6 Things Every Marketing Strategy Should Include
Businesses are constantly competing with one another to gain more customers and drive sales; therefore, it is imperative that key marketing strategies are carried out thoroughly and effectively. Without effective marketing strategies put in place, there is ultimately a lack of focus resulting in your ability to target any of your business goals to diminish.Read more
The 5 Critical Components of a Leading Marketing Strategy
A marketing strategy is one of the first steps when planning a successful campaign. Overall, the marketing strategy gives your business the opportunity of reaching consumers and turning them into clients of your own product/service. However when planning a marketing strategy, there are multiple components that must be considered. The internal and external components of your business and the market must be explored in order to identify the most successful outcome. Similarly, identifying what makes your business stand out against others, is crucial in establishing a leading strategy. Here are the 5 most critical components when planning your leading marketing strategy.
Your Strategic SEO Checklist to Building a High Traffic Website
Everyone wants a website that sees a lot of traffic, high engagement and a high conversion rate. Unfortunately, with over 1.86 billion websites online, creating a highly engaging, competitive website that generates a lot of traffic is easier said than done. Fortunately for marketers, there are a range of tactics available to help build a search engine optimised website designed to outperform the competition.
Here’s your SEO checklist to strategically build an optimised website designed to draw traffic.Read more
10 Reasons Why You Are Failing in Marketing Your Business in 2021
All businesses use marketing to position their brand in the minds of their desired target audience in the best way possible. Effective marketing will ultimately lead to increased sales and brand recognition, however, there are many dangers in current business practices that can result in marketing failure that you may be overlooking.
That is why we have created a list detailing 10 of the most common issues businesses face today when executing their marketing tactics.
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Lack of research
Research, and lots of it, is a must for any business before they can create an effective marketing strategy.
There is plenty to work out before you can even release your brand to the world, such as what channels you will use, who your target audience is, who your competitors are, etc.
These are only a few of the aspects you need to discover to create a successful marketing strategy, meaning conducting thorough research is a necessity, in as many forms as possible, and for as long as it takes until you have all the information you need for your brand.
- You don’t have a strategy
Even if you do undertake the right research, and work out who your target audience is, many businesses then do not use this information effectively and create a detailed marketing strategy.
It is imperative that all businesses manifest a marketing strategy if they are to understand how their daily marketing activities are contributing to the achievement of business goals.
Otherwise, you will have no idea what effect your marketing practices are having on your business and brand, and whether what you are currently doing is resonating with potential clients. This is a major reason for marketing failure.
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You don’t understand your customers or their needs
Communicating with your customers and providing platforms for your audience to discuss issues or queries with your business is the easiest way to understand their needs.
Without regular communication, there is no hope of your business recognizing what is working, or not working for your brand.
Whether you use a chatbot on your website, actively use a discussion forum or even quickly respond to social comments, there are so many ways you can keep in touch with your audience and learn what they want to get out of your business.
There are always alternatives out there for your audience to convert to, so make sure you are meeting their needs and keeping up-to-date with your clients’ needs.
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Marketing and sales departments are not aligned
A major issue faced by many businesses today is the lack of communication between marketing and sales teams.
Sales do not happen without marketing, meaning both departments should have an understanding of where their responsibilities lie, and how they can help each other to improve marketing practices and increase sales.
Both teams should be across all the buying stages and be aligned and have synonymous goals if they are to impact the business in a positive manner.
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Unrealistic goals
As well as working together, both sales and marketing departments need to ensure they are setting realistic goals based on the research they have conducted and the size of their target audience.
Realistic goals are a must, whether they be short or long-term. Unrealistic goals will only lead to demoralized employees and underperforming businesses.
Marketing teams should only focus on setting achievable goals that employees can be rewarded for accomplishing; for if they continue to miss targets, it is likely the business could fail.
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You are using and promoting the wrong channels
Today, there are so many different channels available for businesses to market through, whether it be the many different social media options or website blogs and articles, just to name a few.
It is up to your business to discover, through effective research, which channels resonate the best with your target audience, whether they prefer to get their information online or in person.
Without understanding where your audience receives most of their information on your brand, your business is likely to miss out on many potential leads and future sales.
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You are lacking patience
The majority of marketing strategies do not yield results overnight, or within a week for that matter.
Many take months, or sometimes years, to generate actionable results that can be used to determine the success or failure of your current marketing campaigns.
A large number of businesses tend to give up on their current practices long before they have been able to have a real effect on the market.
Don’t make the same mistake with your campaigns; give them time to reach your audience and leave an imprint of your brand on them rather than scraping “underperforming” strategies before they get started.
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You are targeting the wrong audience
Even if you are being patient and utilizing the right channels, you still could be targeting the wrong audience.
This all comes back to the research you have conducted regarding your target market, what they need and how they want to be informed of it.
Your brand could be amazing for some people, but they might not be hearing about it because you are targeting the wrong clients, therefore you must be sure your research is as accurate as possible and that you’re appealing to the right people.
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Your product or service does not deliver on what was promised
Another factor to marketing failure is that we see with businesses is the gap between what they say their brand can do and what it actually does.
The aim of businesses is to retain customers and generate positive word-of-mouth. But if their brand is not delivering on the promises made in their marketing practices and campaigns, customers will look for an alternative product.
This is why communication with customers is a necessity, listening to their concerns and making adjustments accordingly to retain them in the future.
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Your brand is not easily accessible
Even with a great product and excellent marketing practices, if your product is not readily available to customers then they are unlikely to purchase it.
Whether it be due to complicated online purchasing procedures, limited delivery options or the lack of physical stores and support services, there are many reasons why your audience may choose to go to a competitor with simpler purchasing processes.
There are many reasons as to why a business could be failing, but we are trying to make sure that it is not because of your marketing activities.
Take note of the issues discussed here today and ensure that your business is employing the best marketing practices possible.
How to curate the most effective content
Sharing a compelling and resonating story to your audience is a goal for any brand. Andrew Davis, a keynote speaker states, “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” From a business perspective, content creation is an integral part of presenting a brand.
Nowadays, content creation is a must-have thing to effectively communicate important information. This can be through various social media channels, blogs, digital presentations, and websites, etc.
What makes the content effective?
Content strategy should be a foundation in curating effective content. Content strategy helps in documenting your marketing plan as it gives you a structure and keeps things organized. There are different ways of how we can develop a content strategy.
Firstly, understanding the ‘why’ or the purpose behind your venture. Simon Sinek, an unshakable optimist describes a golden circle as Why, How, and What? He states, “Very few people or companies can verify why they do what they do.”
Now you’d be wondering how does this relates to creating effective content?
Imagine if you don’t clearly understand your business and the value proposition, you can’t expect your customers to understand your product/services. Delivering content is about clearly understanding the value it brings to the user. If you clearly articulate why it’s worth their time then it’s like hitting a jackpot.
Secondly, customers are enticed by the art of storytelling. If you’re able to sell a story to your customer, you build brand loyalty. Let’s take the example of Apple, Steve Jobs was the one who told those stories. We’re all emotional people and Apple has always targeted emotional intelligence to sell their story. How do they do it?
- Entice the audience first and then introduce the product
- Build suspense
- Resonate or focus your story on customers successfully using your product
We understood the why behind the content but what’s the guide behind curating effective content?
How many times have you read a blog halfway and realized that it doesn’t answer your questions? Often, right? This is how you can solve this issue:
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What problem are you solving for your customer and how you’re unique
The product or the service you’re trying sell solves the customer’s problem. Your content acts as an educator for the customer. This can be for the new customers who are trying to understand your product/services or the existing user who is looking for solutions to the existing challenges.
Your content is a reinforcement of your solution and this is where is you can showcase your uniqueness as a brand. Competition is always a potential threat to the business so your customers need to know how you’re different or what makes your product/services better than others. This is where content can change the decision-making process. Your content needs to sell a story and prove why you’re worth their money and why you’re worth their time.
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Find your target market and brainstorm their journey
Content is about understanding who your customers are and how they interact with your brand. Who will be reading your content and how many people would be reading it?
Your content should be more than one type of customer. In terms of selling sneakers, try to publish content that is relevant to different stages of the buyer’s journey. Effective content allows the customers in decision making and move ahead with the sales process. Make sure to use different calls to action as this engages the customer.
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Provide your opinions on different things
As humans, we seek validation and encouragement every day. Try to provide your opinions, quotes, or attribute other sources so that the user can relate their problems with your solutions.
Try to curate content that is customized and humanizes their problems. Link your content with third parties which align with your core values, opinions, and create that sense of community.
Make sure it’s not self-centered content because the user would be more interested in validating their problems with your brand. Further answering users’ common questions in your content allows them to connect with your brand. These can be FAQs or blogs with your current existing challenges that users may face. While curating your content, be very selective as you’re trying to sell your unique value to them. Anything which is off-track will misguide the user.
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Being elegant in the way you present
The interactivity of your blog, EDMs, social media channels depends on the style of typography.
Texts are a major source of information. Your text is the medium of communication and the fonts attract the readers. Interactivity through your text is an influential intellectual as it showcases the mood or feeling.
If we take the example of storytelling again, it carries a rhythm that creates value for the readers. On average, a person goes through 5000 ads each day so how can you make that one interaction count? Users remember the fonts that you present in your visuals. It specializes and acts as an identification for the brand. Once you have a good visual, selecting a good title will attract the readers.
Outsourcing has been the optimum solution for curating effective content.
The data from B2B and B2C Content Marketing 2020 suggests that 84% of companies outsource their content creation. Why?
There are several benefits of outsourcing your content creation:
- Businesses will have more time to work on other activities like sales and operations. Many SMEs don’t have the time and expertise to create content. Trying to save money they don’t realize that content creation takes a lot of research, analyzing, and writing which can be a full-time job.
- Outsourcing allows you to publish more content and create high-quality engagement. It’s important to utilize the time efficiently so that the content writer can provide the best content and businesses can work on creating an experience.
- Outsourcing will allow you to have a different point of view. Content experts work with different industries and are experienced with what works in the market.
- Outsourcing allows you to reach a wider audience and have customized content. One of the key benefits of reaching a wider audience is being able to experiment with your content with different users.
If you’re unsure how your company can benefit from content strategy. Get in touch with us! At Robotic Marketer, it is our mission is to be the best; empowering talented marketers to produce outstanding results for small and medium-sized businesses. By constantly improving how we work, our technology, systems, and processes, we deliver the best possible marketing solutions to our clients.
Components of a Good Marketing Strategy
A good marketing strategy consists of a comprehensive collection of marketing techniques that enables a business to direct its resources towards the best opportunities in terms of increasing sales and achieving a sustainable advantage over the competition.
A marketing strategy consists of short term and long term activities that contribute towards achieving business objectives.
Remember developing a marketing plan for your business shouldn’t be complicated.
To help you generate an effective marketing strategy, here are eight basic components of any marketing strategy.
1. Market Research
An integral component of any good market strategy is market research. To lay the foundation for your strategy you must collect, organize and write down data about the market that is currently buying the products or services you intend to sell.
You should consider looking at marketing dynamics, customer demographics, market segments, target markets, needs and buying decisions.
In terms of products and services, you need to analyze the market to gauge what’s out there now and what the competition is currently offering. Identifying current sales and benchmarks in the industry in addition to suppliers that you will need to rely on will help you build a more substantial base in which you can effectively build a good marketing strategy.
2. Target and Positioning
Any good marketing strategy begins with the identification of a target audience. This is the most important component. There is no point in wasting your time and resources trying to market your products and services to an audience that isn’t interested in what you’re selling.
You should aim to sell to the market segments that will be most profitable for your business. Direct your marketing efforts towards people that are genuinely interested in your products or services. By narrowing your marketing efforts towards your ideal target audience you will greater optimize your time and resources.
Furthermore, defining your ideal target customer will allow you to adjust the overall style of your marketing strategy in a way that suits your target audience. Your content will be more targeted, using language that connects with your customers on a more personal level.
3. Awareness
The ultimate business goal should be to gain the trust of your clients and create brand awareness among your target audience. A combination of traditional techniques like magazines, TV and word of mouth should be paired with online techniques to boost the awareness of your brand.
In today’s digital environment it’s imperative strategies prioritize online marketing. A business must have a website and a blog where you post high-quality content that connects with your audience and generates traffic. Additional visual and audio content like videos, podcasts, and infographics work to further generate brand awareness and leave a lasting impression in your target audience’s mind.
4. Unique Advantages
To win over your competitors you need to offer your target audience a set of unique advantages that your competitors aren’t offering. You need to distinguish your brand by offering your target audience valuable content that they can’t find elsewhere. Creating unique brand offerings will help distinguish your business from your competition.
Aim to identify one or two things that make your product or service different and promote them as much as possible. In doing so you can create more effective marketing strategies that greater reach your target audience.
5. Communicate With Your Clients
It’s imperative to know how and when to communicate with your target audience. You need to strategize the types of content you are making and how you are sharing them. Think about where your target audience hangs out most and utilize the platforms that will best reach them.
The connection you develop with your customers is a key aspect for the success of your marketing strategy. It’s important to promote your products and services as the best choice on the market, but it’s even more important to focus your attention on the needs and wants of your followers. Identify the problems they have and show them how your business offers the best solution to satisfy their needs.
6. Promotional Tactics
Once you have created your marketing strategy, you must decide which marketing activities will ensure your target audience knows about the products or services you offer, and why they meet their needs.
Aim to execute a combination of tactics such as various forms of advertising, public relations, maintaining an online presence, promotions and an effective point of sale strategy. Remember every action you take must align with your marketing strategy in order to be effective and convert customers. Aim to limit your activities to those methods you think will work best with your target market.
7. Monitoring and Evaluation
This is a key component of any type of strategy and something a lot of businesses overlook. Take the time to analyze how your strategy is performing in practice. Surveying customers, tracking sales, leads, visitors to your website and percentage of sale to impressions are all worthwhile tactics to consider.
Any successful marketer will continually review the status of their marketing strategies against their set objectives. Doing so will ensure ongoing improvements to marketing initiatives and benefit future market planning.
8. Marketing Plan
Once you have finalized your marketing strategy, draw up a marketing plan that outlines how you intend to execute the strategy and evaluate its success. Your marketing plan should be excessively reviewed and if necessary updated to respond to changes in customers’ attitudes and broader economic forces.
Fundamentally, all good things take time and a successful marketing strategy takes not only time but commitment as well. When developing your marketing strategy you must be ready to invest in order to reach your business goals. Focusing on the finer details of a good marketing strategy will allow you to develop a logical, effective plan that will lead your business to success.