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A healthy business is a growing business. If you’ve recently seen your sales plateau month after month, it’s time to take control of your marketing strategy.
Creative marketing ideas can give your small business that boost of energy it needs to start attracting new customers. Here are 7 top strategic marketing tactics you can start using today.
1. Video Blogging
One of the cheapest forms of marketing is video blogging. Most smartphones have high definition video filming and editing capabilities.
You can shoot and edit a video blog for customers helping them navigate through the process of making product selections, understanding your services. Video blogging is great for business owners who don’t have the budget to launch a full marketing offensive.
It’s a great way to add-on to an existing email marketing or social media campaign to refresh your message with current customers. For new customers, video adds a touch of personality to your brand helping you stand out from the competition.
Video is a form of rich media that can work wonders for your search engine optimization or SEO. Don’t limit your videos to your blog pages.
Customers expect to see at least 3 product videos per page before making a decision. You can do your own unboxing videos to show visitors how to get started using the products you offer.
2. Do an SEO Audit
Improving your search rankings is critical to making your business stand out online. Customers have millions of alternatives to doing business with you.
Make it easy for them to find you online by making sure your website is top SEO condition. An SEO company can perform an audit of your website to fix things like slow-loading pages, bad links, and 404 errors.
You’ll want to have them regularly check your pages because Google changes its algorithm around 500 to 600 times per year. Updates you make to your website might not be relevant in a few months’ time.
3. Google My Business
You don’t need an SEO consultant to help you optimize your Google My Business listing. Google My Business is a great way to improve your local search rankings.
In its November 2019 algorithm update, Google focused on more ways to optimize local listings so that customers can find relevant businesses faster. To do that, Google ranks businesses higher who have complete and detailed Google My Business listings.
Update an existing Google My Business Listing with a description that includes the top keywords for your business category. Confirm all location information and that your hours of operation are correct.
4. Become a Lifestyle
Though it might be great for engagement, small business owners can’t spend hours everyday liking and commenting on social media posts. The efficient way to market your business on social media is to tell a story.
Think of your brand as a lifestyle and not a business. Businesses sell products, but a lifestyle is filled with colorful moments that connect with customers on an emotional level.
Plan your story in advance to take control of when and what to post on your channels. Think of your top five brand values and how these improve the lives of your customers.
Share images and information that promote your values in ways that are entertaining, inspiring and educational.
5. Get More Partners
Getting more partners for your small business can exponentially improve your audience reach. Partnerships don’t need to involve Fortune 500 brands to be successful.
Sometimes other neighborhood businesses are the best partners because you have the opportunity to build one on one relationships with the owners that improve over time.
Focus on building relationships with established businesses who’ve spent years building a clientele. By cross-promoting with these businesses, you open the door to customers you wouldn’t normally be able to reach.
Having a partner vouch for your brand’s credibility is a shortcut to gaining more trust with new customers. The same applies to new customers you bring to potential partners so make sure you align yourself with companies that offer quality products.
6. Work on Your Relationships
Improving sales isn’t always about going out and getting new customers. Some companies can improve sales simply by selling more to existing customers.
To do this, it’s important to increase brand loyalty. Brand loyalty means customers believe you have a superior product or customer service and they’re willing to shop with you no matter how low prices drop elsewhere.
Ask current customers for feedback on how to better meet their needs. Surveys and polls at checkout are an easy way to get insight into how your customer thinks so you can better meet their expectations.
7. Reward Good Behavior
Another way to improve your relationship with current customers is to offer reward programs for employees. Employees are often overlooked as one of the essential ingredients of great customer relationships.
Happy, well-trained employees should be your brand ambassadors helping to guide customers through the decision making process as they shop. Offer employees rewards for both sales and customer service efforts.
Rewards can be tangible like a cash bonus every month for top survey rankings or intangible like an additional paid vacation day for the year.
Use These Top Strategic Marketing Ideas
Finding the top strategic marketing tactics for your business will take time. Marketing should never take your focus away from improving the services or products your business offers.
You want tactics that are easy and cost-effective to deploy right away. Learning too many different types of software, for example, can prove a distraction that takes away from your ability to focus on operating your business.
Scale up your marketing efforts gradually and it will be less strain for your team to manage. For more information and business tips, check our blog for updates.
