With social media now dominating the landscape when it comes to business marketing, many business owners are confused as to which technique will work best. The traditional marketing methods using email to advertise is still the most powerful platform available, but some businesses only use Facebook advertising to grow their brand. The bottom line is no matter which platform you are using to attract business, you need to stick to a simple formula that works regardless where you are focusing your efforts. Once you understand the basic process of marketing, the rest is simple plug and play. Here are three rock solid ways to market your business successfully.
1. Knowing Who is Your Audience: The key to getting maximum results from any type of marketing campaign is defining your target audience. If you can target an audience, you have a better chance of getting more sales. It doesn't matter if you're trying to target your current customers on Facebook or through an email campaign, the key is if you are looking to talk with those group of buyers, make the offer appeal specifically to them. Don't send out that new customer discount emails to everyone on your mailing list or your old customers will feel slighted. Target a group who have purchased a particular widget from you, and send them a special notice that if they need additional widgets this week they are X% off. Speak the language your customers want to hear so they think you are talking directly to them and your rate of success increases.
2. Specifically Talk to Your Target Market: Once you have identified a target group that you want to address, reach out with an offer that is created just for them. You might be selling a particular fishing lure designed to catch a fish native to Florida. Target those zip codes and make the offer specific to that region. You might be posting a link of your social platform about a new fishing lure that you are bringing to a show in Miami, and you want to get all those people living in those zip codes to attend for a free book if they mention the ad. Sending an email to zip codes in the south Florida area concerning a convention you are attending speaks directly to them. Telling them you look forward to meeting them and have a free t-shirt for the first 100 who stop by is a great way to get people to act.
3. Measurable Your Response Rate: The key to a successful marketing campaign is being able to measure all the results and make changes where necessary. Up until this point you have simply been communicating with your audience, analyzing the results and making adjustments in marketing. To be able to measure the success of your efforts, you have to have a physical action take place. That could be someone shared a product link on Facebook to their friends, the open rate of your last email campaign, how many customers brought in a coupon from your flyer, or the number of people who signed up to receive your newsletter. Whatever response you received from your latest campaign can be measured and you need to be using the appropriate tools to measure those results automatically. Many free email marketing programs allow you to see who opened the email, how long they visited your website, from where they visited, and what links they clicked. All of those actions are measurable and will help you to sculpt a better campaign next time.
Use these three rock solid techniques with any marketing campaign and you chances of increasing sales goes up tremendously.
