18 Tips To Make Your Marketing Efforts Soar In 2018 Marketing doesn't really have to be expensive or hard. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective.
By Freya Jones
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Marketing doesn't really have to be expensive or hard. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective. As you will be preparing for 2018, here are 18 marketing tips to help your business stand out (even on a low budget) in the new year:
1. Know your "why." It is not enough to be (a bit) faster or less expensive than your competitors. Your potential clients want to know why your business is operating. People don't buy what you do, they choose you on why you do it.
2. Be consistent in your messaging and branding. People need to recognize you, no matter where they see you. Also, please make sure all messaging has been spell-checked.
3. Use social media, but you don't need to be on every platform. Just because there are lots of social media platforms, that doesn't mean you have to do them all. Look at what your customers are using and use that.
4. Make sure you have a website, and update it often. In the digital age, if your business doesn't have a website or even a mobile website, you are majorly missing out. People will be searching for your service and products online, so make sure you're there.
Related: Five Things To Check Before Your New Website Goes Live
5. Don't forget call-to-actions! At every single point that your customer makes contact in your marketing and sales efforts, there should be a call-to-action that leads back to your contact us page, a landing page, an opt-in form, and so on.
6. Blog. Give people a reason to keep coming back to your website. Blog and give them tips, case studies, your latest products– make sure you keep giving them a reason to visit you on the web.
7. Email marketing. Collect your customer's email addresses (with their permission), and email them about upcoming sales or events. You can even filter messages out to target specific people.
8. Build a referral network. Word of mouth is the most powerful type of advertising, so build relationships with professionals and other businesses you would happily refer your customers to and who can send referrals your way, as well.
9. Partner with other businesses for co-promotion. Co-marketing is a win-win situation as essentially two brands team up on a campaign or piece of content such as a webinar, e-book, or even a special competition. Each company gets exposure to the other's audience.
Related: Why It's Better For MENA Startups To Team Up Than Race Against Each Other
10. Send handwritten seasonal holiday and thank you cards to past and current clients, business partners, professionals and brand ambassadors from your referral network, connections and friends who have helped you.
11. Host a livestream, or a Q&A session. This is a great way to connect with your online audience and get new followers. Livestream allows for a perfect environment to answer your customer's questions, and really finding out and learning more about your market.
12. Answer questions on forums and answer sites. Help out people with free advice on topics related to your products and services. You'll gain their trust, and will also look more professional.
13. Go behind the scenes. At the core of your why is the people behind your business. Don't let that personal element of your social feed fall to the wayside.
Related: Getting Social Right: The Pitfalls And The Opportunities
14. Offer free consultations. Get the conversation going by offering a one-time meeting which is a great way to showcase your expertise and get more clients.
15. Translate your website. The digital space is a multinational community. Having a website in customer's local language will help you build better relations with your clients.
16. Offer mini packages. Create bite-sized versions of your product or service, and this will attract new customers to experience your product and service, and might even lead to long-term clients.
17. Get your phone message right. Outside office hours, replace the generic "We're not here" with something more helpful or interesting, like: "We're not available, but please check out our website." Encourage the caller to contact you via other means.
18. Reduce, reuse, recycle! You don't have to constantly post new things on your social media platforms. Combine old blog posts, videos, infographics or testimonials to develop new conversations and followers.
With some solid ideas for 2018, it will help you decide your budget for the upcoming months. It can also help you with the evaluation process, so that you can cut out what's not working, and push forward with what does for the remaining months of the year.
Once you've set your marketing and sale goals for 2018, make sure your communication strategy is fully committed to achieve those goals. In other words– don't be reactive, be proactive.
