Creating an effective marketing strategy is a little like trying to put together a puzzle: You start with the corners then fill in the edges before working inward to connect those tricky pieces.
You have the basic marketing channels covered. You have a blog and you update it regularly. You have social media pages, too, and you know how to use them. You measure ROI and work the funnel, so you are filling in the edges of the marketing puzzle, but something’s missing still, because the picture never seems complete.
Marketing is more difficult than your average jigsaw puzzle because the playing field keeps changing. As trends evolve and marketplaces grow, you need to cultivate new strategies. That is where many companies drop the ball. Consider some marketing concepts that you might not be using but need for success.
Lead Scoring
Your current marketing is generating leads, but what are you doing with them? Lead generation is an overwhelming process at times because few companies have the time or resources to contact them all. Not every lead you get is worth pursuing, either.
Lead scoring allows you to weed out the those that are not sales-ready and make the process more efficient. There are two methods of lead scoring available:
- Traditional – This is the manual method of scoring leads. You look at the data gathered searching for clues about whether a lead is worth scrutinizing further. For example, a B2B business can easily pick out which leads are actual businesses just by looking at the email address provided. If it ends in “@gmail.com,” the data is probably submitted by a consumer, not a business. John@mycompany.com is a more promising choice because the contact at least works for a business.
- Predictive – Predictive lead scoring is done by software based on criteria you establish. This is a practical solution if you have a database of leads to analyze. The program uses an algorithm to bubble up the dominant leads to the top of the call list.
Find the best scoring method for your business to get the most from your lead generation.
Turn Your Brand Story into a Fairytale
Modern consumers want entertainment. If your “About” page reads like a sales pitch, chances are you are failing to grab anyone’s attention. Rewrite that dull text into a captivating brand story, one designed to capture the heart of your target reader. Make the story a narrative that combines both personal and professional details to humanize the brand and foster lasting relationships.
Once you have a great story, mission, or quest, you can share that across the web. Your about page is only the beginning, as you can create content, share on social media, and broadcast on ads what your story is, and why people should get behind you. Doing so will create emotional ties between you and the public, that will lead to better customer relationships and often more business.
Get Into Remarketing
Remarketing is a powerful way to hook someone that has already shown interest in your brand or products. Remarketing is designed for the one that got away, because most companies fail to convert a viewer the first time around. It allows you to utilized bounced traffic by staying in the forefront of the viewer’s mind.
Remarketing is cookie-based technology that follows your potential buyer as they surf the web. Let’s say the next stop after your website is Facebook. At the edge of the newsfeed is an ad showing your brand or product, so they don’t forget you.
You can also build on that experience, according to Facebook. The social media site creates a persona using the remarketing process and shows that same ad to “Lookalike Audiences,” in other words, people with similar interests.
Webinars
Webinars are an effective way to showcase your company’s expertise, put a face on your brand and reach out to new prospects. It is also a networking tool you can use to create partnerships with influencers in your industry. By leveraging those alliances as part of the webinar, you touch base with a new audience – one that might not be assessable otherwise.
There are a couple of tricks that you will want to keep in mind when putting together a webinar. First, find a platform that easy for both you and your viewer to use. You want one that will record the live presentation, as well, so you can reuse it later as part of your video library. Some webinar platforms, like ClickMeeting, even let you use all your own branding to maintain your company’s look at feel.
Start promoting your webinar early, too. You want to give viewers enough notice and take advantage of all your marketing channels to advertise the show. Keep in mind when planning your script and marketing, that webinars are designed with the audience in mind. This is not an excuse to advertise your company and you’re not making a sales pitch. Choose a topic that is informative and provides value to the viewers.
Videos
Speaking of video libraries, how is yours looking? If you don’t utilize a video marketing channel, you are missing out on one of the most impressive visual assets out there. You can use video for:
- Social media – In November 2015, viewers watched 8 billion videos a day on Facebook
- Emails – Marketers saw up to 300 percent increase in click through rates on emails with videos
- Blogs – 87 percent of online marketers currently use videos
- Customer Support – Use videos to deal with common questions and free up your support staff
- Getting Started – Provides a hands-on explanation with new products and reduces customer frustration
- Event Previews – You get more people to events if they know what to expect.
Video marketing allows you to target specific users, so focus your strategy on the people most likely to convert. 90 percent of buyers claim they use videos as part of the decision-making process.
Marketing is the one puzzle you will always be looking to solve. Keeping up on the current technology and buying trends allows you to come up with creative solutions, though. Make a habit of reevaluating your marketing strategies and looking for ways to expand, so you’re doing all you can to ensure success.