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With the tight competition online, businesses need to step up their marketing game to stand out. Successful marketing does not happen overnight. It involves a lot of strategic planning and consistent execution.
In this article, marketers and business owners will learn the recipe for effective online marketing for their businesses.
Marketing and Branding Go Hand in Hand
Marketing is often associated with branding. The truth is, both go hand in hand. Without first establishing a solid brand, a business’s marketing efforts may not drive much success.
By definition, marketing is a set of processes and strategies that promote a product, service, or entire business. It aims to form a connection between the brand and its audience. Compared to advertising, excellent marketing influences customers to buy the product instead of directly selling it to them.
On the other hand, branding is a marketing practice of molding a business’s brand. Branding defines what a business is as a company.
With marketing and branding, businesses can sell their product or service to customers—and retain them for the years to come.
Subtle Yet Effective Ways to Market Your Small Business
Marketing involves constant hard work. The following steps will help business owners and marketers drive traffic and traction to their business.
Build a Great Brand
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No amount of marketing will pay off without building a memorable brand first. Because of this, businesses need to exert their efforts in establishing their name, polishing their product or service, and maintaining a trustworthy reputation.
These steps will help marketers take their brand to the next level:
Do the research. Knowing exactly who their audience is helps them learn how to communicate and build a lasting relationship with them. It’s also best to research their competitors, find out what works for them, and apply a thing or two in their own business.
Build a creative style guide. This includes the brand logo, colors, font, and writing style. Marketers should aim for an aesthetic that drives excellent brand recall. Of course, a brand’s creatives should also imbibe its personality, mission, and goals above all.
Apply the branding across the business. Now that the creatives are done, it’s time to apply it to the business’s website and product packaging. According to Ipsos, 72 percent of Americans say packaging design influences their decision to purchase a specific product. A great tip is to use custom product packaging with the brand logo and colors so it’s easily memorable to customers.
Create an Online Presence
With today’s digital landscape, a business that’s not online is missing out on a lot. Marketers need to be where the customers are to market a business effectively.
With this, businesses should create a compelling online presence to snag customers and build a following. There are many ways to do so, which includes the following:
- Creating a business or e-commerce website, which requires choosing the right platform
- Being active on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok
- Growing an email list to nurture leads and retain customers
- Signing up to online business directories to boost both global and local traffic
At the end of the day, not all of these online marketing methods will work for every business. It’s best to find out where their audience is and only focus their efforts on those platforms.
Apply the Right SEO Practices
Search engine optimization or SEO involves a wide range of processes that boost a business’s presence on search engines like Google.
The goal of SEO is for a business’s page or website to be on the first page of search engine results. Otherwise, they’ll likely lose 67.60 percent of potential clicks and valuable traffic to their landing page.
However, SEO requires a series of strategic planning and processes to take effect. This involves constantly optimizing their website with the right keywords that users are searching for. Marketers who don’t have extensive knowledge about SEO can hire professional SEO specialists to do the job for them.
Establish Partnerships
Partnership marketing is one way entrepreneurs can spread the word about their business. It involves collaborating with another company for marketing campaigns that benefit both parties.
These are two of the most popular partnership marketing methods:
- Affiliate marketing: Brands reach out to publishers to promote their product or service to their audience. That includes guest blogging on other businesses’ websites or partnering with influencers to promote a product to their followers.
- Distribution partnership: Brand A partners with Brand B by bundling their products and cross-marketing to their respective audiences. That includes event sponsorships, product placements on TV shows or films, or joint product partnerships.
The Takeaway
A marketing approach can work for one brand and not work for another, but the above methods are proven and tested to turn prospects into paying customers. At the end of the day, marketing is not all about how a product or service is sold or promoted. It’s about consistency in finding out what appeals to their audience and becoming the solution to their problems.
