You see the same advice regurgitated around marketing circles.
You should do content!
Be on social media.
Web design is everything.
Why aren’t you podcasting yet?
Look, the internet is great. But it’s also created some of the worst marketers. Those who only parrot the same strategies their favorite gurus do. Or worse, they follow the advice of the first search result they see. When the truth is, marketing is more complex than that. You shouldn’t be doing something just because this millionaire marketer “guru” is doing it or that everyone in your industry is.
It’s very easy to fall into this trap of thinking where you think something is going to work just because everyone is riding on the bandwagon. Let’s take a step and consider doing something radical: being original.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the ways that you can be an original marketer in a world full of copies.
1. Know Thy Business
Not the same strategy is going to apply to all businesses. Depending on the industry, the type of service, their geographical location, you may need to employ different techniques that is only going to work specifically for your customer.
For example, you have a local business whose target customers are within the local area. It may not make sense to make a YouTube channel as every marketer will tell you. Maybe you just need a Google Maps citation and Facebook page so people know where to find your store and get a glimpse of your offering.
Don’t keep looking on the outside for advice. Look within the business first. Who are our ycustomers? What platforms do they care to find you in? How much is your budget? What strategies have worked for similar businesses as yours?
Find answers to these questions instead of spreading yourself thin in places where you don’t really benefit.
2. Ask Your Customers
We are often too busy coming up with the next creative marketing campaign that we forget to think about what our customers want. So what do they want? Do they even care?
There’s no use brainstorming for creative campaign ideas if the people you’re going to show it to can’t resonate with it. Don’t get blinded by the trending marketing ideas you see on the internet just yet. Go to your customer and ask for their feedback.
You can even let them decide what your next campaign will be, say a contest, a flash sale, or you just posting user-generated photos on your brand’s social media for a week. Your customers are valuable sources of information that can help improve your marketing strategy.
You don’t have to spend all day on live chat waiting for customers to give you feedback. You can use automated technology such as an AI chatbot. You can also encourage customer feedback for every order they make. They will appreciate that you care enough to hear their opinion and you’re able to create a marketing campaign that they can relate to.
3. Analyze, Adjust, Optimize
Aside from your customers, you too should be keeping track of what’s working for your business. So you’ve come up with a couple of ideas for your marketing campaign and employed a few. Make sure to record the results of each one. Keep optimizing the ones that are working, tweak what’s not doing so well, and get rid of those that don’t serve you.
Overnight success is not guaranteed to everyone. For most of us, it requires constant monitoring of our work, making adjustments here and there, until you have a fully optimized system that will help the business last for years.
What are your thoughts about the marketing industry today? Share your thoughts in the comments.