The most successful marketing campaigns are those that are innovative, unique and have been created with the target audience in mind. Whilst many big name brands can build on their widespread brand recognition, many other smaller businesses need to be inventive with their marketing. That being said, even big name brands can fall behind if competitors are evolving their marketing strategies at a faster rate. An easy way to make sure your marketing team is as competitve as possible, consider using a marketing staffing agency.
Though it may feel daunting when you think of the level of competition out there, remember that throughout history there has never been an easier way to communicate with your audience as there is now. And communication is key to influencing your market. So, with access to so many different online platforms and greater consumer choice, how do you keep your audience focused on your brand?
Take a look at these top tactics that marketers are implementing to draw in their audience.
1. Contacting customers via emails
Emails are a huge part of day to day life now whether that’s as a professional, individual or a consumer. According to Radicati Group, over 3.7 billion people globally use email, many checking and sending emails every day and for most of us, when we hear that ping to tell us we’ve got a new message, we can’t help but stop what we are doing to take a look.
Emails present a big opportunity for businesses to engage with their audience through this channel. Not only will emails allow you to take advantage of reaching a huge group of people, but unlike other mediums, emails can be more personalised and tailored to the audience. In fact, something as simple as using the customer’s name can make all the difference.
If you want to further personalise your emails and provide valuable information to your customers, you need to be asking the right questions. Asking customers the reasons why they are visiting your website, becoming a user or subscribing to your email can be easy and will provide a huge advantage in understanding your customers’ needs. With this valuable data, your business can send more targeted emails in order to increase click-through-rate.
Paper Style, an invitation/stationery website specialising in weddings and other events, were lacking positive responses from their email marketing efforts and they recognised that not all their customers were visiting their site for the same reason. They therefore needed to develop a strategy to increase the personalisation of their emails. They simply asked one question to their customers ’what are you planning for?’ There were only two possible answers: their own wedding or a friend or relative’s wedding.
They then created five different emails that were targeted at two separate groups (based on the answers above). Paper Styles saw fantastic results with a 244% increase in email open rates and 161% increase in their click-through-rate and they achieved this just by making their emails more personalised and useful to their customers.
2. Driving Customers to Call
Over the past 20 years the use of mobile phones has rapidly increased. We use our mobile devices to research services or products, search for businesses and make a purchase. But the mobile phone was built with calls in mind and 75% of people still consider phone calls to be the fastest way to communicate with a business.
Marketers are focusing on closing the gap between online and offline interactions. Consumers who initiate calls to businesses are, on average, more likely to convert 30% faster. This is because businesses are to speak directly with their customers and answer customers queries much faster and upsell their service during a phone call. You can use enticing words to communicate with your audience on your site or with marketing materials, but there is no better way to talk to you customers than by having a conversation with them. Not only are they more likely to listen to you, but you can listen to your customers and understand their needs better.
Here are four easy steps which you can implement in your marketing strategy to drive your inbound calls:
- Display a Phone Number – Ensure that you display your phone number clearly on both your website and mobile site as well as your marketing campaigns and ads. Make sure your calls to action (CTAs) are clear and that they stand out to draw the customers’ attention.
- Provide a Local Number – Some consumers trust local phone numbers over generic 0345 or 0800 numbers.
- Opening Hours – Display your availability in terms of online chat box and physical business hours so customers know when they can contact you. You could even display a ‘Phone Us Now’ button to prompt a call and overcome possible hesitation.
- Call-back Request – Offer the option to request a call-back: this allows the customer to let you know the best time to call them so you never miss a customer’s call.
It’s important that you know which marketing campaign, ad or channel is driving consumers to call you. This is a key element in understanding how to improve your marketing strategy, as well as further optimising which channels are performing well.
All of the above tactics can be achieved using call tracking software which allows you to apply unique, dynamic numbers and static telephone numbers to your online and offline marketing. Integrating call tracking within your overall marketing strategy is essential in growing your understanding of your online and offline interactions. Suppliers, such as Mediahawk, allow you to insert unique, dynamic telephone numbers into individual landing pages, campaigns and paid ads, such as AdWords. You are then able to determine the source(s) of the highest number of calls and utilise your marketing budget to drive further conversions in the stronger performing areas.
3. Appealing to Millennials
Pew Research Centre recently reported that millennials will be the largest living generation by 2019 at 73 million people. With such a huge consumer base, it makes perfect sense for businesses to want to target millennials. However, with this generation consuming a substantial amount of content across multiple platforms and devices, businesses need to evolve new ideas to capture their attention.
Marketers may be familiar with the phrase ‘think outside the box’ when wanting to influence a large audience. Big brands like Zara have recently tried a new approach in targeting millennials with augmented reality (AR) displays to drive footfall to their stores. This involves customers using their mobile phones and Zara’s mobile app to view AR features within store and designated shop windows. Whilst many small businesses may not be able to consider this approach, there are a few other ways you can appeal to millennials.
Creating videos – Did you know that 65% of your audience are visual learners? It’s vital therefore to be creative with your videos and the content to send a message to your audience. You could create videos demonstrating your new product or even a demo of your mobile app to encourage more downloads.
Holding competitions – If you already have a social media platform for your business, and want to attract new followers or engage with your existing customers, holding competitions is a great way to do so. When you think of all those reality TV competition shows, like the recent Survival Of The Fittest, the whole cast are often millennials. Winning a prize is exciting and being involved in a fun competition appeals to millennials and additionally draws attention to your brand.
Working with Charities – Some consumers are more influenced with what the brand is doing more broadly, whether that be winning awards, attending fancy events, or donating to charity. Aligning yourself with a charity accomplishes two worthwhile objectives. Not only are you helping a good cause and trying to better the world, but charitable giving can also drive consumers, wanting to support the same cause, in acknowledging your brand’s goodwill. Consumers may favour investing in your brand, through your products or services, which can also help beneficiaries of your donation.
