*In Hagrid’s voice* You’re a Wizard Harry! How would you like to become a wizard in digital marketing? Today we would like to share 7 magical marketing tips to become the next wizard in the marketing industry.
But before we jump the gun, it’s important to understand where we are today. I think we can all agree that 2020 has been an interesting year to say the least, but it has also been a blessing in disguise for some businesses. Today, digital marketing is more important than ever before. Not only have current trends been changing, resulting in businesses and organizations to adapt, but the E-commerce powerhouses have boomed bigger than ever before. So how do you keep up with competition? Better yet, how do you gain a competitive advantage?
Become a wizard in marketing. Utilize your skills to deploy digital strategies to adhere to your target audience. You need to revolutionize the way you are going to engage with your target audience.
Not sure where to start? We got you covered! Without further ado, here’s 7 tips on how to master your journey on becoming a marketing wizard.
1. Craft Effective Content for Your Digital Marketing Campaign
This probably does not sound like too much of a shocker to you I’m sure. As you probably noticed, content marketing is nothing new and has been a career in an over saturated market for years. However, the importance of content marketing has become more and more important as the years have gone by. The trick to being better than the others is simple – at least it’s easier said than done. Create engaging and meaningful content.
Create something that your target audience can relate to. Something that they will enjoy, find useful, and most ideally, have the urge to share with their friends, colleagues, or family members! Use your content to interact with your customers meaningfully and demonstrate the value behind your business. *Remember, you need to know your target audience down to a T in order to give them content that matters!
2. Become Fluent With Social Media Marketing
Social Media has taken over the world by storm over the last decade. It’s provided a new business strategy for many organizations to increase sales and boost customer engagement. With social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, there’s millions of users waiting to be exposed to your business. More importantly, these major platforms allow businesses to target ads to specific demographics and psychographics, ultimately, allowing you to reach the right people with little to no resources (aside from cash and a bit of time).
Our advice – take the time to immerse yourself and familiarize yourself with all that the social media plans have to offer. I’m sure you have noticed that each platform has evolved over time and can offer many beneficial business resources, especially if you are targeting millennials! *Note: each social media platform has different users and should be used to market specific demographic/psychographics.
3. Don’t Forget About Your Website’s Best Friend, Mr. SEO!
Ah, SEO, the website's greatest friend or their worst enemy. If you are unfamiliar with what SEO is, it stands for Search Engine Optimization. In a non technical setting, it simply means where your website ranks on Google. Ideally, you want your website to be on the first page of the search engine. In order to get there, you need to play the long game.
SEO can typically take anywhere from 2-6 months to see its full effect on search engines. In order to maximize your return here, you need to carefully consider the keywords you are going to use– we recommend using long tail keywords in conjunction with short tail. Over time, you will need to adjust the content on the website to reflect these keywords (without losing its natural tone). SEO is also an evolution of marketing and new trends and best practices must be adhered to in order to maximize your ROI.
4. Prioritize Your Current Customers
Last week, we wrote a blog on the difference between current customers and new customers. We analyzed the customer acquisition cost and the customer lifetime value. It is no surprise that current customers are important to business longevity, and the ideal customer will remain loyal for years to come. This may sound a tad self-explanatory but it’s extremely important – Prioritize your current customers!
Sure, new customers are no doubtably exciting and important and can show you that your marketing strategy is working. But remember who pays the bills at the end of the day. The Pareto Principle, or better known as the 80/20 rule claims that for many outcomes roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. In business lingo, that means that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers!
Existing customers are also the best type of marketing because they have loyalty and investment in the mutual relationship you’ve created together. Make sure they feel valued and require as much of your consideration as that of your new customers.
5. Speak Authentically to Your Target Audience
Of all the marketing strategies on this list, knowing your target audience and the best way to communicate with them might be one of the most important. Without knowing your target audience, you cannot craft effective content or connect with your audience on a genuine level. Your product sales could suffer, and you could begin to stagnate, trailing your competitors.
Catering to your target audience helps you form an effective strategy by learning how to speak the language of your customers. For example, if you are targeting college students for a particular campaign, make sure you’re trying to relate to them and are proving your authenticity. Tip: social media marketing is a great strategy to use to connect with a younger target audience and knowing which platforms they’re on can help you reach them more effectively.
Identify your audience’s preferences and learn what makes them tick. Knowing these two things can help turn your marketing strategy into an effective tool for growth.
6. Become a Problem Solver
This is your chance to be unique and separate yourself from the rest. Your ambition should be to know everything there is to know about your target audience. You need to become an expert in active listening. The golden rule we all were taught as children is a marketing wizards mantra – treat others the way you want to be treated.
On a high level, you want to demonstrate the value behind your businesses by highlighting the problems you can solve for your customers. Then you need to granulize this to the specific needs and wants of each and everyone of your unique customers.
7. Showcase User Generated Content
What do your customers say about your business to the friends and family? Hopefully good things right? It’s important to highlight all the positive word of mouth, not only for your brand image, but also to increase sales. Utilize marketing campaigns to build rapport, testimonials, and referral programs. Not only does this act as another means for promoting your products or services, it shows your clients that you care.
In conclusion, the right marketing strategy takes time and effort to build. Don’t give up and don’t sell your ideas short. There will be wins and there will be losses. Don’t let the losses discourage you. In fact, your greatest losses fuel your greatest successes. If you find yourself short of ideas, we strongly encourage you to schedule a free consultation with one of our Oak Street Associates Experts and we can come up with a tailored plan to help you achieve your goals and become the next marketing wizard!