful when used in conjunction with other marketing approaches, such as traditional print media and television and radio. The key thing to recognize here is that online marketing relies on the traditionally powerful force of word-of-mouth, yet it simply uses a different medium. If the goal is to increase your number and frequency of leads, then web marketing is an intelligent call. We recommend that you choose a few different techniques to begin and focus on those areas rather than spreading your business too thin.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Many of us spend most of the day in and out of our work email, and while there is a discussion to be had about email’s efficiency vs. our own productivity, let’s save that for another day and focus on email marketing. A simple yet highly efficient approach, marketing your brand and business through emails can be as productive as any other approach, and perhaps more. However, the question is not how to send out emails promoting and marketing your business—that is easy—it is how to inspire individuals to actually open and read the messages you send.
Making sure your email makes it past the spam filters is helpful, but email campaigns also focus on clear, concise messaging and incentives. For example, customers are more apt to open an email with a discount or other incentive included in the title, and if not that, then at least an interesting tidbit or play on words. Even more critical: customers who are already interested in your business and brand or who have patronized it before are much more likely to read what you send. Therefore, targeted emails work very well, and if you have the budget for it, using a dedicated company such as Hubspot or Mailchimp can help emails find the correct market.
In summary, the goal here is to influence purchasing habits and decisions, and the success of your email campaign will be measured by open rates as well as click-through rates. Think of email as a piece of a larger advertising puzzle, and it should work for your business.
Selling Directly
In a simple, practice approach, direct selling literally means selling and marketing products to customers in the most natural form possible. This approach refers to the age-old use of sales agents, who are able to work in person and build strong relationships with prospective clients and customers. Although door-to-door sales have been on the decline in recent years, in part due to the pandemic and in part due to our ongoing reliance on technology, there is still something to be said for direct sales. Think back to the last time you were in a store, debating a purchase, and the person who reached out and helped you was the deciding factor in terms of the ultimate sales result. We are sure you can think of a few instances like this, and you probably left the store thinking: there should be more sellers like that.
This aesthetic may seem rare these days, but this is also a form of direct selling. This marketing approach depends on knowledgeable employees who are passionate about the brand, and it also relies on a sense of trust. That sense of confidence is easier for a person to establish than a bot, email, or link. Direct selling is a worthy part of both traditional and innovative marketing campaigns, and research informs us that the direct selling market is valued at approximately $60 billion dollars these days.
Marketing Using POP or Point of Purchase
The POP approach can come in handy when a business already has the benefit of interested parties, such as shoppers who are browsing in the store and ready to make a purchase or two. Point-of-Purchase marketing is a simple concept. Companies spruce up their product displays, create coupons and messaging that go directly on the package of the product, and come up with other intriguing ideas to garner attention and influence purchasing decisions.
When a customer is already ready to spend some of their hard-earned money, they are in the perfect state to respond to quality POP messaging. Likewise, if businesses make their attractions and offer “at the shelf” too interesting to pass up and create a conversation with a last-minute sale or a “buy one get one free” deal, their customers will respond. Ideally, this information will get passed on to other buyers as they enter the store—and their friends and family—and the business will have a buying frenzy on its hands. Realistically, that might not happen, but many customers indeed add to their purchases at the register, so if you are interested in POP marketing, take a look at the displays, designs, and overall environment of your brick-and-mortar, especially near the register and line.
It is worth mentioning that POP tactics can also be used online, just a bit differently. Messages and offers can be placed in product pictures, videos, and text—making them eye-catching yet readable for online shoppers. The big idea here is to create and harness the power of impulse purchases, which were valued at $17 billion in the US the last time we checked.
Cause Marketing and Cobranding
Cause marketing, including affinity marketing, can be described as an effort to create sales that benefit charitable causes. Usually, based on a collaboration between a non-profit organization and a typical profitable company, cause marketing can highlight important causes such as climate change, youth poverty, or war and create funding for the victims. This approach can benefit the country and world at large and also make your customers feel good about the money they are spending. Ideally, cause marketing also creates a sense of positivity and perspective in the for-profit business, so they realize that making money is not the only thing that matters in the world.
Cobranding is a different yet also unique approach that features a collaboration between at least two brands. These brands form a union to sell one service or product, therefore combining their popularity or influence to increase revenue and profits. Sometimes, the result of cobranding is that consumers will pay more for a product because they are getting something that is “limited edition” or “for a limited time only.”
Brands that form these types of strategic financial unions do their research first and usually join together with like-minded companies, such as Red Bull energy drink and GoPro cameras. Lastly, affinity marketing encompasses yet another, different approach that is a riff on cobranding. Affinity marketing occurs when a supplier bands together with an organization that brings prospective customers together, such as a brewery that sells local pizza slices.
In short, cobranding is something to look into when your brand is established, and another company will see that a potential union shows promise for both businesses. Likewise, the affinity approach is always on the lookout for because it can increase visibility and sales. And cause marketing is a way to make a difference and give back—which also appeals to many customers these days.
Marketing as Storytelling
Who does not enjoy a good story? From commercials that move us to movies that utilize product placement, storytelling is both an art and a genre in itself. The question “what’s this brand’s story?” is asked a lot in the marketing world. Why? Many of the purchases we make are inspired by both the stories we read and hear and the stories we tell ourselves. Facts, figures, and statistics can all be convincing, and they have their place, but humans connect to storytelling emotionally. Emotions also dictate our behavior.
Everything from who your business is, how you function, and who you resemble and can be compared to can be involved in a story. Likewise, it is essential to be able to tell the story of your brand. For example, what is the story of Tom’s Shoes? Or Warby Parker? Stories provide a concept of what brand values and why the brand is important to the public and the community at large.
Even the most clinical and reasoned people can be influenced by their emotions. In fact, research tells us that over 90% of consumers buy products because they have a strong emotional feel for the brand.
Strategic Marketing
Marketing can make or break your business, and it comes in a wide range of forms, structures, and approaches. What works well for your business will not work well for everyone else’s companies, and vice-versa. The key to an effective marketing plan is structure and planning, so we suggest creating a tailored marketing plan that uses some—not all—of these tactics. Do the research, and start strong; you can always revise and change the aspects that are not driving up leads and driving in business. Take your time because the more practical and deliberate business owners are with their marketing plans, the more successful they usually have. However, do not be afraid to get creative, and be sure that your brand seems accessible, down-to-earth, and human. After all, businesses may thrive on sales, but consumers are directed by passion and emotion. Good luck with all of your business goals.