6 Marketing Strategies You NEED for Your Brand Growth
You know you need to market your brand to see the results you want but where do you even start?
You probably have some idea but knowing where to focus and what to prioritize is often the difficult part. It can leave you focused on too many strategies or not enough and feeling completely overwhelmed, burned out, or just plain procrastinating.
Don’t let this stop you though. The important thing is to first start with the pieces you understand most (especially if you’re doing your marketing in-house) and then integrating more and more strategies as you grow. That way you avoid the overwhelm and procrastination.
Let’s talk about the 6 marketing strategies that you need to start integrating into your business to boost your growth!
SOCIAL MEDIA
Chances are that this is where you’re starting with your marketing which is great! According to GlobalWebIndex, 54% of social media users use social media to research products and 71% are more likely to purchase products and services based on social media referrals.
And if that doesn’t convince you, ninety-one percent visit the brand’s website or app, 89% will buy from the brand and 85% will recommend the brand to a family or friend after following.
Social media is such a powerful tool and a great way to quickly connect with people in your target audience. The key is to figure out which platform(s) works best for your brand and that all comes down to where your audience is hanging out. Think about your target market, their characteristics, and how that factors into their social media usage.
CONTENT MARKETING
Yes, this includes your social content but also every other piece of content you put out including:
Blog posts
Email marketing
Podcasting
Video content
Lead magnets
Presentations
Courses/webinars
And so much more!
Not only does this give a variety of touchpoints for your target audience to engage with your brand and allow them to get to know you even more, it also can have an impact on other areas of your marketing strategy. For example, blogging regularly can actually help boost your SEO. Fresh content on your site means there is a reason for search engines to regularly crawl your site and pick up alllll those keywords!
When looking at your content marketing strategy, you want to make sure that each piece works seamlessly together. That way when a potential client/customer interacts with your brand, they get the same experience the entire time.
To do this, you can actually repurpose a lot of your content marketing. Use your blog posts to create one or more social media posts. Record a podcast or Youtube video on the same topic. Send an email out to your email list with the same topic.
Have a blog post or piece of content that was really popular? Use it to create a lead magnet for your email list and develop an email funnel to nurture that connection and encourage a sales at the end.
This makes the entire customer experience cohesive while also making life for you much easier!
EMAIL MARKETING
Your email list is golddddd. These are your most loyal audience members. People know when they sign up for an email list they are going to then get emails and if you’ve even been on Old Navy’s list you know how annoying those can get! That means people don’t part with their email address easily so when they do, you know they actually care about your brand.
That means you need to provide HELLA value for them. Everything from the lead magnet (also called the freebie or opt-in) you provide them for signing up for your list to your nurture sequence if you have one and the individual campaigns you sent should all be focused around providing value so when you do have a launch or something new for them to purchase, they are much more likely to buy from you.
And speaking of purchasing, with your email list, you can actually start predicting your revenue. The standard conversion rate for an email list is 1%.
PR STRATEGY
We’re talking traditional public relations where you or your products are featured in magazines, online publications, podcasts, etc. but I also include influencer marketing in this category too. And this right here is going to give you major street cred while also introducing you to new people in your target audience.
Getting into national publications yourself might be a little tricky (but not impossible, I’ve done it and I share my tips here), you can pitch yourself to more regional or local publications. Also think about the niche you’re in and if there are podcasts that would be a good fit. These are a little easier to get featured on but will still have an amazing effect (plus podcasts you can really show your personality off which helps build a deeper connection with your audience).
Not sure where to start for traditional PR? Sign up for HARO!
And if you’re on a budget for influencer marketing, look for micro- and nano-influencers… they often have SUPER engaged audiences as they’re working really hard to build their community. And the more engaged their audience, the more likely they are to actually trust that person’s opinion and buy from you.
Not only does PR help you built that credibility, if the feature is published digitally the backlink from that publication is also great for your SEO! #DoubleWin
NETWORKING
This may seem a little old school in our digital age but you cannot underestimate the power of networking. I cannot tell you how networking has actually benefitted several of my businesses. In fact, I get a lot of my business now from networking in person as well as in Facebook groups.
Basically you want to find a way to do this your own way so you truly shine. While I’ll do them from time to time, networking events give me the cold sweats so I prefer to network in other ways.
As mentioned, Facebook groups have been a solid place for me to generate leads. There are groups for just about any and all industries so you’ll definitely be able to find one where your target audience hangs out. Often people ask for advice in these groups where you can show off your expertise. Other people will ask for recommendations and you can throw your hat in the ring here. Just overall it’s a really fun and easy way to connect with others.
Another thing I like to do is invite other local business owners out for a coffee from time-to-time (virtual coffee dates are also fun!). Since I work with small business owners, this makes sense for me to do but I always go into these as a connection (aka I look at it as a date and just wanting to get to know the person). I never ever pitch during these because it doesn’t feel authentic to me and a lot of people are really turned off by that.
No matter what way you choose to network, this should definitely be something you do on a regular basis.
CUSTOMER/CLIENT EXPERIENCE
I know most of the time we don’t think about customer experience being a part of your marketing strategy but it is KEY. When you have happy customers and clients, they will sing your praises to anyone that will listen and that, my friends, is the best type of marketing if you ask me.
Think about each touchpoint you have with a customer from the first moment they learn about you to the moment they purchase to anything afterward.
How do you want them to feel along that journey?
How can you make this experience unique and special for them compared to competitors?
How can you make the process and journey easy for them?
Considering these questions and mapping our the customer experience will help you not only create an experience they won’t forget but it also increases your perceived brand value (and you can charge a premium!)
Take some time and really consider how you can start integrating each of these strategies into your overall marketing strategy. Remember to make each strategy your own, cohesive, and impactful and you’ll start seeing the effects on your bottom line!
Need help fitting all these pieces together into one big, cohesive marketing strategy? I can help!
