The very face of marketing is changing consistently, even more so in today’s world. You have to stay on top of the latest trends and topics so that you can compete – because if you aren’t, then you are falling behind. In fact, you should dedicate at least a few hours every week to reading over marketing materials and new ideas. If you put it off until the end of a quarter or a specific day of every month, you will quickly fall behind.
For 2017, try some of these marketing strategies:
1) Get Influencers Involved
Influencers are the best source of traffic in the marketing world today. To use them effectively, you have to find someone that aligns themselves with your ideas and has a following that could use your product. For example, sure a big-name basketball star might have a lot of followers, but you don’t want to use him to market a make-up brand. Or just because a comedian has a lot of followers on your targeted audience, some of their humor might turn off customers that you already have. You have to be able to weigh the pros and cons of using an influencer.
Note that it can get pricey to use these influencers as well. The best way is to strike up a deal that works for both parties.
2) Remember That People Have Short Attention Spans
People aren’t going to sit through a twenty-minute video explaining what it is your product does. Sure, those videos have a space, and you should continue to make them. However, you should also make shorter, bite-size pieces of information that people can watch or read in under a minute. You just need to give them enough to whet their appetites for more.
Much of what you push forward in your marketing campaigns needs to be about the people with short attention spans. They will.
3) Focus on Mobile Users
Most importantly, you have to think about your mobile audience. People aren’t performing searches on their desktop computer or their laptop computers anymore. Instead, they are using their phones and Siri to get all of their information. Do some research on the top movers and shakers in your field and find out how their website looks on a mobile device – then look at yours. How do they compare?
Make sure that your text is easily readable on phones, your images aren’t cut-off, and when someone scrolls down your website, they aren’t accidentally touching things with their thumbs. Other things to think about include load times, randomly playing videos, information boxes, and navigation.
4) Get Better Social Media Teams
Social media is one of the most profitable marketing tools companies have today, and they don’t use it correctly. Look at all of the tips above and then look at your social media strategy – does it fall in line? If your target audience is under the age of 35, especially if they are in the age range between 15-30, you have to have your social media skills mastered, and they can tell the difference when you don’t.
Is It Time to Hire a Social Media Manager?
Hire people who know how to talk to other people online, who know the terms and the ways those platforms operate. It’s important to have someone who understands hashtags, SnapChat, gifs, and especially Memes because they are going to be thrown at you a lot. If you don’t understand them, you can become a laughingstock pretty quickly. If you don’t have the time to understand the current language of social media, maybe it’s time to hire someone that does.
Overall, a little extra attention to your digital marketing strategy will make a huge change in your profitability. You will find that it can even change the outlook on your business. Make sure to read up and reach out to people who can help you with all of the strategies listed above. Remember that there is nothing too bad about having a boring campaign, but a lot can go wrong if you try a new marketing campaign without knowing what you are doing. If you need help building a new marketing campaign that will meet your targeted audience, consider reaching out to Media-Shark.
Tom Blake is a digital marketing guru at Media Shark digital agency, and all round entrepreneur. Running his own businesses since the age of 20 he’s work has seen him travel the world living in various countries. Now heading up Media Shark in the sunny Gold Coast of Australia. He’s passion lies in helping people with online marketing and providing technical SEO and digital strategies with one goal ROI.