The New Marketing Revolution
It’s no secret that marketing as we know it is changing. Consumers are more demanding and digitally savvy than ever before, which means the old tricks of good branding are no longer enough. As a burgeoning entrepreneur or small business owner, you need to make sure your marketing strategy is up-to-date and suitably innovative if you want to stay competitive in the modern world.
This blog post will provide a few insights into what marketers need to do to keep up with the times, and why taking advantage of these often overlooked tactics could lead to big success for your business. So take a moment and read on! You can find out how these new techniques can help your company grow.
Get it right and you could be on your way to transforming your brand and learning new skills – both of which are highly desirable in any workplace.
The New Digital Marketing
Digital content plays a major role in the world of business, whether you’re a marketing executive or not. As digital marketing becomes more and more prevalent, small businesses need to make sure they are adopting the best digital practices in order to stay competitive. And as Google and other search engines continue to adapt their algorithms, creating optimized content is even more important than it used to be.
So here’s a quick rundown of the things you need to know about digital marketing, in the form of a “Digital Marketing 101” crash course:
Instead of merely looking at it as a way to promote your business or brand, focus on creating quality content that your customers will love. This is where the focus should be – not on hard selling them on your product or service. The more valuable the content you provide is to them, the more likely they are to subscribe to your blog and/or social media channels and pay attention to future posts you put out.
If you’re already blogging, don’t focus too much on your own content. Don’t be self-obsessed, and think about the quality of your posts as well as the quantity. Writing from a genuine perspective is always a good idea, though obviously that can be tough to pull off on a regular basis, so try and find a balance between the two.
If you want to gain more exposure for the content you create (and who doesn’t?), then consider using social media platforms like Storify and Twitter. These are great for curating social media posts and other content from around the web – you can then post it all to your blog.
Unconventional Marketing
The popularity of social media platforms has led to an increase in unconventional marketing. For example, you may have seen recent viral videos that have zero to do with a company’s products or services, but nonetheless welcomed the exposure. Well, viral marketing is all about finding ways to create wild buzz about your brand – and often, it takes creativity and a willingness to break the mold.
This can be a good thing, because it gives you a chance to stand out. But at the same time, you need to make sure that your market is actually ready for this. For example, in one of the aforementioned viral videos, the KFC logo was partially unnoticeable behind some clothing worn by the woman being filmed – an instance where conventional marketing would have done just fine. After all, customers will always pay attention to the product they’re buying or using. Whereas if you haven’t helped them notice that your food or drink product is available (say, through a press release or publicity stunt), then they’re not likely to go and buy it straight away.
Which, of course, is all part of the new marketing revolution.
So if you want to get some more insight into what’s going on, just remember: “If it’s not totally out of the box and completely different to how other brands are doing things, then it probably isn’t interesting enough to your customers.”
Easy Marketing For A Competitive Startup Budget
If you’re a startup, then you may be concerned that your marketing budget is throwing off your ability to start up and make progress. But good news – this isn’t actually the case. In fact, it could just be the best thing that’s ever happened to you. Take this quote from VC Fred Wilson: “I think success for startups comes as much from as not having marketing budget as having too much marketing budget. I think what makes the difference is getting good at selling.”
If getting good at selling means you get to spend a little less on marketing in the first place, then we all win! After all, you’re still creating great content and having a successful, viral marketing gimmick – and there’s nothing wrong with that.
So how much should you budget for your startup? If you’re a digital-savvy entrepreneur, then it might be possible to go and hire an intern or two who could help with basic web design and the like. You could also get involved in the likes of product launches or other events that provide a platform for your energy, enthusiasm and knowledge.
But the key to all of this is the value you can add to your audience. Remember that you are creating content for passive consumers – those who are interested in what you have to say and want more information about what it is you do. If this happens, then there’s a strong chance that they could become customers, or even investors in your company if it grows big and successful enough.
Bold Marketing – The New Business Model?
If you’re an investor, or even a white-collar worker who lives, breathes and sleeps corporate culture, then you may think that new marketing is just something else we probably don’t need on our time sheets. But that’s only because you haven’t tried it yet.
If you have a little bit of cash to spare and want to get started on something exciting, then why not create some content for your website, blog or social media channels? You never know what might happen – you could even end up with a viral marketing campaign on your hands! But that’s not all – most importantly, this is also an excellent way to enhance your business skills and become the best asset that you can be for your company. In short, once you start creating awesome content, there’s no turning back.
Conclusion
We hope we’ve helped you understand the new meaning of marketing. If we feel that we have, then please feel free to share it with others – and let us know what you think of this article in the comments below!
Here at Expertise, we offer a range of marketing services for our clients. If you’d like to find out more about us and how we can help your business, just click here.