Aside from payroll, the majority our business investments get channeled into marketing and advertising. The volatility of the world economy not only puts our business strategies on red alerts across the board, but also forces us to stay focused and search for original out-of-the-box solutions to create a buzz that keeps ringing and attracting more bees. Regardless of the size of your business, there is a number of key strategic tactics to keep in mind in order to continuously receive return on your marketing investments. Below are some of the pillars that you could start building on in order to target a better, broader, and more loyal customer base.
1. Be a student of your target market.
Considering the fact that you are already a professional in the product or service that you are offering, to study your target market should become your next full-time job, your way of life. Not only is it crucial to correctly identify your target market, learning who else could fall into your target range could be another way to think outside of that marketing cube. Why do my customers choose my product/service? What attracts them to me above all others in the market? What are their lifestyles, demographics, interests? What can keep them focused on my product? And the biggest one yet – What Is Next?
2. Keep your customer engaged
Some of the probing questions in my previous point could be answered by constantly keeping your customers engaged in your marketing strategies. Interactive search for further continuous improvement on your product/service is one of the most effective recipes for success. Surveys, feedbacks, trend analysis, predictive analytics, or simple conversations with your customer are some of the most engaging and less costly techniques to proactively study your market sector.
3. Simple messages but redundant
Some of the most elementary advertising techniques with very few words and convoluted messages are the most successful in the market. Keeping your customer out of confusion, re-thinking, wasting time, wasting money, are the most significant points to think about before you invest any more money into your next campaign. Simplicity in combination with redundancy, would take you further along in your marketing game, than any other combination of factors. After all, repetition of some simple concept sinks in our human minds faster and for longer period of time, than some complicated concept and only repeated once. This is a simple human nature, so remember to capitalize on it!
4. Keep your ear to the ground
Even when you are not at work, around your business ideas, around your customers, keep your ears to the ground for more ways to retain your present customer base and attract new ones. Ideas are everywhere; learn to get inspired in all situations! Be a marketing vampire—suck the living day out of the world around you – nature, people, technology, empty spaces.
5. Patience is a virtue
You are pretty sure that you’ve hit the goldmine after you’ve launched that advertising campaign. You are so sure you couldn’t sleep all night, waiting to get back to your business the next day, anticipating that the phones are going to be ringing off the hook, your customers are lining up outside three times around the block. You are anxious to reap those rewards immediately! Before this utopian scenario gets to your head, I need to burst your bubble for the sake of aligning you with the brutal reality of marketing effectiveness. Success doesn’t happen overnight in most of our reality, especially in the advertising world. Your customer loyalty gets built gradually, one ad at a time, one success story at a time! Build up your patience! After all, you’ve done the hardest part—threw your innovation at the wall, now it’s time sit back and watch what sticks!
What are some of your marketing strategies that keep your customer around for a while?
From: http://ping.fm/QnUU7
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