Marketing can be a fundamental function for any type of business or team. It can help build a good reputation, boost sales, and increase communication with customers. Having a marketing plan or strategy in place can help your company be successful in the long run. However, marketing strategies can need an update every now and then, especially with technology constantly changing. To help your marketing strategy stay relevant and current, here’s a list of tips that will help you update it.
Research Your Competition
Knowing who your competition is and what marketing tactics they are using can help your company come up with new ideas to implement. Researching another company’s marketing can help you figure out new ideas that you want to put into action, and also what ideas you don’t want to carry out. As you research your competition, make sure you take a look at the different types of strategies they are implementing. Here are a few examples listed below.
- Websites - Websites are the 24/7 fronts for many businesses. You can view what kind of content they display and call-to-actions they are using. Take note of design and features you see that you like that you might want to use for your own website in the future.
- Newsletters - Check out your competitor's newsletters. You can enter your email address on your competitor's websites or submit a form and see what kind of automation and email marketing they may have set up. This may spark ideas for your own team to develop content or improve your own automation.
- Podcasts and Videos - Check out any podcasts or videos your competitors may have or have appeared on. Many leaders share their expertise in different ways, through speaking instead of writing. Consider the ways in which you could gain an audience, if appearing on a video podcast would be effective, and different topics you might discuss.
- Social media - Visit your competitor's social media sites and see what their top posts have been over the last 30 days. You may notice their posting habits, or lack of posting, if you don’t see very many posts. Organic social media is out there for everyone to consume, so take advantage of it and you might even come up with some new ideas.
- Social Media Ads - Now, you can see your competitor's social media ads on Facebook’s Ad Library. The Ad Library will show you their ads on both Facebook and Instagram. By viewing their ads, you can see what has been successful for them, and use that information to critique your own ads. View their captions and content to see what has been helping their top-performing ads.
Quarterly Audit Your Marketing
While the timelines might differ based on the business, it’s generally a good idea to create a quarterly reviewing process of your marketing. During this process, you can take note of what’s been working and what needs improvement in order to enhance your digital presence and encourage business growth.While you audit your marketing, you may want to look at and discuss website traffic, conversion rates, email campaigns, or engagement on social media. Here are a few examples you might start with:
- Website traffic - By looking at your own company’s website traffic you can start to identify trends that you might miss day-to-day. You can look at traffic trends, how people are getting to your website, and what pages they are viewing the most. If you have more sophisticated tracking set-up, you can analyze your KPI’s for your website and help your team decide what might push the needle in the future for your website marketing.
- Email campaigns - Analyzing your email campaigns quarterly can be helpful as well. Look at your contact lists, your automation, and the data behind them. It might be time to update those contact lists that you haven’t changed, maybe ever. Notice both open and click rates and see if any of your emails are performing better than others and what that might mean for your team.
There are a lot of Key Performance Indicators to consider. You can start focusing on specific KPIs once you figure out which ones are the most important for your team to track.
Network
Networking can encourage fresh ideas for your marketing strategy. It’s also beneficial because you can stay on top of marketing trends. When you attend a conference, you can ask other business professionals for their advice on any marketing issues you are facing. This way, you’ll be able to gain insights on how to solve problems you’re having within your company from someone who has already overcome them.Other networking opportunities include Facebook and LinkedIn groups. Many people choose to network on LinkedIn instead of attending an event. If conferences aren’t your cup of tea, or if you haven’t prioritized attending conferences, you can engage online to see what is happening in your industry and use any free resources you find to improve your company’s marketing.
Work with Outside Help
If you aren't sure how to update your company’s marketing, and you’ve already researched your competition, completed quarterly audits, and networked, then it may be time to seek help outside of your company. There are many marketing agencies with different specialties, such as social media, email marketing, web design, and more. You can even find agencies like 97 Switch that have been recognized as a Top B2B Digital Marketing Agency.Once you pinpoint your marketing needs, you can start researching what types of agencies would be the best fit. It’s important to read online reviews so you know that you are choosing a dependable and reliable company, with enough expertise in the area you are looking for. You can also check which awards the company has accumulated since many top agencies have received awards for their work. This way, you’ll know the agency you’re choosing is top-notch.
Key Takeaways
Remember, you can update your company’s marketing strategy by experimenting with these four things: researching your competition, auditing your marketing, networking, and working with outside help. Each company has different needs, so it’s important to try out various things to find out what works best for your business. Once you’ve found what works best for your company, you'll be able to develop a successful marketing program.
Interested in learning more about how we can help your business with marketing? You can email us at info@97switch.com or call (312) 212-0968.
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