When it comes to marketing, we sometimes tend to overthink what we can and should be doing. Instead of over-complicating things, we’re going to be looking at some often overlooked, obvious tips for effective marketing.
The better you know your audience, the better you can appeal to their interests.
Knowing and understanding your audience is crucial. The better you know your audience, the better you can tailor your messaging to suit your audience and ensure that your message hits home with them. By knowing your audience, you’ll know what appeals to them, meaning you’ll know how to structure your marketing messages to attract the attention of your target audience. Let’s face it; we all appeal to messaging more if it is directed to us. More so if it is personalised and addresses an immediate need.
Uncover your unique selling proposition (USP), and make it easy for your intended customer to understand it
What is a USP? As defined by Entrepreneur South Africa, a unique selling proposition (USP) is “The factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product or service is different from and better than that of the competition”. This essentially means that you need to pinpoint and define what makes your business unique and stand out from the competition, this is your unique selling proposition. Your USP needs to be easily identifiable so that your potential customers know exactly what makes you different.
Shopify lists what a compelling USP should be:
– Assertive, but defensible: A specific position that forces you to make a case against competing products is more memorable than a generic stance, like “we sell high-quality products.”
– Focused on what your customers value: “Unique” won’t count for much if it’s not something your target customers truly care about.
– More than a slogan: While a slogan is one way your USP can be communicated, it’s also something that you should embody in other areas of your business, from your returns policy to your supply chain. You should be able to talk the talk and walk the walk.The USP of Starbucks is a relatively simple one: premium coffee. It has never claimed to offer the cheapest coffee in town, but by offering their own style of enriched upscale coffee experience, they have managed to carve out a large niche of coffee-loving people.
Sharpen your brand look and feel
One of the easier ways to achieve more effective marketing is to sharpen the look and feel of your brand. Here are a few practical ways to improve your brands look and feel:
– Ensure your branding is consistent across all possible platforms and mediums.
– Let your brand evolve. As your brand evolves, you may see the need to change your colours or logo; go for it and let your brand grow. Just keep it consistent
– Be open to criticism and suggestions, be open to what people say they like and don’t like about your brand. See how you can use this feedback to improve your brand’s look and feel.Ensure that all messaging is consistent
This point is very important. Similar to your branding, you need to ensure that all your messaging is consistent across all platforms and mediums. If your website says one thing, then your social platforms, email campaigns etc. need to be saying the same thing. Consistency helps create trust and authority.
Choose your marketing mix
When choosing your marketing mix, you need to ensure that you select the correct mediums for your business. When selecting these mediums, you need to think about the best place to reach your potential customers, Although you may want to have an Instagram account, you need to consider whether this is the correct platform to use to market your business and whether your intended audience even utilizes Instagram? Select a marketing mix that helps your company reach the right audience.
Establish success measurements
It’s vital to know whether your marketing is valid or not. How do you know if your marketing is actually working? This is where success measurements will be handy. By setting success measurements, you set goals for your marketing, and this lets you establish if your marketing has been successful and helps you identify any areas that may need improvement.
Manage leads and client data
Wherever you have a touchpoint with a customer, and you are collecting data, you need to ensure that this is done correctly and efficiently. Any new leads that come into your business need to know that they are in safe hands. Acknowledge all new leads and have a system in place to deal with them as they come in. You will be gathering crucial information about your clients through all your different touchpoints, so be sure to keep all this information and use it in the future to target your customers correctly.
Try implementing these relatively easy tips for more for effective marketing and see how even the smallest of changes can help make a huge difference.