marketing methods
January 11, 2016
10 Ways To Simplify Your Local Marketing Strategy In 2016
Looking back at lessons learned last year and expected trends for this year, columnist Wesley Young cuts through the clutter and suggests ways to make your marketing strategy simpler, clearer and easier to execute.
As I scoured articles proclaiming the top trends in marketing for 2016, one thing that struck me was how many new technologies and new products were being pushed out, all in the name of bigger and better. It was a bit overwhelming.
For the local business owner, marketing has become so complicated. Audiences are fragmented over hundreds of different media outlets, apps, platforms, search engines, social media sites and business listing products.
Yet technology is constantly evolving the way media is accessed and consumed, and it remains critical for businesses to use technology to stay competitive. Large businesses have the resources to utilize every new martech innovation and reach out through every available social media channel.
For the local business, instead of being a jack of all trades, doing a few things well may be more productive. For many, simplifying their marketing strategy may make it possible to take advantage of effective new technologies in manageable, bite-sized pieces.
Here are 10 strategies that will help you simplify and focus your search and marketing practices and make them more effective.
1. Use Social Media For Engagement Only… Or Not At All
Extensive use of social media, with its free access and huge audience, can be tempting. But social media has yet to prove its worth in the search space in helping consumers find new local businesses.
Facebook is trying to change that with the launch of a new local search site, but it is still in beta mode, and the functionality of searching for local businesses on its current platform via Places is limited.
The exceptions may be Pinterest and Instagram, graphically oriented social platforms that are conducive to discovery of new retail products and food. In fact, Pinterest recently announced that it was only providing full customer support for businesses in the Retail and Consumer Goods sectors.
Otherwise, social media is effective at engaging with existing customers, keeping them updated on what’s going on, and reaching out to them with deals and offers. Engagement keeps your business top of mind and helps with retention and as a surrogate for branding.
It does take time to do it right, and time is a commodity many SMBs do not have. According to the Local Search Association (LSA) and Thrive Analytics‘ 2015 Local Marketing Outlook for Home and Auto Emergency Related services, 64 percent of SMBs said the biggest challenge with digital marketing is time and knowledge to engage in effective marketing. In fact, 60 percent of SMBs that manage their own social media reported their content was updated only every six months or more.
Outdated or inaccurate information risks losing customers and is a poor reflection on the business. In that case, it may be better not to have a social media presence.
A study by Google demonstrated there was no real correlation between media usage and influence. In other words, just because a lot of people use Facebook or click on your business site, it doesn’t mean they will buy from you. What matters is the consumer experience and matching content with what consumers want or need.
Alternately, use your social media pages like an enhanced listing and redirect any traffic towards one place that is updated, such as your website, where the consumer experience matches the experience you’d want them to have in your store.
2. Consider Mobile-Only Website Designs
Mobile has already overtaken desktop in both local search and Google search. Instead of investing in responsive sites or multiple sites for different screens, simplify and design a site just for mobile devices.
Mobile sites are still accessible on desktops — they might have more white space than a regular website, but they function fine on a desktop. Low-res graphics meant for smaller screens may appear grainy, such as this one on American Airlines’ mobile site, but uploading higher resolution images will solve that. Macy’s mobile site looks good on a desktop but would function better with vertical scrolling only.
For those who plan to use their mobile site for all screens, these are easy adjustments to make. The design will satisfy Google’s algorithm for mobile search rank and the 67 percent of consumers who demand mobile-optimized sites. And it will simplify not just your strategy, but your customers’ experience, as well.
This strategy can be extended to other marketing formats such as emails, paid search ads, display ads and listings.
3. Don’t Be A TMI Marketer
We all have friends who share TMI (too much information). Don’t make the same mistake in your marketing. I recently heard a radio ad that sounded like they hired a speed reader to read the script. The messaging was lost, and the call to action was rushed.
Consumers today are faced with information overload that clutters decision making. Here are some ideas for simplifying your customer experience that will help drive consumer action towards the path to purchase:
- Use single calls to action in ads to drive action. If your best leads are calls, use call-extension-only ads where clicks go not to a landing page but dial a phone number. Use text to describe the action that needs to be taken, such as “make a reservation,” and have the click go directly to the e-commerce reservation interface.
- Provide simple choices in enhanced listings, with the most requested actions and information only, and provide extensions to allow people to act immediately — including directions/maps, phone numbers, online ordering/reservations and hours of operation. A link to your website will help those who need more detailed information.
- Highlight the most requested information prominently above the fold on your website, so it is easy to find and easy to access.
Simplifying your customer experience simplifies and focuses your marketing, as well.
4. Funnel Everything To Your Top 20 Percent
How does simplifying your marketing world by 80 percent sound? Based on the 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle, 80 percent of your results are driven by 20 percent of your marketing, including search visits from keywords, calls from call extensions in ads, and ultimately, sales from advertising.
Thus, it makes sense to identify and invest in that Top 20 Percent. If you do nothing else, at least test the rule and see where the cutoff for your best-performing marketing assets lies.
Many of these tips are derivative of this idea. But there’s a second lesson here. The fact that this principle isn’t cited more often is a testament to the volume of distractions we constantly face.
The repeated call to return “back to the basics” demonstrates a need to be reminded, again and again, to reset and look at what has worked in the past. It’s just become too easy to be caught up in always looking ahead.
5. Get Specific On Your Target Audience
Targeting simplifies your message and matches your marketing with those most likely to respond. But not all targeting is created equal.
Marketers today think they are doing a pretty good job at targeting. But according to Forrester, however, while 66 percent of marketers feel they are doing an excellent or very good job at personalizing advertising and marketing; only 31 percent of consumers agree.
One problem is that not enough data points are being used to drive relevant search ads to the right audience. A study by VentureBeat found that the amount of data being used for targeting varied widely among those using email marketing, a digital channel that is highly amenable to personalization.
About 50 percent of marketers used 10 or fewer profile segments for targeting, while the other half used up to 100 segments, including 10 percent that personalized on an individual basis.
While collecting more data points may seem counter to simplifying, doing this work up front will streamline the entire process to cut out unnecessary and wasteful efforts. It simplifies the choices you make in reaching that audience.
In today’s data-driven world, very detailed profiles can be created and targeted. The more you know about your ideal customer, the better you can deliver relevant search results and advertising.
That means when paid search ads are delivered, they are not driven just by keywords, but by many other factors such as geography, demographics, past search history and other profile-specific information of the user.
6. Consolidate Your Targeting Data
Putting all your data in one place not only simplifies analyzing and managing it, but it makes your data much more effective to use. Gathering a lot of specific information for targeting isn’t effective if only bits and pieces are used at any given time.
Yet Forrester found that marketers average 15 separate systems to store customer data. Even if cumulatively those 15 systems contained 50 different customer data points, having the data spread out renders on average just over three data points that can be used together.
Only 22 percent of marketers used a single database allowing them to use all of the data together to build a full customer profile. Seventy percent of those expressed that the data was very useful in creating individual customer profiles, compared to 52 percent of those without a single database.
7. Use Programmatic Buying To Narrowly Fulfill Your Ads
Programmatic buying puts all that rich data to good use and automatically matches precise, high conversion leads with your business. It also makes managing your ad buying much simpler with a single, or just a few, interfaces to work with.
Not manually managing individual placement doesn’t mean ads shouldn’t be tested and the criteria shouldn’t be tweaked. But programmatic buying can help place ads on multiple platforms across a multitude of media outlets.
In other words, you get a wide breadth of coverage across media, but only those customers who are most valuable to your business see the ads. Use the time saved to create better content.
Concerns about the cost of highly targeted marketing largely focus on those targeted keywords that receive significant traffic. But that isn’t necessarily what you are looking for. Instead, focus on “long-tail keywords,” more specific keywords that together more accurately describe the user’s intent and match your targeted customer profile.
8. Measure Meaningful Numbers
Our big data economy gives rise to more ways, more programs and more services that help you analyze the data. It’s easy, however, to get caught up in the metrics that everyone else measures or that marketers cite as proof that ads are working. Sometimes those numbers are in conflict with one another.
For example, a study by xAd revealed that the almost universally tracked measurement, CTR, negatively affects secondary actions such as phone calls. Optimizing ads for CTR increased the rate by 38 percent but caused the secondary action rate to fall by 69 percent — not a good result if your best leads come from phone calls.
Focusing on the numbers that matter to your business helps cut through the clutter of analytics and will sharpen your ability to make good business decisions.
9. Embrace E-commerce
The benefits of automated tools and e-commerce seem obvious. Yet SMBs are slow to adapt — for example, only five percent of restaurants have adopted automated tools such as online orders or reservations.
The barrier for local businesses is likely the time and adjustment it takes to overhaul the current system and the fear of disruption due to change.
Get past that fear by thinking of it like cleaning out your closet. You’ve got to empty it out, and the rest of your room might look like a disaster until you purge, organize and put things back. But the investment in automated tools will pay dividends quickly and for a long time.
Using e-commerce platforms means leads are captured 24/7, orders are taken and filled automatically, reminders are emailed, fewer cancelations result, fewer errors are made and customers are happier.
Integration with back-end systems improves reporting and increases ROI. While it does take some front-end work to transition, the end result will be more efficiency and simpler operations.
10. Reuse Your Content Across All Platforms And Media
Larger businesses might employ staff for each form of media, or even each media channel that allows them to create unique content for emails, search campaigns, display ads, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ to take advantage of the nuances of each interface and general audience. Small businesses likely can’t afford that luxury.
SMBs may be better off creating one high-quality piece of content they can share across all media channels, rather than customizing content for each channel that suffers from inattention.
Note that this is not the opposite of targeting your customers with relevant information as discussed above. Rather, targeting focuses on which users of media see your content. Reusing your content across media channels reaches those same customers across platforms but with the same targeted message.
Conclusion
If marketing is overwhelming you, implementing even some of these strategies might help save some time and effort to free you up to do a better job at those more important tasks or allow you to put in the upfront work to adapt technologies for the long term.
Simplifying your marketing strategy doesn’t always mean it takes less time or work. But it does mean less confusion and clearer goals that allow your marketing to be more focused and more effective.
Wesley Young- Search Engine Land
7 Online Marketing Methods That Have Stood The Test Of Time
Many online marketing trends are just that — trends.
They rise, they fade, they die. It’s one of the most frustrating things about marketing. You spend all this money and invest all this time in something, and then — poof! — it’s gone. You feel like you’ve wasted time and effort.
In the grand scheme of things, digital marketing is still a new industry. It wasn’t until 1990 or so that marketers first started dabbling in that new thing called the Internet, and discovering ways to amplify their brand’s presence.
Look how far we’ve come.
The question we need to ask now is this: Are there any marketing techniques that have stood the test of time? The answer is yes.
Therefore, it behooves us as marketers to analyze those time-tested techniques and use them wisely.
Why?
Because the techniques that have endured to the present will probably endure in the future as well. We should invest our resources and our energy in marketing that gets results.
In this article, I will survey seven of the time-tested, revenue-building techniques that are worth carrying into the future.
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing is the current method of choice for most marketers. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 88% of B2Bs and 76% of B2C organizations are using content marketing.
Content marketing was thriving far before the Internet, and even before any of us were alive. John Deere’s magazine, The Furrow, was a classic form of content marketing, launched in 1895. Its subscribers were — or became — customers of Deere equipment and fostered future generations of customers.
Michelin is known as both an information provider and a tire manufacturer. Their information comes in the form of the Red Guide, Michelin star ratings, and Michelin maps. This technique has mushroomed into a vast business, but it started out as a content marketing strategy. Look how successful it’s been!
Like other forms of marketing, content creation doesn’t provide the instant results that you might wish for. Hang in there, though. Content marketing has been successful in the past, and will give you results for years to come.
2. SEO
One of the most worn-out cliches in marketing is this: “SEO is dead.”
Marketers have been making this claim since 1997. If you’re doing the math, SEO has allegedly been in the throes of death for 18 years.
In reality, SEO isn’t going away. There will always be search. That’s what humans do. There will always be engines, even if they are run by smart algorithms and artificial intelligence. There will always be optimization.
Therefore, there will always be search engine optimization even if it looks more mature than its younger self.
3. The Value Proposition
Many old-school marketing methodologies have their online equivalents. The value proposition, also referred to as the unique selling proposition (USP), is one example.
A solid value proposition is the unique value add that your company promises and delivers to its customers. When we tested value propositions in two of my online businesses, we boosted our conversion rate by more than 10%.
Value propositions are as old as marketing itself. In fact, you could say that value propositions are at the heart of marketing.
Unsheathe this old marketing weapon, and watch your marketing improve.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is the forgotten stepchild of online marketing. When social media got all sexy, many marketers simply forgot about the ancient art of email marketing.
The data backs up email as a mighty marketing force. Email marketing is responsible for 16% of customers acquired, compared with the less than 1% acquisition rate from Facebook. Search marketing still remains the top-ranked marketing method, but email holds a steady second place. You can keep using that antiquated communication method for as long as it survives.
5. Social Proof
What does a hot dog stand have in common with Amazon.com?
Answer: Social proof.
Social proof, also known as “informational social influence,” means that people follow the actions and behaviors of those around them.
If the hot dog stand has a long line of happy, hungry customers, then you think, “That stand must serve great hot dogs.” You can’t know for certain until you taste the food, but you assume it’s the case because of the sheer number of people lining up to get one.
How does this apply to Amazon.com? Successful ecommerce retailers know that they need to back up their products with social reinforcement. If people are liking, rating, commenting, or reviewing products, it gives social proof to those products.
Social proof has been a form of online marketing for a long time, but never before has it been so powerful, streamlined, and primed for success.
6. Persuasive Copy
The words we use — copy, content, webinars, blog articles, infographics, web pages — are potent conduits of persuasion.
One enduring online marketing method is using powerful and persuasive copy to get people to take action.
Students of persuasive writing may have read Thomas Paine and his 1776 treatise, Common Sense. That’s persuasive writing. Persuasion goes even farther back in time — to Aristotle and his school of rhetoric.
Persuasive writing and speaking is as old as humankind itself, and it still works today.
Using persuasive copy on your website and marketing assets will score conversions.
7. Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Taken literally, word-of-mouth marketing is one person using his or her voice to tell another person about a product, service, or business.
n its modern iteration, word-of-mouth marketing is people promoting products, services, or businesses on social networks by sharing experiences, rating products, and writing reviews. It was with us during the early days of forum-based Internet usage, and it remains with us still.
Word-of-mouth marketing, along with its cousins evangelism marketing and influencer marketing, are still powerful ways to reach your customers.
Conclusion
Unless we experience a global cataclysm, digital marketing will be around for the long haul. Because of its volatile nature, however, we need to play it smart. We need to engage in marketing techniques that really work instead of just snatching at the occasional flash-in-the-pan.
If we pour our efforts and dollars into reliable methods, we’ll eventually come out on top.
What are some marketing techniques that you think will endure?
-Written By Neil Patel for Forbes/ Entrepreneurs
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