Creating, establishing, and building a business or brand is challenging. Competing for attention and gaining traction in today’s marketplace can be even more difficult, yet it’s never been easier to reach out. What gives? Today’s world bombards us with a flurry of information, news, and distraction. How do we get our message across, and how can we foster new ideas and relationships beneficial to our business goals?
It’s been increasingly challenging to create new relationships since the pandemic started. Now that we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, face-to-face opportunities are beginning to reopen. That’s great news for all of us; however, how do we re-define our strategy, and what other options exist for getting the word out and marketing our brand?
Clearly Define your Unique Selling Points (USPs’)
Before developing a strategy, defining the unique selling points (USPs’) your business has to offer is most important. People want to know what sets you apart from the crowd. The digital space is now flooded with regurgitated content. Sit down and clearly define what you have to offer beyond what most are accustomed to. It could be anything really, whether it’s a service, product, or skill set. Mapping it out will provide you with a good sense of your business and a great initiative to market its potential. Chances are, it will give you much more confidence in selling what you have to offer—draft case studies, examples, and storytelling opportunities in which to market your points. The digital universe is designed for you to showcase what makes your business different! Exploit your USPs’ at every opportunity. Remember, if it is unique to you, you have no competition!
Craft a Strong Offer
Create a compelling offer. Most people have inherently two characteristics in common. They are a bit lazy (whether they admit it or not), and they love stuff for free. Creating an irresistible offer of value with little commitment for something can be very powerful. This is the lead magnet that is the foundation of any good marketing funnel and a sound pathway to establishing a relationship with a potential customer. Make the offer easy to find, understand, engage in, to follow through. Craft the offer around the fact that you are the expert and have something that no one else can provide. These can be placed on any marketing platform, a website, social media channel, or email automation with very little investment. The ROI can be tremendous.
The Marketing Arsenal
What digital platforms work the best?… Well, it depends. The first thing to do is to step out of your shoes and place yourself in the shoes of your prospective client or customer. Who are they? What are their interests and demographics? Where are they spending their time? What social media platforms are they likely to be on? What types of groups (online and offline) do they connect with? Before mapping out a marketing strategy, these are likely the most critical questions to ask yourself. Sometimes, it’s just as important to understand and evaluate your competition in the same way. What are they doing that you are not, and how can we bridge any gaps ourselves where opportunity may exist? Here are a few tools within the marketing arsenal that can take you to the next level.
Online Marketing Arsenal Weapons
- Search Engine Optimization or SEO
- Local Search Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Video Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Video Marketing and Optimization
- Pay Per Click Marketing
- Pay Per Conversion Marketing
- Content Network Marketing
- Visitor Remarketing
- Referral Campaign Marketing
- Affiliate Program Integration
- Joint Venture Marketing
- Podcasting
- SMS or Text Message Marketing
- Mobile App Marketing
- Public Relations Marketing
Offline Marketing Arsenal Weapons
- Direct Mail Marketing
- Radio Marketing
- Billboard Advertising
- Event Sponsorship
- Television Marketing
- Magazine or other Print Marketing
- Direct Sales Marketing
- Telemarketing
Automation
Use digital automation as much as possible. Many campaigns these days are centered around email or social media automation, built from the offer and marketing funnel or your CRM database. Statistics tell us that it takes an average of 7 times for a customer to be exposed to marketing before conversion. If you can automate this procedure, your time in managing this can be re-appropriated to other matters more important. Of course, there are circumstances where a more personal approach is necessary. Again, understand your audience and use the best judgment based on a thoughtful approach. Treat others as you would expect to be treated.
Other Key Factors
Keep your campaigns fluid. What works now may not work as well six months from now. Track, measure and analyze your efforts. With digital tools at our disposal, it’s never been easier to do this, and it takes much of the guesswork out of our decision-making. Seeing positive gains in ROI while exercising good testing and analysis is exciting. The trick is to discipline ourselves to monitor the trends and perform necessary split testing to keep things going in a positive direction. Some modes of digital marketing, such as search engine optimization (SEO), take time to mature. Others provide much more immediate feedback. Find a combination that works best for your goals, both short-term and long-term.
Understand your talents and, most importantly, recognize and exploit the skill of those who work with you. We all have specific talents. We need to understand more than ever what our strengths AND weaknesses are. Fill in the weakness with people or organizations that can bridge the gaps while recognizing those talents of yourself and those around you.
If you should have interest in assistance with digital marketing campaigns, please feel free to reach out to us. We have experienced and talented staff familiar with marketing to the foundry industry. We can help! Contact us today at 855-611-7811, or email us at [email protected] for more information.
