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In the modern world, marketing a business needs to be targeted, data driven and intelligent in order to be effective. Essentially you need to find the right customers, and then provide them with the information they need for them to make the decision to buy on their own terms. The tactic of shoving your business down their throat will do nothing but damage your reputation and put them off. Using subtle and clever techniques to influence them is the way to go, here are the most effective methods that all businesses can utilise.
Content Marketing
Consumers don’t want ads and offers put in their face- this is why efforts such as banner ads and other spammy looking flashing ads aren’t effective. Savy customers tend to block these kinds of annoying pop-up ads these days, and they do nothing but make your business look cheap. However, people are open to content that provides something of value to them, which is why content marketing is so effective. This is material that’s intended to inform, amuse or generally provide something that they want to read anyway. The posts contain natural links and advertising added as an additional extra rather than being the sole purpose of producing it. It’s a much cleverer marketing tactic and works incredibly well. The first step is to produce high-quality content on a consistent basis, this could be blog posts, podcasts, website articles, social media updates, or videos. The key is to make sure that your content is relevant to your target audience and provides value.
Email Marketing
Another way to get the word out there about your business is through email marketing. This is something that many legitimate upcoming companies overlook as it’s been given a bit of a bad name over time due to email spamming. However, it can certainly be done well, as long as you’re not buying email addresses and sending out spammy ads. As with content marketing, you’ll want to include information that’s interesting for people. If you offer something of value which solves customer problems, then they will be more than happy to read it! Use personalized subject lines which can increase the likelihood of people opening them up and reading what you have to say. See this as an extension of content marketing rather than a cheap way to get your sales pitch into people’s email inboxes.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation, or SEO is simply put, the process of optimising your website for search engines. However, it’s certainly easier said than done, achieving good results for particular keywords can be a lengthy, expensive and time-consuming process. It’s definitely best left to the professionals, as if you try to cheat the system using ‘black hat’ methods, you could end up getting your website banned from search engines. You need to ensure you have money in your budget to cover SEO so write this into your financial plans. You could look into grants, loans or investors if you need to raise cash, Fundamental Global has more information about this.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is incredibly powerful, and as a business it’s crucial to harness this power. Social media marketing is much more than opening social media websites and posting links to your products. You need to create a personable brand; you need to give customers a reason to follow and interact with you. Make sure that you are actively engaging with followers and offer things like discount codes, freebies or competitions in order to increase engagement levels. You will need to utilise paid advertising options too, this can enable you to reach a larger number of people quickly.
