One of the best ways for small business owners to stretch their marketing dollars is to integrate different types of marketing strategies into one focused and targeted campaign. When all these efforts are coordinated together, it becomes possible to create an all-encompassing, well-rounded strategy, which will yield much better results than any one method used on its own.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Any good marketing campaign should start with the primary website. Is your website optimized for the search engines? Have you made sure all of your content is original, keyword rich, and relevant to the products or services you are selling? Is your site easy to navigate? Will your customers be able to easily purchase goods or order services? Even if you don’t have a top ranking with Google, it is important to ensure that your website is optimized and ready to receive the traffic that will come when your other strategies are deployed.
Social Media Networks
Social media plays a huge part in any well-rounded marketing campaign. Today’s consumers rely heavily on word-of-mouth tools, such as “share” and “like,” through Facebook, Twitter, and other popular networks, to find out and tell friends about the products and services they use in their daily lives. Make sure you take advantage of all the optimization opportunities, post and reply to comments on a regular basis, and use your network pages to your advantage.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC marketing campaigns, particularly through networks such as Google Ads that rely on keyword relevance, are a great way to attract targeted customers to your business. Coordinating these efforts with your other marketing techniques to layer in visibility and opportunity will help you to expand your reach and market your business to a whole new demographic.
Landing Pages
Make sure to create a strategic landing page for each and every campaign you launch. Create a clear call to action that will help you focus on getting results. Use analytical tools, such as Google Analytics or other paid services, to track your results and fine-tune your strategies, adjusting if needed to accommodate changes within the market. A good landing page will help you guide your new-found traffic toward conversion, either in collecting contact information for future marketing attempts, creating an account with your website, or making an initial sale.
E-mail Marketing
Collected contact information should be used for an opt-in e-mail marketing campaign to coordinate with your other marketing efforts. Sometimes the follow-up to an initial visit is the hook that helps the consumer make the decision to work with your business. Other times, just keeping them informed about specials, new product offerings, available services, and other deals, can hold their interest long enough to help them choose your business when they are finally ready to make a purchase or start a project.
Branding
The glue that holds all of these marketing methods together is branding. It is essential that a company’s brand is properly presented and carried through each and every aspect of a marketing campaign and online presence. The idea is to convey the messages of who you are, what you sell, and your business ethic or approach to business, all in a matter of seconds. Branding can help you to accomplish that goal.
These are just some of the examples of building a balanced, integrated marketing strategy. Find the formula that works best for your business that will help you target your primary market as a means of increasing traffic and boosting sales. A successful marketing campaign isn’t just a one-hit-wonder; it should be an overall, well-planned approach to reaching out to a targeted customer base and presenting the products and services you are selling in the best possible light.
