9 Tips to Successfully Market Your Business Strategic marketing is key to an organization's success. It involves understanding your customers' needs and how they can be met using different promotional mediums and visibility techniques.
By Christopher Massimine Edited by Micah Zimmerman
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Great marketing is a long-term investment, but one that pays off in the end. It's about building trust and sharing your values with customers, so they feel like they're part of something bigger than just buying your product or service. Here are some vital tips for successful marketing.
1. Understand your target market
If you're trying to market your business, you must know who you are targeting. The best way to do this is by creating a persona — a fictional person who represents the characteristics of your ideal customer. It should be based on real data and research, but it doesn't have to be 100% accurate. Just aim to approximate what your target market looks like and behaves like.
Once you have a clear idea of what kind of person will likely buy your products or services, it's time to craft messaging that resonates with them internally. This isn't just about coming up with catchy taglines or slogans. You need to find ways of communicating with people in a way that connects with them emotionally rather than just giving them facts about how great your company is or why they should buy from you instead of someone else.
Related: Digging For Gold: Identifying Your Ideal Customer
2. Develop an effective brand
Developing an effective brand is a key element of marketing your business. A strong brand identity will help customers understand what your company represents and how they can benefit from it.
When defining your brand's personality, think about what sets you apart from other companies in your industry. Is there something special about the products or services that you offer? Do you have a unique way of doing things? Make sure to include these elements in developing a strong corporate identity that will help people remember who you are and why they should choose to do business with you over another company offering similar products or services.
Once you've defined who and what makes up your company's personality, consider how best to communicate this information through visual cues such as logos, color schemes, tone of voice and website design choices. You may also want to develop messaging around the values behind what makes up your company. Hence, others know what matters most when deciding whether or not they are interested in doing business.
Related: 10 Marketing Strategies to Fuel Your Business Growth
3. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and convenient
Ensure that your website is accessible, easy to use and fast on any device. Mobile-friendly websites are critical as over 50% of all internet traffic now comes from mobile devices. A good template should be responsive, which means it adjusts its layout based on the device you're using (i.e., desktop or laptop computer versus tablet or smartphone.)
Use a CMS that allows you to publish content easily, manage posts and pages and make changes as needed without coding knowledge. Also, consider having an online store where customers can purchase products directly from their smartphones or tablets with minimal clicks.
Related: How Mobile-Friendly Is Your Website? If You Don't Know, You're Missing Out on Sales.
4. Publish excellent content
Publishing well-written and engaging content is a great way to get your message out in front of customers. It's also a long-term strategy, not a short-term tactic. Content marketing emphasizes creating compelling written material such as social media posts or articles that are designed around helping people solve problems or answer questions related to your business's products or services. It can be used to build credibility with customers, and it can also help you generate leads.
5. Create interactive online experiences
It would be best if you were creating interactive experiences for your audience. The experiences should be fun, memorable and social — and these experiences should be available on every available online channel — whether it's YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Pinterest.
6. Create interactive physical experiences
One of the best ways to market your business is by creating events that share unique incentives with your existing customers and draw in new leads. In this case, giving them exclusive access to products or services will make them feel special, which makes them more likely to become repeat customers. You could also provide discounts on certain products or services.
7. Create great press releases
A press release is a written statement that announces news, events or other information. It's an important tool for marketing your business and can help you get publicity for your products and services.
A good press release will give you authority as an expert in your field by offering readers valuable information about what you do, why it matters, who might benefit from it and how they could get involved with what you offer. A well-written press release will help generate interest from new clients while also boosting search engine rankings.
Related: The Essentials of an Effective Press Release Media Strategy
8. Use social media strategically
Social media is a great way to interact with your customers and potential customers. You can share relevant content to your business, answer questions or address complaints and market your products or services.
Post photos of branded merchandise like t-shirts or mugs that people can buy at events if they want one. Share content from other sources — like blog posts from industry experts — to help build trust and establish yourself as an authority in the industry. Use hashtags to reach new audiences on Twitter by creating conversations around popular themes among other users who might not otherwise be interested in what you have to say.
Related: 3 Ways TikTok Can Help Your Business Grow
9. Keep trying new things, even if they fail at first
Some of the best marketing ideas are born out of failure, and keeping an open mind is essential. Don't shy away from failure; make it part of your plan, and be prepared to fail. You never know what will work until you try it. If a particular approach isn't working for you, don't hesitate to change direction and try something new.
