The #1 Best Marketing Strategy of all Time
The #1 best marketing strategy of all time has not changed in the last 10 years. It has not changed in the last 20 years. Maybe even the last 50 years or more.
Whoa, stop the presses! Digital is where it’s at. Online is king. Mentions, hits, website visitors and proof of performance is new lingo, of course marketing has changed.
Has it? The most successful companies, salespeople and marketers do the same things well today, as they did 50 years ago.
- They focus on people.
- They know their product.
- They know their brand’s place.
- Their price is based on their target market’s willingness to pay.
- They promote their industry first and their brand second.
Online Marketing Means More Options for Your Business
We were working with a client who was struggling with their marketing budget. To be frank, we were brought in to review the current activities and look for opportunities to reduce costs or improve performance. In talking with the client, we found ourselves talking about the state of marketing nearly 20-years ago. A time when newspaper, radio and TV were the only advertising options. Layout and design, or script writing, happened with the advertiser and a phone call was all that was needed to renew the ad from last year. Buying an ad took a few minutes or a cup of coffee (and a smoke) at most.
Today marketers have dozens of mediums to choose from; sophisticated data to interpret and the ability, in many cases, to place their own ads and supply their own creative. A single product or service may be advertised in 10 or more mediums, to achieve similar results.
Retail stores used to advertise sales in the newspaper and on radio. Today those same stores need to have the event promoted on Burbio to update Amazon Alexa and Google Home, place a Facebook and Instagram ad, develop content for their website, develop a campaign for advertising online and likely still run a radio ad. That’s eight mediums for you numbers folks. The marketer who made a phone call to place an ad a few years ago now needs a sophisticated toolbox to reach their target audience.
Enter Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation means different things to different users. To a small business it means being able to manage multiple locations with ease and for a larger business it means in-depth reporting that can provide on-demand performance. It also means reducing the need for human intervention. An ad can be place for days, weeks and months at a time, with changes only needed when performance wanes. Blog posts and social media can be shared to multiple platforms at the same time. Landing pages can capture customer information, trigger bread crumbs to follow the customer on their web searches and enter contact information into sophisticated Customer Relationship Management programs.
Automation does not reduce marketing to a non-human activity; it allows us marketing-humans to maximize our time, challenge ourselves to constantly improve upon last months performance and strategically achieve business objectives.
This Where We Shine. Welcome Digital Marketing.
A sophisticated approach to marketing. We look at marketing from all angles. The data. The website. Social platforms. Customer mapping. High value customers and Highest value products and services. Syndication and website back links. Search engine results over time using reputation management, listings, reviews, social listening, website optimization and more
If the days of making a phone call to place an ad are gone, you might also be thinking, so to are the days of simplicity being the best marketing strategy. Yet, in talking with clients, customers and monitoring many trends, it seems the #1 best strategy continues to be:
- Know your people.
- Your customers. Who are they? What do they like and dislike? Build a relationship with your customers. Focus on people, not the sale.
- Know your product.
- The ins, the outs, the good, the bad. And know your competitors’ products.
- Know your brand’s place.
- How does your product compare to others in the same category? Same marketplace?
- Place also refers to where or how you sell your product. In a store, online, in the downtown area or in small neighbourhoods.
- Understand your value proposition and price.
- What problem does your product solve for customers? Does your customer know this problem exists? Do they know a solution exists? Are you the luxury product or the entry-level product?
- Promote your product.
- Expecting to bolster your product at the expense of another is a sign of a weak product. Bolster your industry first, and your product second.
