Marketing is the engine that drives business success. Without it, a business will flounder, splutter, and die. With it, a business has a better chance to go from strength to strength.
If marketing is done well, a business will flourish. Here are three strategies to add to any marketing plan to make it more robust:
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Focus on the Pareto Principle.
Use Pareto’s Principle. This is a principle suggested by Joseph M. Juran, a management thinker, who named the concept after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist. Pareto pointed out that 80% of income in Italy was received by only 20% of the population. Since then, management thinkers have noticed that the 80/20 rule applies to many things.
How does it apply to marketing? In marketing, 80% of revenues will be based on 20% of the client base. This means that only 20% of a client base will create 80% of the sales. It’s a good idea to treat these clients particularly well. One idea is to use corporate gift giving. During holidays, send them Perfect Feast Corporate Gifts, gift certificates to buy Turkey or Ham for big family dinners.
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Apply Digital Marketing Strategies.
Digital marketing strategies benefit all types and sizes of businesses. Even a brick-and-mortar business should develop a website presence.
Build a website. Create a blog. Start an ezine. Join the top social media sites. Then, once a robust infrastructure is in place, drive traffic through search engine optimization (SEO) methods like content marketing and paid search methods like pay per click (PPC) advertising.
Video marketing works better than any other form of online marketing because it simulates live interaction. Face-to-face videos give us the impression that someone is talking to us directly. Yet, even videos with a voice-over and slideshows work well because they help both see the written idea and hear the explanation. And, of course, videos with animation or graphics help understand something better.
What makes video marketing so powerful isn’t just the medium itself, but the distribution. Statistics on YouTube videos are impressive. This year, there are 1.57 billion active monthly users and over 30 million active daily users. To date, more than 5 billion videos have been shared.
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Revive Old World Marketing Strategies
The success of online marketing has eclipsed many old-world marketing strategies. It’s easier to publish in blogs than in newspaper and magazines. It’s more convenient to network on social media then to join the local Chamber of Commerce. And it’s cheaper to create an infomercial for YouTube than a commercial for television.
Still, despite the success of online marketing, it might be a good idea to add in some old-world marketing strategies. Those that continue to work remarkably well are trade shows, networking, and public speaking.
Trade shows allow a business to interact directly with clients. It’s a way for a business to get a much better idea about their ideal customers and their opinions about the company’s products and services. It’s also a good way to form alliances with other industry partners and learn about emerging trends.
Networking in person develops far richer and longer lasting relationships than networking online through forums and social media. Humans are wired for social interaction and respond with greater warmth to someone who speaks to us rather than writes to us.
Public speaking is alive and well in the 21st century. While it’s possible to acquire the same information in a more economical and time-saving format like an article, most people feel more engaged when hearing someone speak, explaining their perspective in person. We grasp the message better when seeing a speaker’s gestures, watching their facial expressions, and tuning in to their vocal inflections.
In conclusion, despite the promise of marketing, it’s not always pursued with the interest and dedication it deserves. Business owners and managers are distracted by many things that vie for their attention and don’t always give marketing the attention it deserves. By applying these three strategic initiatives, it’s easy to upgrade marketing for any business, from hospitality to retail, from online to offline.
