August 29, 2009
10 Marketing Tips To Take Your Marketing To the Next Level
Over more than ten years of marketing experience, I’ve seen my fair share of successful Internet marketing and marketing campaigns. I’ve also seen other campaigns that from the start were pegged as great ideas only to result in total failure. The question I’ve been asking myself as of late is what sets the successful campaigns apart from those that don’t work. The answer isn’t always simple but the good news is that success leaves plenty of clues.
Internet Marketing continues to evolve each and every day. No matter how complicated marketing seems to become, basic internet marketing principles still apply. It’s very common for those considering new marketing initiatives to abandon some of the tried and true methods in exchange for anything that’s new and promising. A good example is the concept of social media. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, sometimes at the expense of proven marketing methods.
Segmentation. One of the most powerful marketing concepts is market segmentation. With proper segmentation comes a thorough understanding of your target market. This includes what’s important to them and what motivates them. Once you have this knowledge, you can target campaigns with the right message and the right timing needed to drive results.
Create a compelling offer. A marketing offer is the driving force of marketing campaigns that drive results. In fact, testing has proven that the offer is the most significant criterion for conversion. Focus on your offer if you want to succeed.
Generate split tests. A split test is when you use multiple versions of a marketing piece, measuring the results. This is an effective way to improve overall results of any marketing campaign. This is very important when considering running a campaign for a long period of time. Split test for long-term success.
Create a marketing team. It doesn’t matter what you know or what you can accomplish on your own. In marketing, you need a team. Develop a group of individuals with a diverse set of marketing skills but share a similar marketing philosophy. This strengthens the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and produces amazing results.
Stop providing coupons. Once you start offering coupons, your customers come to expect a discount. Instead of lowering the value of your product or service, increase it. Find more ways to add value to what you’re selling. This allows you to maintain your price and avoid the dangerous behavior of discounting. Premium pricing is a strategy that has improve the strength of brands significantly over the long term.
Use consistent messaging. Is your prospect hearing the same messages throughout the sales process? If the messages are inconsistent or contradictory, they are very likely to not sit well with buyers. Take yourself through the same process and same messages that your potential buyers are receiving to check message consistency.
Build customer relationships. Marketing doesn’t end once a sale is made. In fact, more emphasis should be placed on building relationships with existing clients. This can often create significantly more revenue at a much lower cost. Consider how you’ll grow your customer relationships and invest your marketing budget. This is an investment that you can’t afford to overlook.
Keep testing. Testing is essential for the success of any marketing campaign. If you’re not testing your marketing campaigns, then you’re leaving money on the table. You really want to test everything from headlines and offers to landing pages and the timing of campaigns. This can only improve results and generate more sales.
Integrate your marketing. You should never rely on a single source of leads or customers. One way to avoid putting all your risk in a particular media is to use multiple media types. If you are having success with PPC, then consider classified newspaper advertising as well. When prices increase in one area, you can switch or rely more heavily on an alternative.
Get some experience. Nothing can replace your own personal experience. Know what works and what doesn’t by doing the work yourself. Once you have the knowledge, you can share it with your team and rely on others to do the work for your. If you don’t have the real world marketing experience, you can’t get it from a book.
These marketing tips have been built from more than a decade of experience. Consider applying basic techniques that can deliver results. Once you’ve established baseline results, test campaign variations and measure your success. Rinse and repeat. Keep these marketing tips in mind when you initiate a new campaign.