It
has gotten a lot tougher for companies to find new business, and the days of
sending emails and cold calling as primary sales tools are long gone.
Now,
your potential customer wants to find you on their terms: when they need you
and when they feel like looking for you. And looking for you often means
shopping online, with approximately 60% of online visitors using a mobile
device to do so.
So,
if your potential customers have changed the way they shop, it’s imperative
that you change the way you market. Here are six marketing programs that you
should be implementing to help you find new customers and grow your business.
1. Media outreach. I
recently read an article about two books that were highly recommended for the
modern communicator. Ten minutes later I had ordered them on Amazon. This is
the power of media coverage. It’s still essential to have a media relations
program in place to reach the tens of thousands of relevant people who could
buy your product. Media relations is cost efficient (especially compared to
direct mail or advertising) with huge impact and great reach. Try to get
included in stories about your industry, offer magazines feature stories
written about trends or best practices, and work to get your news release
published.
2. News releases direct-to-buyer.
For many years, public relations professionals would write and distribute press
releases strictly for the press. The market matured and potential buyers began
looking for information that was published by getting alerts tied to keywords.
Communicators figured out that if you wrote releases for both the press and
potential customers that you could ultimately accomplish what you set out to do
by having press run your story. To write news releases that go direct-to-buyers
make sure they are optimized with keywords that buyers are searching for,
formatted for search, mobile, and social, and includes relevant links for more
information and images.
3. Content marketing. As
buyers became more skeptical of the sales process, they began to look for
companies that would help rather than sell; thus, the advent of content
publishing. Buyers looking for products often interact with companies and executives
by absorbing the content that they publish. This often leads to engagement with
the company and through discussion can lead to a sale. Content comes in many
forms such as eBooks, newsletters, white papers, infographics, slides, video,
podcasts, pictures, and blog posts. As an added benefit, the published content
also helps improve search engine ranking for the company, which means even more
Website traffic.
4. Blogging program.
Establishing a blog, built into the company Website, and when formatted with
keyword-rich content, will help your Website improve its search ranking.
Posting news, helpful information, and other current events on the blog can
help make your Website a lively marketing environment rather than a static
brochure. Writing a post for another blog is another terrific strategy to put
your company in front of potential new buyers. You can also ask bloggers to
supply a guest post on your blog as well, which will increase the credibility
of your blog, and expose your blog and company to the followers of the guest
blogger.
5. Social media channels.
Social media has different dimensions to it such as social media networking
(becoming part of different communities, building audiences, and interacting
with people) and social media marketing (using social channels to publish
content to get visibility, content sharing, and more Website traffic). Many
businesses get overwhelmed by the process of starting and staying active with their
channels. The key is to build a plan and implement it. To start, I would
recommend LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. There are many other
channels that are available, but these four are the ones to get started with.
Building out these channels will help with engagement and relationship
building, meeting new people, and will allow you to share media coverage,
content, and news.Social media channels. According to a social media agency in UK, social media has different dimensions to it such
as social media networking (becoming part of different communities, building
audiences, and interacting with people) and social media marketing (using
social channels to publish content to get visibility, content sharing, and more
Website traffic)
6. Website optimization.
Your Website should be optimized for search engine and mobile viewing. Visitors
must have access to the corporate blog from the home page with the ability to
subscribe via email and RSS. The site should have social media buttons to like,
share, and follow. It’s ideal that each Website page have a header, title and
page description, and keywords that flow into the body copy, and it’s recommend
that photos have an Alt Tag description with keywords. The Website should have
a mobile CSS or a redirect to a mobile layout, and a mobile viewport tag so
that it can be viewed via mobile devices and smartphones.
It
all starts with a plan tied to goals and objectives. The plan should have
measurement components to evaluate effectiveness and success. For content
marketing, a company can create a tactical calendar with deadlines for
publishing in various channels. Today’s plan would also include process
strategies for marketing automation once leads start coming into the company.
While these efforts do require work and attention, these are the strategies
that are attracting today’s sophisticated buyer, while allowing a company to
spend its marketing dollars wisely to acquire them.
