Marketing Secrets To Bolster Your Bottom Line

When it comes to marketing, there are myriad tactics and techniques that you can use in order to bolster your bottom line. Marketing is an extremely efficient way to increase sales but if done incorrectly, it could be a huge waste of both time and money. For this reason, you need to focus your marketing efforts in order for them to be successful and provide the desired return on investment (ROI).

What is marketing?

Simply put, marketing is the act of driving profitable customer action. Whether you choose to utilise traditional marketing or digital marketing in your marketing efforts, the end goal stays the same – to try to convince customers to buy your product or service. But which is the best approach?

Traditional marketing vs Digital marketing

The main difference between traditional and digital marketing lies in which medium is utilised in order to convey your marketing message to your customers. Take a look below to see which channels are used in each marketing type.

Traditional marketing channels include:

Billboards, bus/taxi wraps, posters etc
Broadcasting (TV, Radio etc)
Print (Magazines, newspapers etc)
Direct Mail (catalogues etc)
Telemarketing (Phone, text messages)
Window display and signs

The channels change between the two marketing types but the message and reason behind the message stays the same – to build awareness in order to increase sales. So when it comes to marketing, which approach is best?

Introducing the new way of marketing

Why choose between the two schools when you can utilise both in order to build an effective marketing campaign? That’s where 360-degree or 360 marketing comes into play. This new school of marketing takes the best from both traditional and digital marketing in order to create a holistic marketing approach that infuses the entire customer journey.

What exactly is 360 marketing?

A 360 marketing strategy is a comprehensive marketing plan that focuses on reaching the intended target audience from multiple platforms and channels by utilising both traditional and digital channels. In other words, a 360 marketing strategy will ensure that customers have a positive experience of communication regardless of their location or what device or medium they see the message on.

*The Main Benefits of a 360 Marketing Campaign***

When it comes to incorporating a 360 marketing strategy into your marketing approach, there are many benefits that will come along with it. Below we’ve outlined the three main benefits of using 360 marketing:

Create more strategic sales and marketing campaigns

One of the main benefits of 360 marketing is that it provides marketers with the opportunity to extend the reach of their current marketing and sales teams, and allows them to create far more strategic marketing campaigns and sales with the use of current insights and data that’s already been gathered.

For example, if you see that a customer often buys indoor plants then your marketing and sales team can create a campaign that directly targets that particular interest.

Helps marketers understand customers and their behaviours

We all know the importance of knowing your target audience when it comes to marketing to them and this marketing approach places a high priority on that fact. 360 marketing helps brands better understand their customers’ interests and behaviours by staying in constant communication with them in order to both learn more about them and gather valuable insights into the way they behave during the buying process and consume content. By utilising these insights, marketers are able to create more targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with their intended audience which in turn leads to a higher sales rate.

Helps marketers deliver more personalised shopping experiences

360 marketing understands the importance of the user experience and uses this to its advantage to deliver more personalised shopping experiences. Using the 360 marketing approach, brands utilise customer insights they have gathered to offer a more personalised experience throughout their customers’ buying journey.

For example, if a customer is signed up to an e-commerce website and always buys the same brand, when the brand is launching a new product, those customers will be some of the first to hear about it through a personalised email.

As you can see the 360 marketing approach relies on customer insights and constant communication with them in order to be effective.

How to focus your marketing efforts

Now that we’ve gone through the most used marketing approaches and channels, it’s time to tie it all together. A successful marketing campaign hinges on a clear understanding of your target audience and a clear and consistent approach to conveying your marketing message. Regardless of which approach or tactics you use to implore your customers to buy from you, the need to focus your marketing efforts applies to all.

It’s also important to note that there is no clear way to success when it comes to marketing as there is no one-size fits all approach. Every marketing campaign will vary depending on what results business owners are looking for. For example, they may want to reach more customers, build customer loyalty, increase sales, or drive awareness. Depending on the goal of the marketing campaign, the intended target audience, and the budget available, marketers will need to come up with a campaign that takes all those factors into account in order to produce successful results.

The most important thing to remember when coming up with a marketing approach is to keep it focused. Let’s explore below exactly what that means.

Know your target audience

In order to produce a successful marketing campaign, you will need to know and understand the intended target audience. A great way to do so is to come up with buyer personas in order to get a full understanding of your customer’s pain points, wants, and needs, as well as the best messaging for them. Start by drawing up profiles that include all the necessary information about your target audience such as;

Age
Location
Hobbies/interests
Job
Education
Behavioural traits
Buying patterns

And then build upon these to include more detailed information as you learn more about your customers. The first step in making sure your marketing approach resonates with your customers is to know them through and through.

Define the purpose

Next you’ll need to define the purpose of your marketing efforts. Are you looking to drive sales and brand awareness or looking to launch a new product? Depending on the purpose of your campaign, your marketing message will change and the channels used will, too. Without a clear purpose, marketers will be at risk of producing content that produces no results as there is no clear message or call to action (CTA) which leaves customers confused as to what is expected of them. This is why it’s essential to have a clear definition of the purpose of the campaign in order to work towards the goal and not just take shots in the dark.

Decide which channels to use

Once you’ve done your research on your intended audience, you will have found out where and how they consume content. This is a great starting point to ensure that your message gets seen by the right people. Using the customer insights available, decide on which channels to utilise in your marketing approach that will best suit your audience. You may feel like you should utilise all the channels available to you, but this could result in your marketing team being spread too thin and not being able to properly execute the message with the desired audience or effect. Less is sometimes more when it comes to marketing as you can focus on the channels that your customers are already on and produce content specifically for them.

Keep your message clear and simple

The last point is to keep your marketing message clear and simple. In order to keep your marketing focused, you’ll need to ensure that the message you’re trying to convey is clear and simple. Pick one goal per campaign to market so you don’t fall at risk of confusing your audience with a myriad of different messages all asking them to do something different. Have one clear and defined goal in mind and then work this into your message that you will then send out through multiple channels. The message essence should stay the same with only a few tweaks needed in order to personalise it to the platform where it will be received.

Final words

No matter which approach you choose to utilise in your marketing efforts, you’ll need to keep your marketing efforts focused in order to achieve the goals set out for you. As there is no cookie-cutter approach to marketing, each campaign will be different in the approach and channels used. This is because you’ll need to tailor each message to the intended audience for it to both resonate with them and be effective. Sign up for a marketing online short course to learn how to tailor your marketing efforts to your audience for the best results.