You’ve started up your business and built a website. Now you’re ready for all the customers to arrive on your virtual doorstep. The problem is that they’re not showing up, at least not in the numbers you were hoping for.
If you can believe it, it’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs to rely on a single marketing strategy, hoping it will be the silver bullet that drives their success to new heights month after month. However, the key to unlocking the full potential of your business lies in integrating many different marketing channels while keeping your messaging clear and consistent.
If you’re looking to grow your business and want to learn what you should be doing in terms of marketing and advertising that will make a truly positive impact on your bottom line, this guide is for you.
Firstly You Need To Realize Your Website Should Be A Strategic Landing Place For New Customers
Imagine your website is like a storefront. Each product or service you offer gets its own special display window. It’s not just about looking good; it’s about giving your customers an easy way to find what they’re looking for. And, to make them want to buy it right then and there. Not just kind of want to buy it either. Make them realize they need it and that it’s not a want at all. But, how do you do that?
Take a look at your website from a customer’s point of view. Since it is the digital hub of your business, the first step in expanding your marketing strategy is to redesign or update your website strategically. Each service or product should have a dedicated landing page, which will enhance your customer’s experience and allow for targeted messaging.
Think about what your customer is looking for. What questions would they have about it? Do they want to know what other people think about the product before they buy it? Adding FAQs (frequently asked questions) and testimonials to your site will give the user more insight into the product on a deeper level. Your website content should address all the customer’s questions before they even click add to cart or book a consultation with you to learn more. You also need to realize that, although you can’t work 24 hours a day 7 days a week selling your services or products, your website can. If you’ve got 5-star reviews, that’s important to show off as it will increase a buyer’s confidence in your product, service, and business overall.
A well-designed website sets the stage for a seamless customer experience. Plus, if you keep it optimized properly on an ongoing basis, it will help get you to the top of the search engine results. It does take work to keep updating, reviewing, and analyzing your website over and over but, each time you do, you make incremental steps that impact the growth of your sales.
The Integrated Marketing Approach: Creating a Synergy of Strategies
What good is a website if it is never seen by your target audience? After you tweak every area of your website, you need to tell the world it’s there. And, that means coming up with an advertising strategy that attracts the customers you want. But, why are integrated marketing campaigns impactful?
- They reach a wider audience than a single marketing channel.
- They have a greater chance of being seen, keeping your brand top-of-mind and pushing customers closer to conversion.
- They build trust by showing a consistent message on multiple channels.
- They save you money since assets are shareable between, and repurposed for, different marketing channels.
- They increase the frequency at which your ads are seen overall.
There are several marketing and advertising vehicles that you can use to spread the word about your products and services. When you weave these strategies together, it’s like composing a symphony of success.
The Integrated Marketing Approach: Creating a Synergy of Strategies
What good is a website if it is never seen by your target audience? After you tweak every area of your website, you need to tell the world it’s there. And, that means coming up with an advertising strategy that attracts the customers you want. But, why are integrated marketing campaigns impactful?
- They reach a wider audience than a single marketing channel.
- They have a greater chance of being seen, keeping your brand top-of-mind and pushing customers closer to conversion.
- They build trust by showing a consistent message on multiple channels.
- They save you money since assets are shareable between, and repurposed for, different marketing channels.
- They increase the frequency at which your ads are seen overall.
Learning To Harness the Power of Paid Advertising
Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram – these are your megaphones. Paid advertising makes sure you’re seen at the right place and the right time, every time and by new people who you’ve never met before.
Google offers several ways to promote your business. Paid search advertising, display advertising, remarketing strategies, shopping ads, or Search Engine Marketing (SEM / SEO), are all effective tools to drive traffic to your website. When done properly, SEM/SEO can help you attract a steady stream of new visitors, leads, and customers which helps you grow your business. It’s also important to note that these are all different types of campaigns you want to run long term. A big mistake we often see business owners make is turning campaigns on and off, and on and off. Every time you do that, your business drops back down to the bottom of the competition list. It’s like that water game you might have played as a kid. You push the button and it pumps air into the water board and you have little floating beads that float up and down as you push that button. The goal being to get each bead into a little nook or to direct it over to the other side of a wall or through a maze etc. Your marketing and advertising is just like the air you’re pumping in to direct a customer to end up where you want them to be. As soon as you stop pumping that air in, they will sink back to the bottom, ready to start all over again when you decide to turn your advertising back on.
Paid ads on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn make sure your business pops up in places which can attract new business as well. Social media platforms are also search engines but have different demographics than Google. That’s not to say the people you reach on Instagram aren’t also finding you on Google but, having a potential customer find you on Google and then find you again on Instagram or Facebook reinforces your credibility and competitive position. And, social media networks collect so much data in terms of what a person likes, what content they interact with, where they live, who they are friends with etc.
SEO And Content Marketing – What’s The Story?
In the online world, you’ve heard the marketing buzzwords SEO and content marketing but how do they help you make more money and grow your sales?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a strategy that makes your website more visible on search engines and rank higher in search results in relation to very specific keywords. Search engines have a set of rules they want websites to play by in order to get certain content on your website to appear when a person searches out keywords of interest. A good web design agency will know those rules inside and out and will be able to help you build a website that is well optimized to rank highly right out of the gate as well as help you develop and implement a long term SEO strategy too.
Content marketing is a fancy way of saying writing articles specific to your keywords that are helpful, and answer common questions your customers are searching for. The goal of creating good content is to educate and inform your audience while showcasing your expertise, products, and the solutions you can offer that customer. Blogs or articles are strategically written about topics people are commonly searching for to attract more visitors to your website which in turn gives you a chance to turn them into customers.
When you use SEO and content marketing together, your website will appear more often and closer to the top of the search engines over time making it easier for a customer to find your business when they need a solution or product you sell.
Don’t Ignore Your Social Media Community
Now that you’ve built a killer website and set up your search engine marketing, you’re writing awesome content articles and you’re investing in a long term paid digital advertising campaign. Don’t let your social media pages bring you down. Adding links to your Facebook page, Instagram account, LinkedIn profiles and even your X page if you have one is standard practice when building a website. When users click on those links to learn more about you, you don’t want them to see a post from 2 years ago when they do. If a business hasn’t posted in 2 years, it makes people wonder if you’re even still in business. Or, they might feel that if you can’t maintain your social media profiles, your customer service might not be Grade A either. Younger demographics expect to be able to reach you through your social media pages if they have a question or a problem with a product they need your help with. If you don’t have a profile, or you don’t maintain your profile, that’s another reflection of your business.
Social media can help you connect with potential customers and build a community if it’s done right. We see many businesses posting content, pushing out their sales message over and over but, what they forget is the social aspect. People want to have a two way communication with you. They don’t just want to be yelled at from a soap box. They want to have a virtual coffee with you, get to know you. When you share interesting and useful content, you’re likely to attract people who are interested in what you do. When you interact with the people who follow you, like their posts, reply to their questions, ask how you can help them etc. That develops a meaningful connection for them. This connection between the website owner or the staff of that business and potential customers can lead to more sales or, at the very least, a better reputation and an expanded awareness of the brand. Your audience has an audience don’t forget. A follower might not buy your product or service but their friend might. And, when that friend asks them if they know of a company that could help them with XYZ, that company they mention could be you.
Your social media content should reflect the level of expertise you provide and focus around the same content topics that your website does. Also, remember to respond to your direct messages and reviews! Even negative comments or reviews on social media should never be ignored. Take the time to reply to them, allow them to be heard, and take care of their issues if any arise but never suggest that you’ll give out free stuff to pacify an angry customer. That just leads to more people expecting more free stuff. If you have a poor review, reply to let them know you want to help, and direct them to contact you offline to sort the issue out.
The Journey That Leads a Potential Customer To Convert Into a Sale
If you’ve crafted your strategies carefully and executed them seamlessly, by the time these potential leads or customers contact your business, they have already spent a lot of time researching you online. You’ve already answered all their questions. You’ve already shown them all the products and solutions you have to offer. By the time they actually contact you, they’re sold already. You just have to take the order. Perhaps they might have a couple of questions but the heavy lifting has already been done. If you’ve done your marketing and advertising right, their impression of your business should be stellar and they should be ready to buy. The result? Less tire kickers, and more Informed, ready-to-buy customers who are confident that your business is the one they want to buy from.
But, That Sounds Like So Much Work! How Can I Do All That, And Run My Business?
That’s where our team comes in. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level and want to implement an integrated marketing strategy that drives real results, we’re here to help. High quality leads, incremental increases in new customers, and execution of marketing and advertising plans like these is what we are all about. Book a free consultation with us today to learn more. Let’s talk about your business, what strategies make the most sense for you, and together we’ll make a plan that’s simple to execute while getting you the results you want. After all, having the right partner in your corner makes all the difference when it comes to growing your sales and your bottom line.
