Marketing is not something that is optional, it is vital for the continuing success of your business. When used correctly, the many benefits that a good marketing campaign can positively impact your business’s bottom line. To put it simply, if you’re serious about the growth of your business, marketing is an investment that pays off.
To get the bottom line moving, start investing in marketing under the guidance of internet marketing experts now. The following are our five top reasons to invest more in marketing this coming year.
Customers Can’t Find You Without Marketing
Unless you have a brick-and-mortar business in a high-traffic area, people won’t know you exist without marketing. A good marketing campaign lets people know where you are, what you do, and how you can help them.
Depending on your business, marketing can take the form of outdoor advertising billboards, direct mail, internet ads, and email campaigns. (To learn more details about email marketing, click here.) It can also include press releases and human interest news stories. The point of marketing is, getting a positive image of your business in front of potential customers. The message should also clearly state where people can find you.
Marketing Lets People Know How You are Different from Your Competition
Let people know why they should choose you instead of your competition. Competitive differentiation is how you can show that your product or service is not only different, but superior to the competition.
You can show how your products and services are less expensive, have better quality, better design, and has more features. Graphs and charts showing a comparison between you and your competition is one way to do this. You can also let people know that your products and services are more readily available and easier to use than the competition. Potential customers want the best value for their money, so show them how your company can provide that. Incorporating your competitive differentiators into your advertising is the way to do that.
Use Marketing to Get to Know Your Customers
If you really get to know your current customers, you can craft marketing campaigns that really appeal to potential customers. You’ll need to be able to answer the questions in their head before they even ask them. Studying your existing customer data is one way to do this. For example, you can track IP addresses to see where your customers are located. You can also discover which social media platform is sending the most traffic.
Social media data can also show you your customer’s demographics, such as age, education, and gender. Social media polls can be a fun way to gather data to find out more about potential customers. People love to give their opinions, and these opinions can be used to design future marketing campaigns.
Make an Emotional Connection with People
An effective marketing campaign not only needs to contain factual information but also stir the viewer’s emotions. Marketing generally revolves around four basic emotions, joy, anger, sadness, and fear, or rather, freedom from fear. The emotion you choose to use depends on your product or service.
Out of all of these emotions, images of joy and happiness are the most compelling; everyone is searching for more happiness. Ads that imply that your product or service will increase a customer’s satisfaction with life work quite well. Humor is also under the umbrella of joy and happiness; the most shared memes on social media invariably have an element of humor. Likewise, ads that focus on tear-jerking sadness also work. Imagine ads for child and animal welfare agencies featuring tragic pictures and stories of abused animals and children. Empathy with that sadness can drive some people to action. The emotions of anger and especially fear to drive people to action. For example, climate change and social justice activists often use fear and anger to bring people to their cause. While it’s best to avoid negativity, sometimes playing on the viewer’s fear and anger can work.
Invest in a Fractional CMO
What the heck is a fractional CMO you might be asking. To put it simply, a fractional CMO is an on-call, part-time chief marketing officer that works remotely. It’s an affordable way to get a marketing expert on your team right away. Best of all, there is no commitment, and no benefits to pay. If an individual doesn’t work out, you simply do not renew the contract and move on. Read this article on DigitalAuthority.me for a deep dive into a fractional CMO’s responsibilities, role, and cost.
This coming year, marketing is more essential than ever before. The world is changing quickly, and your marketing campaigns need to address the current needs and desires of consumers.
