It may seem like some people have found success based on luck alone, but that’s rarely the case. Success requires hard work and improvement, not to mention being willing to grow and adapt — and that goes for every industry out there!
The hard work will pay off in the end, but you must be ready to evolve. Marketing trends are constantly changing, for instance, and the techniques that worked a few years ago may not be the ideal option today.
Luckily, you can learn to market your products or services fearlessly, or rather, while accepting that trial and error may sometimes be a necessary part of the whole process. Below, we offer a few tips and tricks to help you start your marketing journey on the right foot!
Work on Your Brand Story
There may be dozens of companies just like yours, so if you want to reach the stars, learn how to stand out. One of the ways to do so is to rely on your customers using their rationale and emotions when deciding to make a purchase.
It may not appear so, but emotions play a huge part in any industry. We decide to go for certain products or services based on what they offer and how they make us feel. That isn’t to say our rational side doesn’t come into play. It certainly has an important role, which makes finding a marketing framework that covers both crucial to your success.
Fortunately, storytelling has long been used to trigger both a rational and an emotional reaction in consumers. If you focus on your brand story now, you will ensure each customer thoroughly understands your business.
In the short term, this may contribute to you making a better first impression. In the long term, it enables you to share an emotional connection with your audience that keeps them loyal.
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Understand Your Audience
And yet, if you want a loyal audience, you also have to consider how well you know them.
With marketing, you aim to get more traffic, either on your website or in your stores (or both!). But that kind of exposure requires you to identify a type of consumer that would be the perfect match for your business. In other words, you have to find your niche, as your marketing strategy will have to revolve around that audience to ensure your success.
Most businesses aren’t just looking for new customers but those that will keep returning to them day after day. Thus, you have to identify your audience correctly by discovering their attributes and matching them to your company’s values and goals.
Consider that all potential and returning consumers display some buying behaviours. Some may shop only for status, for instance, while others are keen on resolving a problem.
In a large group of people, there may be some stark differences between these behaviours. Your job is to find those that match — and you’ll identify them by focusing on the following:
Demographics
- Age, gender, ethnicity and race
- Education and employment
- Marital status and income
Psychographics
- Personalities and attitudes
- Hobbies, interests, and lifestyles
- Opinions, values, and beliefs
Geographics
- Location (including the country or the state, cities, and ZIP codes)
- Density and population type (rural, exurban, suburban, and urban)
- Climate, season, and time zone
- Language and cultural preferences
Learn From Your Competitors
There may always be another company that’s doing something better than you. Instead of being angry about it, it’s better to see what you can learn from those companies and apply it to your own business.
We recommend examining your competition from time to time, no matter how small or big, young or old your business is. That said, if you’re still at the beginning, start by observing what works for the top five ranked companies in your industry.
Your competitions’ posts, the social media platforms they use, and even the captions they craft all have engagement as a goal. But each post has a clear purpose (to inform, persuade, entertain, etc.) and perhaps even additional media to make it more compelling (videos, photos, and similar).
Somewhere in their content, you’ll find clues about their strategies. In return, this may give you insight into their goals and how they’re trying to reach them.
Incorporate Social Media into Your Marketing Strategy
Avoiding social media could spell disaster for your business — and you can bet that all your competitors know that too. To ensure success, try to incorporate social media as much as you can in your marketing strategy. Do so wisely, though, by focusing on a few key aspects of it:
Images
Compelling images will draw the eye of the audience and make them stick around for long enough to read your captions, thus boosting your chances of solid engagement. Make sure you pick out the best stock photos or clip art. Alternatively, you can take the images yourself to give your social media a more personal feel.
That said, pay attention to how the images get displayed on each platform individually. Your social posts should be neat and, most importantly, complete. Some platforms tend to cut off images when you post them, so engage in some trial and error here to ensure you get the best results each time.
Captions
In general, you have about eight seconds to grab attention, so make each second count.
The image is the first thing a person sees, so it should be interesting enough for them to want to learn more. If you’re eager to cover all bases, remember to edit the Alt Text on your social media images too.
Once the images have done their part, the captions then take over and engage the audience. Depending on each post, you will have to change each caption’s style and purpose. However, all should be informative, persuasive or truly engaging, perhaps with a bit of wit or cleverness added into the mix!
Posting Frequency
The more posts you have, the better, but don’t post just for the sake of posting. In time, you will improve on this and figure out how many posts are too much for a single day. At the very beginning, though, you may have to pick either quality or quantity to get more people to hear about your brand.
To make things easier on you, use a content calendar like Heropost, Canva, or Planoly to ensure your posts are always well organised and up to standard.
Posting Times
Finally, you will have to consider when to post on social media too. Usually, each platform has at least three hours worth of peak engagement, but they may all be different. Even though they typically revolve around early morning, afternoon and evening, research each individually to gain more insight. What works for one platform may not be ideal for the other!
The easiest way to find out more about each platform is to turn to Google and search for the best posting times for each of your social media websites. You can also rely on Google Analytics and Insight tabs on various platforms to learn more about your engagement peak times.
Alternatively, it never hurts to look into your competitors again and analyse their posting times. When in doubt, you can also go the trial and error route. After all, you’re sure to get it right at some point by learning from your mistakes!
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