A few years back, there was a lot of talk about marketing strategies that worked and didn’t work. You would hear stories of companies that invested in billboards or TV advertisements and received little to no return on their investment.
At the same time, you would read about brands using social media to reach out to their customers and get great results. And while some feel that advertising is dead, technology has made it easier than ever to create your own advertisement-style campaigns!
What many don’t realize is that all of these different types of marketing strategies are simply variations of one thing. They're all part of what we refer to as integrated marketing. This term describes the combination of various elements of marketing (such as advertizing, public relations, and sales) into one package.
Integrated marketing typically costs more money due to the inclusion of other parts of marketing, but it always delivers better returns than individual components. That's why most big businesses have internalized this theory and use it to fuel their marketing efforts.
So how do you implement an integrated marketing strategy? Here are six basic tips for doing just that.
Creating a successful marketing strategy doesn’t happen by accident, it takes time and effort. Before you can pick a tactic to pull out of your bag, you must first identify what kind of business you want to run and what kind of company you want to be!
Your marketing strategy should match that style, so do some research and figure out which type of company you want to become. You will then need to determine if there are any gaps in the market for your product or service- something to aim towards.
Once those two points have been addressed, you can move onto deciding how much money you have to spend and whether or not you have experience running similar businesses.
From here, you can start thinking about what types of strategies would fit your budget and situation best. It is important to know as soon as possible whether or not a strategy works, because wasted money is far more damaging than having enough to succeed.
Once you have determined what areas of business are doing well, and what needs to be improved, it is time to develop your marketing strategy.
This way, you will know what changes you need to make by looking at the products and services that are working for other companies. You can then use this information to create your own successful business model!
There are many ways to market your business, and no one method is better than another unless they directly compete with the same product or service. By having several different strategies, your business will remain profitable.
You do not have to spend lots of money using every tactic, but some must be included in order to succeed. Find ones that work and add them to your repertoire.
A well-designed website is an integral part of marketing any business. Your audience will look at your site before they buy anything from you, and if it looks messy or unorganized, they may quickly leave!
Your website should tell people who you are, what you offer, and contact information for you and your team. It should include your CV, photos of you and your staff, and large pictures to showcase your products and services.
It’s very important that your visitors feel comfortable when browsing your site, so make sure to organize content and use clear language. Avoid using too many fonts as this can be difficult to read.
You don’t want your potential customers to spend time looking through pages that are hard to navigate or contain irrelevant content – they could find another company more suitable instead! Find out more about how to design a great web presence here.
Stringently follow general good etiquette such as not posting off topic material or advertising non-products and services in your posts.
Now that you have done some of the hard work by creating your business, it is time to start marketing! The first way to do this is to connect your website to all the right social media platforms.
This will give your potential customers an easy way to access you at any time. They can view your products, read about you, or even chat with you directly!
By having a presence on these sites, they can also find out more information about who you are as a person and what types of services you offer.
It is important to remember that not every site has its own internal system for posting advertisements, so don’t neglect the ones that don’t because you would be leaving money on the table.
Research different ways to get around this problem and choose one that is best for you.
A well-rounded marketing strategy includes distributing informative, educational content to as many people as possible. This can be done through blogging, social media postings, sharing articles on various sites, and more.
Running an online business means producing engaging, informative content on a constant basis.
Your content does not have to be very long or complicated – it just needs to appeal to your readers! Yours can focus on how to do things such as baking, fitness, gardening, etc.
Having rich, high quality content is an integral part of marketing yourself online.