Whether you’ve been in business for years or months, a good marketing strategy can help put you at the forefront of your industry. If the word “marketing” makes you feel stressed, confused, or overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Many businesses feel this way, which is why they either put together a haphazard marketing strategy, or choose to forgo it altogether.
But guess what? You need a marketing strategy. In fact, when you know what it is and why you need one, it can make you feel confident, excited, and secure in the future of your business.
Let’s Talk Marketing Strategies
Back in the day, all marketing was outbound. Outbound marketing is the bane of many business’s marketing efforts, as it’s a traditional marketing approach where businesses essentially chase after people in an attempt to lure them in as customers. Some of these cringe-worthy outbound marketing methods include cold calls, radio advertisements, and paper flyers.
Let me ask you a question.
When was the last time YOU got excited about someone who called you in the middle of the day to sell you something, interrupted your music station to deliver an irrelevant message, or handed you a flyer out in public, a flyer you didn’t want but were given anyway, which you promptly crumpled up?
Personally, my answer is, “NEVER.” And that’s because most outbound marketing tactics just don’t work. It’s not what attracts people to your business, and it’s not what’s going to help you get more customers.
These days, it’s all about inbound marketing, and that’s a totally different ballgame. Inbound marketing is a strategic way to bring prospective customers to you, rather than the other way around. Inbound marketing is all about awareness, drawing people to your business in a thoughtful and intentional way.
It’s not to say that all outbound marketing efforts are dead, but you have to be realistic. If you want to close the deal, you can’t randomly reach out to people in desperation, hoping they’ll want your product or service. This is more frustrating than anything and turns prospective customers off.
If you want the person-to-person connection, that’s totally fine. To be honest, many people really like personalization these days because it’s so rare. But don’t be creepy or annoying about it. Get your prospective customers a little further down the sales funnel before you decide to pop up in their daily lives.
Generally speaking, outbound marketing is much more expensive than inbound marketing, and the return on investment (ROI) is much lower, too. So it’s always recommended to start with inbound marketing to pull your prospective customers in (of their own accord) and, if needed, add in outbound marketing later to give them a little push (because they were already interested, after all).
What About a Digital Marketing Strategy… What’s That?
It’s no secret that we’re living in a digital age, so it should be no surprise that most marketing has gone digital. And the reason for that is simple: Everyone is online!
“A digital marketing strategy is a plan that helps your business achieve specific digital goals through carefully selected online marketing channels such as paid, earned, and owned media” (HubSpot).
Sounds legit. Also sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo.
Let’s put that in terms a little easier to understand…
A digital marketing strategy is basically the way you choose to engage your online audience, including prospective customers and current customers.
What Digital Marketing Looks Like
Digital marketing is all about getting prospective customers to become actual customers, and digital marketing can look like a lot of things, including:
- A website designed and optimized to help you grow your business, with clear messaging that tells your customers exactly who you are, what you offer, and how they can get it.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that increases the amount of visitors you get to your website via high-ranking placements in the results pages of search engines.
- PPC (Pay-Per-Click) that helps you reach your ideal customers through paid search advertising online.
- Social media marketing that uses social media platforms to connect with your audience so you can build your brand, increase your sales, and drive more traffic to your website.
- Email marketing that lets you automatically send emails to prospects, increasing your chances of converting them into a customer.
- Content creation that drives SEO, builds your authority, improves engagement, and acts as another avenue to convert your prospects into customers.
When you create a digital marketing strategy for your business and then implement it, the ultimate goal is to get attention and acquire customers so you can grow your business. For the best marketing results, it’s ideal to partner with a full-service digital agency that has in-house industry experts. When you go this route, know that every business is different, so you should expect your agency team to develop a custom marketing strategy for you that’s specifically tailored to your business goals.
At Business Builders, we know how big of an impact the right marketing can have on a business. That’s why we craft a complete, custom digital marketing plan for our clients so they can focus on what matters most: their business. While every business has different needs, all of our packages are designed to attract and convert more leads online with measurable marketing that really works.
Do You Really Need a Digital Marketing Strategy?
If you want your business to be around for the long-term, then yes.
When people love your business, they provide referrals to it. When you get more and more people who love your business, then you get more and more referrals — which means business never stops! — and that’s all without you doing anything except making your current customers really happy.
But if you’re bogged down worrying about where your next customer is going to come from, or you’re struggling to put together a marketing strategy all on your own, you’re not going to be able to do what you need to do most, and that’s keep your current customers happy, those same customers who can ultimately bring in more customers for you.
The thing about a digital marketing strategy is that, once it’s in place, it’ll work for you as long as you let it. People are online all day, every day, so you need to make sure that they can find you, and the product or service you offer. Digital marketing does just that.
Start Growing Your Business with a Digital Marketing Strategy!
When you get your digital marketing strategy going, you get your business growth going. At the end of the day, that’s what you want. Because more customers means more money and more success. And who doesn’t want that?
If just the thought of marketing gives you a headache, know that many other businesses feel the same. Fortunately, we’ve got a team of industry experts ready to help. If you want to achieve exponential growth through measurable marketing that really works, get in touch with our team today!
