A competitive marketplace requires all businesses to find a way to stand out. In order to grow your audience, reach more customers, build brand awareness, and boost revenue, you need the right marketing strategies. This is true for everyone regardless of if you sell products online, own a local business, or run a B2B business.
Through marketing, you can educate prospective customers about the products or services you offer, facilitating their journey through the buying process and boosting your sales. As well as boosting brand awareness and letting more people know about your brand, marketing also aims to simplify the sales process. Let’s take a look at some different types of marketing and how they fit your needs.
Pick The Best Strategy for Your Audience
It is important to consider your audience when choosing one of the many marketing strategies for small businesses. There are two types of businesses: B2B and B2C. Business-to-business (B2B) marketing involves marketing to other companies rather than customers. This usually requires the use of a sales team to answer questions and drive sales. In order to retain customers, many B2B companies leverage relationships in their sales process to develop a more personal touch to keep customers coming back for more.
In contrast, business-to-consumer (B2C) companies need to market directly to consumers. For example, the retail store Target advertises and markets directly to consumers. In business-to-consumer businesses, transactional nature is more important, and these marketing campaigns are designed to appeal to emotions rather than logic. They often incorporate videos, jingles, and more fun imagery to entice their customers.
Establishing who your client base is can help you decide which type of marketing strategy to use to help you reach the right audience. Thus allowing you to increase sales and further promote your business.
The Different Types of Marketing Strategies
Search Engine Marketing
This type of marketing encompasses any type of marketing used on Google or other search engines. This can be PPC ads or SEO and organic results.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – This is a slow growth marketing strategy that helps you reach the top spot on Google. By optimizing your website and it’s content to Google’s standards you can start to earn better ranking spots and earn more visibility.
- Pay Per Click (PPC) – PPC is another strategy similar to SEO except instead of using your site’s content to help you rank, you pay for the top spot everytime one of your chosen keywords is searched. This is a great strategy for those looking to get quick leads from users searching for info relevant to your business.
Since people frequently use search engines to find solutions, any type of business can benefit from SEM. Therefore, B2B and B2C companies can use SEM to increase traffic and reach.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a good inbound marketing strategy that does a good job of educating and engaging customers by helping them find and understand information about your products and brand. This can be done through e-courses, blogs, case studies, and video. All of which are great ways to engage your audience so they can learn more about you.
Television & Radio
Despite evolving over time, television and radio commercials continue to be effective marketing strategies for businesses. Unfortunately, these ads can be expensive, so they’re not ideal for small businesses. However by being creative with this platform you can get alot of peoples attention and get them to act by visiting your store or website to browse your products.
Email Marketing
Getting people to subscribe to your email newsletters is essential for successful email marketing. Once you’ve built up your base you can use emails and automated campaigns to keep them engaged and interested. Before constructing your emails, researching the customer journey will help you leverage automation more effectively.
Businesses in both B2B and B2C industries can take advantage of the benefits of automation when it comes to email marketing. For B2C clients, automating quick transactions can be invaluable, while B2B companies may find automated processes useful for keeping prospective customers in the pipeline.
Direct Mail
Direct mail marketing works similarly to email marketing in terms of the type of information that it can send to its recipients – from CTAs and incentives to other important details. Unfortunately, however, sending print pieces to physical mailboxes may not be as effective as email since many consider these as junk mail and throw them out without taking notice. Thus, for direct mail to be successful, it is important for your offer or message to customers to be easily recognizable and make them take action.
The Takeaway
The key takeaway here is that there are many different ways to market your business and products to customers. By understanding who your audience is and adjusting your strategy to meet them where they are can help you to increase sales and business recognition. Be sure to try out some of these different strategies to help you decide which ones work best and can become key parts of your marketing strategy.