Have you ever seen a new business launch without a proper marketing plan in place?
I certainly have!
During my five years of experience in marketing, I have seen many businesses with excellent products fail to make an impact in the market because they lacked a strategy.
It’s heartbreaking to watch a new business put its heart and soul into a venture, only to make this huge mistake.
Marketing is crucial to the success of your business, particularly when you’re starting out. It’s discouraging when business owners neglect it or don’t give it enough resources.
That’s why you’re reading this blog.
I understand the importance of a solid marketing strategy and want to share some effective techniques with you.
In this blog post, I’ll go over ways to develop a marketing plan that’s customized to your business. So, let’s dive in and learn some unique marketing strategies to take your business to the next level!
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What is the first step in marketing?
Okay, so here’s the deal – before you start marketing your business, you need to lay down a solid foundation.
This means having a comprehensive branding kit, brand identity, and user/buyer profile.
Now, I know these terms might sound a bit confusing, so let me break them down for you.
A branding kit is basically a collection of visual assets that help establish your brand’s identity. Think logos, colors, fonts, and imagery.
Your brand identity, on the other hand, is how you want your brand to be perceived by your customers. It includes everything from your brand personality to your brand story and messaging.
Finally, a user/buyer profile is a detailed description of your ideal customer or target audience. This includes their demographics, interests, and pain points.
By understanding your target audience, you can tailor your marketing efforts to better resonate with their needs and drive more effective results.
So why is building a strong foundation so crucial?
Well, if you don’t know who you are, who you want to reach, and what you want to communicate, then your marketing efforts will be all over the place and won’t be effective.
Without a solid foundation in place, you’ll struggle to develop a clear and cohesive message that resonates with your target audience.
So invest in a comprehensive branding kit, develop a strong brand identity, and create detailed user/buyer profiles to set yourself up for marketing success!
How do you attract customers?
If you’re looking to attract more customers to your business, then you need to focus on two things: visibility and value.
Let me break it down for you.
First off, you want to make sure that your brand is visible to potential customers. This means having a presence on social media, and business listing sites like Google My Business, Bing Places, Yelp, and more.
Nowadays, people rely heavily on the internet to research businesses, so you don’t want to miss out on potential customers just because they can’t find you online.
Once you’ve got your visibility sorted, it’s time to offer something valuable to your potential customers. You need to think about what sets your business apart from the competition. What do you have to offer that’s unique?
One effective strategy is to offer low-ticket offers such as e-books or whitepapers. These resources can provide valuable information to your potential customers while also showcasing your expertise in your industry.
After some nurturing, try promoting a high-ticket offer such as a webinar or a free demo.
I discuss more about lead magnets in a different blog, Give it a read :
Related: How are leads generated (Leverage the power of lead magnets)
As someone who works in B2B inbound marketing, I can tell you these two aspects can either make or break your business.
So, don’t just focus on attracting customers – make sure you’re providing them with something of value that will keep them coming back for more.
I have written a separate blog on this topic, do check it out :
And if you’re looking for more marketing strategies to jumpstart your business, check out the following five strategies.
Buy email lists for email marketing
You know how it goes – as a business owner, you’re always on the lookout for new ways to reach potential prospects and customers. And email marketing is a tried and tested method that can yield great results – if done right.
However, one of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is scraping emails from random sites and hoping for the best. It’s a tempting prospect – after all, you could potentially reach a lot of people and convert them into paying customers.
But the reality is, most of these emails are not even real. And trying to market to a bunch of non-existent or non-responsive email addresses is a waste of time and effort.
Here’s where email validation comes in. Simply put, email validation is the process of verifying the accuracy and validity of an email address. It helps ensure that the emails you send actually make it to real people who are interested in what you have to offer.
Now, we understand that email validation can be a bit of a hassle. There are tools and software out there that can help, but they can be expensive and time-consuming to set up and maintain.
So, what’s the alternative?
Buying email lists from legit sites is one effective solution. This way, you can be sure that the email addresses you’re getting are legitimate, and have been pre-validated by the seller.
Of course, you still need to do your due diligence and research the seller to make sure they’re a legitimate source of email lists.
But in general, buying email lists from reliable vendors can save you time, effort, and headaches in the long run.
In conclusion, if you’re serious about email marketing, make sure to prioritize email validation and consider buying email lists from reputable sources. Doing so can help you reach more potential customers and boost your bottom line.
Content marketing using bottom-of-the-funnel content
There are a lot of things to consider when marketing your business, but one of the most important is your content marketing strategy.
In particular, using bottom-of-the-funnel content can be the key to closing sales and making your business more successful.
At its core, bottom-of-the-funnel content is designed to close deals with potential customers who are close to making a purchase.
This type of content can come in many forms, such as product demos, case studies, and customer success stories. The idea is to provide potential customers with the information they need to make a purchasing decision.
To make this type of content as effective as possible, it’s important to personalize it as much as possible.
You want to address the specific concerns and objections that potential customers might have, so make sure you have a good understanding of your target audience.
Search engine optimization for bottom-of-the-funnel content
So, when it comes to search engine optimization for bottom-of-the-funnel content, the goal is to target keywords that are closely related to the product or service being offered and have a high purchase intent.
This type of content is designed to convert potential customers who are already in the decision-making stage and are actively looking for a solution to their problem.
For instance, let’s say a SaaS company is offering project management software. They would want to target BOTF keywords such as “best project management software” or “project management software for teams”.
The content created should provide detailed information about the product, its features, benefits, and how it addresses the customer’s pain points. The aim is to persuade the customer to take a specific action, such as signing up for a trial or purchasing the product.
In the case of Geekbot, they found that BOTF content had a much higher conversion rate (25x higher) than top-of-the-funnel (TOF) content, despite receiving less organic traffic. Although not every company will have an equal amount of BOTF keywords to target, it’s still essential to prioritize this type of content for faster lead generation.
To create a successful SEO strategy for BOTF content, it’s crucial to identify and focus on the keywords that have high purchase intent, create high-quality content that provides value and convinces the customer to take action and keep track of conversions rather than just traffic to measure the ROI.
Learn more: Does Search Engine Optimization Work
Adding Interactive elements on the landing page
Looking to boost engagement on your landing page and improve conversion rates?
Well, one method that has been proven to work is the addition of interactive elements.
Interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and calculators help create a personalized experience for site visitors, making them feel more engaged with your brand. By providing a fun and interactive way for visitors to engage with your site, they are more likely to stick around and ultimately convert into paying customers.
To add these interactive elements, you can use various marketing tools such as Leadformly, Typeform, or Survey Monkey. These tools offer a simple and user-friendly way to add these elements to your landing page, so no coding experience is required.
Keeping your interactive elements relevant to your product or service is important. This means that you should only attract potential customers and eliminate visitors who are not interested in your product or service.
Once you have added your interactive elements, you should test them to determine the best placement on your landing page.
Testing also helps you to find out which interactive element works best for your landing page and audience. By testing, you can achieve the best possible results to increase engagement and improve conversion rates.
By adding these interactive elements to your landing page, you can create a personalized experience for site visitors and increase engagement. Use tools like Leadformly, Typeform, or Survey Monkey and keep the elements relevant to your product or service.
Test your interactive elements to ensure they are correctly placed on your landing page and determine what works best. With these strategies, you can achieve a higher conversion rate and ultimately grow your business.
Position yourself as a thought leader on LinkedIn and Twitter
Why is thought leadership important?
When you establish yourself as a thought leader, people look to you for insight into industry news and trends. This makes you the go-to person for information, which can help establish credibility and trust with potential clients.
So, how do you become a thought leader on LinkedIn and Twitter?
First things first, let’s focus on your personal social media profiles. While your company page is important, your personal profile has more reach because people connect with people rather than brands. So, make sure your personal profile reflects your expertise and knowledge in your industry.
Now, the key to becoming a thought leader on social media is to help as many people as possible with your expertise. Share your knowledge in articles, posts, comments, and other forms of content.
This will attract a lot of leads, and users on these platforms will see you as a thought leader in the field.
For example, let’s say you specialize in digital marketing. You can share your thoughts on the latest marketing trends, provide tips and tricks for optimizing marketing campaigns, or share success stories from your own experience.
As you gain more followers, it’s important to provide a lead magnet and build your list to market to. This could be an ebook, a white paper, or a guide related to your industry. By providing your followers with valuable content, you can establish trust with them and build your list of potential clients.
BONUS TIP: Use AI to your advantage
AI technology is taking the world by storm, and it’s time for small businesses to leverage it to their advantage.
As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate, and sometimes, it can be overwhelming to manage all aspects of your marketing campaigns on your own. But with the help of AI technology, you can remain efficient, even with limited budgets.
One example of an AI tool that can help you streamline your marketing efforts is ChatGPT. This tool is an AI language model that can write quick social media copies, email copies, and even blog posts for you. Say goodbye to the hassle of brainstorming creative writing ideas and wasting precious hours crafting the perfect copy.
Related : How AI is used in marketing (Will it replace marketers?)
With ChatGPT, you can input prompts related to your product or service, and it will generate coherent and engaging content in no time. This could be a massive help if you’re running a small business with limited resources and find it challenging to keep up with the demands of content creation.
