In 2021, there is an unbelievable amount of marketing that is occurring through web-based technology. With platforms being able to offer a direct customer reach to market your business’s products and services, accessing the online market is essential if you’d like to stay relevant and competitive.
Cross-Channel Marketing
Any full-service marketing agency should be able to provide the traditional forms of marketing, such as print advertising and direct mail. However, modern businesses – even if it is a small business – should expand their marketing to target customers operating in a mostly digital space.
An introduction to the evolving landscape of marketing makes one thing very clear: it is never as simple as it looks from the outset. The various channels of marketing often fool those who are none the wiser, but the industry is complex. The broadened opportunities to advertise across traditional and digital channels have reshaped marketing altogether.
As we now know, the best marketing strategy ideally comprises traditional and digital solutions. Ad campaigns can cost you, so it’s important to be aware that your ability to invest will always depend on the budget of the company. Furthermore, your marketing needs – whether traditional or digital marketing – will be tailored to your business goals. Hence, there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to marketing. If you’re starting your research into some effective strategies you’d like to put money into, here are a few of the top strategies being utilized across the industry.
Email Marketing
Did you know that running email campaigns is still one of the most effective marketing tools to date? Out of all marketing channels, email provides the greatest return on investment – an essential marketing metric that should convince any business owner of its power to produce leads and sales.
Defining the effectiveness of your email campaigns is also quite simple with email marketing, allowing you to quickly judge whether your campaigns are successful or not. With click-to-open rates, on average, as high as 30%, it is no wonder marketing agencies are pushing for companies to recognize the business potential of emailing!
Social Media Channels
The advent of social media has brought along with it some really innovative networking in our digital world. Companies who are accessing their customers through social media are reporting primarily that this marketing strategy is extremely cost-effective. As signing up to many of these networks are free, there is little investment – other than time and a small cash injection. This means that the return on investment is worthwhile pursuing.
Additionally, social media pages allow customers to interact directly with your company. Communicating with your followers increases brand engagement through more personal brand messaging. This results in increased brand loyalty from customers – individuals who become invested in your product or service through understanding more deeply the ethos and motivations behind your business. Here are a couple of the most effective social media channels.
Though Instagram was only launched in 2010, it has revolutionized personal and business communication, providing unthinkable opportunities for lead generation overall. Just consider for a moment the potential of social media marketing on a platform with over a billion users…
Instagram’s features translate well into business engagement and growth. For instance, eCommerce features are now allowing small businesses to sell to their users directly through the platform. On the other hand, businesses can gain a major following simply by taking advantage of Instagram stories and their power to build engagement, loyalty, and brand love.
Are you Using LinkedIn?
LinkedIn has been around since 2002 but has grown to become the social media forerunner in B2B (business-to-business) lead generation. Many aspects make this social media channel unique, but the greatest asset as it relates to marketing and the power of business networking is that the number of decision-makers on the platform has surpassed 40 million. The fact that professionals and decision-makers in top levels of management are within direct reach of your marketing campaigns is one of the main reasons business professionals the world over are turning to LinkedIn.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO has become popular due to the sad reality that more than 90% of pages found online will never be accessed through a search engine, such as Google. What this marketing strategy enables is the improvement of your ranking on the internet. There are over 200 factors that Google and other search engines use to rank your web page, including the authority, trustworthiness, and expertise of your channel.
For those out of the know, it can be almost impossible to know exactly which factors to improve – and how. But, with the help of a digital marketing specialist and a B2B SEO strategy, SEO can become a realistic solution for your company’s needs.
Invest in Marketing
One of the most important factors in business development is your marketing strategy. Consulting a professional agency will provide your company with data-informed research and statistics around which channels of marketing are best suited to your business needs. Hereafter, you will need to decide on your budget – keeping return on investment at the forefront of this decision.
Regardless of which industry you are in or the size of your business, marketing is critical! And likely the most important take-away from this article should be that marketing should be multichannel or blended. In this way, you will reach customers through a combination of platforms.
Implement Well, then Expand
However, it is critical that each channel you promote can be powerful enough on its own. It is not good marketing through several channels, but not being effective with any of them… Perhaps start with one or two strategies and implement them well before expanding across several. In this way, you can ensure successful campaigns can be run through your primary or preferred strategy, after which you can scale up your marketing efforts.
Lastly, your team must stay in touch with shifts in your industry market, as well as marketing trends that could suit the style of customer communication your company depends on! Consult with a marketing agency to find the channels and strategies which will give you an edge over your competitors. Instead of a once-off mindset to marketing support, consider utilizing a marketing expert every quarter, annually, or simply as needed. In this way, you will constantly be pushing and growing your company’s potential.