Category: Marketing

Spreading your Marketing Message

Marketing is about making sure people see, hear or in some way know about your message. This means you must spread your message to people in as many locations as possible – as long as these people are going to buy your products. It’s important to cast your net wide in marketing but also to be highly targeted.

One important part of spreading the word is making sure you use different channels. You could use marketing channels for online marketing, like social media, or perhaps pay per click adverts. This ensures more people come across your brand and know about what you have to offer.

Offline marketing can be just as beneficial, though harder to track. Traditional posters or leaflets can never do any harm, as long as they look highly professional. They let people know who you are, and will alert those who might be interested to what you have to offer.

How to Identify your Target Audience

All businesses need to have a target market in mind for their services. It doesn’t pay to claim that your audience is anyone or everyone – nobody will have a product that is universally appealing. You need to know your target audience so you can target them effectively.

When you begin your business, spend some time thinking about who it would make sense to target. Who will usually make use of the services you offer? Who do you have experience working with? It makes sense to target a demographic you know and understand so that you can design your services to meet their needs. Once you have some general ideas, you can carry out some audience profiling exercises. Think about the specific kinds of people who would use your services and consider what will be important to them, to make sure it is covered in your services, and then make sure you communicate this effectively.

Using a Marketing Agency as a Bigger Business

Bigger businesses will have their own marketing departments and their own people in charge of marketing output and strategy – so why might they need an agency? Many agencies will have their own specialisms that the business just won’t be able to have in-house, as it would be far too expensive. This could involve anything from SEO to copywriting to video.

When you run a business, you will put your marketing department in place to focus on the marketing strategy. Part of this strategy will be working with agencies to find the right services and generate results together. You can’t expect one department to do everything, especially creative work like branding and printing.

The other main benefit is the cost. It is almost always going to cost less than a full-time salary or department of salaries to outsource some of your marketing work. Choose agencies that are relevant to what you want to achieve.

How to Grow your Marketing Reach

Marketing needs to reach the right people, or you won’t make any money from your campaigns. It is important you use marketing wisely – it isn’t an arbitrary activity that businesses carry out, it is a process that is supposed to make you money. Here are some ideas to carry out more influential marketing:

  • Use the highly targeted form of advertising, like social media advertising. This lets you select your exact target audience and makes it very granular.
  • Make sure your marketing literature is of high quality. It needs to look good, be eye-catching, and be accurate. Include some good copy for impact.
  • Advertise using online and print platforms. This helps you cast your net wider and reach people in different places.
  • Try out something new. Don’t do the same thing over and over again and expect results. Make sure you try new plans, target new people and come up with fresh ideas for your campaigns.

Marketing to your Target Audience

When you are marketing, you will want to use your budget to its full potential. It’s important that you get as much out of your budget as possible, otherwise, it isn’t worth spending the money. One way to maximise your marketing spend is to make sure you are reaching your ideal customers.

Whilst marketing to as many people as possible might seem like a good strategy, it isn’t worth spending money targeting people who are never going to convert. It is much more useful for you to market to your ideal customers, who are going to spend money on your business. When using web marketing platforms, use good keywords that will direct interested people towards your website.

If you are using social media marketing, or are redesigning your website, create content that will be of interest to your target audience. Make it informative and interesting, so people feel like it is adding value to them.