Things are changing very rapidly for marketers in today’s business environment. Increases in technology and the popularity of social media have largely impacted the way companies should be marketing. It can be difficult for marketers to keep up their digital marketing strategy at times due to how rapidly things are progressing in this field.
Seth Godin is one of the most influential marketers around today. He has accomplished many things and his blog is the most read in the world. In an interview with the economic intelligence unit, Seth was asked about recent shifts in marketing and what the future of marketing looked like.
Seth’s response was essentially that marketing and advertising have been divided even more so than in the past. He also said the most effective marketers will make things worth talking about.
In order to improve your marketing strategy, you need to make your company, product, brand, etc. worth talking about. To do this, you need to have an increased focus on content and start telling stories more than pitching your products. Below are some simple ways to ramp up your marketing strategy and adapt to the changing conditions.
Have a Documented Strategy
Every company has some form of marketing strategy because they are all doing something to increase brand awareness. However, just having a strategy obviously does not mean it is an effective one.
Before you can improve your current strategy, document what you are already doing to expand your reach. Then step back and evaluate which things are working and which are not. This will give you an idea of what to keep and what to change moving forward.
Create a Blog and Produce Content
If you don’t already have a blog on your company website, you need to get one ASAP. One of the best ways to improve your overall marketing strategy is to focus on content marketing. Content marketing is all about creating valuable and engaging content that focuses on telling stories and solving problems.
Once you have a blog set up, use analytic tools to track your audience and web traffic. This will give you great insight into how effective your blog posts and other content are. Google analytics is a great tool for this and it is free to use.
Make a Content Calendar
With any business strategy, careful and deliberate planning are crucial to success. When creating or tweaking your marketing strategy, it would be wise to make a content calendar. Having a set schedule will help determine when content should be posted and what the content will consist of. Some companies post blogs daily, while some post weekly or monthly. The frequency depends on your goals and what makes the most sense for your business.
Try to utilize a mix of content. For example, in addition to blog posts, use data visualization, like infographics, to share complex information in a way that will be very easy to follow. Once you have a schedule established, you can hire freelance writers and ghost writers to work on posts for you.
Use Social Media and Mine Data
Once you begin posting content on your company’s blog, leverage social media to share the content and further engage your target audience. Using social media is great because it provides vast amounts of data on your customers. You can learn about their habits, what they read, what they watch, and more. Some social media sites allow you to directly target your content to specific demographics, ensuring it is seen by your desired audience.
Begin collecting and mining social media data to gain more insight into your prospects and to see how well your content is performing. You can use twitter polls to gain feedback and to directly interact with your audience. There are other social media analytics tools that can assist in this process as well.
Continue Tweaking and Adapting
Once you get a marketing strategy in place, it does not have to be set in stone. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Unlike other areas of business, marketing is not an exact science and it requires constant attention. Set up your plan, put it into action, measure the results, adjust as needed, and repeat the process. If you are not sure where to start, Moz offers a great content strategy template on their website to help get the ball rolling. Leave some comments below on some ways you have improved your overall marketing strategy in 2017.
