Times move so fast these days, and you might be wondering why your marketing campaign hasn’t really taken off yet in (unless you’ve been a faithful reader of this blog, in which case you’ve got all the know-how to implement amazingly effective marketing).
If you’re not seeing the type of return you’d like, review these big trends for the year. Maybe you’re just not focusing your energies on Hot Marketing Techniques?
Brand Advocates
- We’re not about thousands of Twitter followers or Facebook fans anymore! You want to attract a loyal few.
- Customers who interact often with your brand (post reviews on your Facebook page, tweet or blog about your products, etc.) are a much better “brand ambassadors” than those “one-and-done” people who subscribe to your news feed and never, ever comment.
Niches
- Focus on the specific niche you occupy in your industry.
- Don’t try to blanket your services to cover every possible scenario: customers will appreciate you more (and have a more positive experience) when you focus on a small area of products/services that you have expert experience with.
Quality Content
- Your online interactions (website, social media, etc.) can be much more valuable when you add useful content.
- Some ideas: post a video of how your product is made, call for video submissions from customers using your product (have an online contest to choose who gets to be on your website!), take photos at tradeshows and post to your Facebook account, etc.
Geotargeting
- This is a fancy way of saying “sell to your neighborhood.” Don’t stretch yourself thin by trying to reach way beyond your physical boundaries – use the untapped resources in your local area!
- Groupon, LivingSocial, and other coupon sites target specific neighborhoods and demographics. Yelp.com is a site where customers can post reviews and get suggestions for other local places to try.
Co-marketing
- Probably my favorite of all the marketing trends this year, co-marketing encourages collaboration between small businesses.
- Find another small business with complementary products/services to your own, share the costs of joint marketing pieces, and increase the exposure of both companies!
The best way to measure the effectiveness of any new marketing technique is to wait 6-8 weeks. If you aren’t seeing results in two months or less, change gears a little. Try to focus on one of these 5 trends – post a new video to your site, or investigate a Groupon plan – and see if you can get out of the mid-year slump.
