Just as consumers’ tastes and preferences constantly change, so does how to reach and attract them to your product or service. Below you will find 6 marketing strategies for 2017 to help you keep up with the ever evolving world of marketing.
While providing potential customers with Ebooks, PDFs, and other downloads can be helpful, it might not be completely efficient in satisfying their needs. Rather than reverting to these traditional methods, think about giving the potential customers an opportunity to download free software. Free software can help customers solve problems related to your business, AND it’s free! Nothing attracts people more than free stuff. It also provides the customer with something before asking them for something, such as their email address or personal information. If the customer likes the software, they will be intrigued to know more about what else your business has to offer. Some tips on how to get started with this include, but are not limited to, turning how-to articles into software, creating quizzes related to your business so that potential customers can evaluate their situation or problem, and creating free products such as chrome or WordPress extensions, website graders, and standalone apps.
When promoting your product, think about creating a “package” with other products or companies for the same price. In order to do this, start by making some kind of offer together. Say something along the lines of, “when you buy (this), you can receive (this!)”. Make sure you establish clear guidelines and goals when organizing a promotion with an additional business. Consider things like cost of promotion and production, who is organizing the promotion, and what kind of relationships do both companies already have that can benefit them in the process? Next, when the product(s) sell, pay the other company a percentage of the profit, since they sold just as much product as you did. Once you gain interest and receive the customer’s information, such as their emails, you can send other offers to your email lists. As a result, both companies receive a profit and both companies reach out to different audiences. By partnering with other companies when promoting your product or service, you reach a diverse audience of people who may have never heard of your product if you didn’t have that connection. The point of this is to gain more awareness as well as make a profit. Although this isn’t always the easiest option, it is definitely one of the most helpful marketing strategies for 2017.
There are hundreds of platforms to market your product or service, and having so many definitely makes it easier to plaster an advertisement or message anywhere. Something to take into consideration is what you’re really going to get out of marketing your product on certain platforms. It is important to advertise or market on channels where there is heavy volume but also little competition. It might be easy to post your advertisement anywhere, but nobody is going to see it if it’s masked by 50 other advertisements advocating for a similar product or service! For example, Instagram has over 500 million active monthly users. This site is used by almost half of brands, 48.8% to be exact, and is supposed to increase to 70.7% by the end of this year! After looking at an Instagram advertisement post, 75% of users will take action, such as visiting the website or buying the product. While Instagram clearly has a very large audience and high performance rate, it is important to note that almost ¾ of brands utilize this platform. Consider what you are trying to market, and whether or not it competes highly with the number of brands who have already hit this channel.
Similar to strategies 2 and 3 above, it is not only important to be mindful of where you market your product or service, but also to market your content across different types of channels. By reaching out to a diverse selection of audiences, you create awareness among the majority of people instead of your everyday audience. Maybe some people only have a YouTube account but not Instagram, and maybe some people only have Twitter but not Facebook. If you continuously reach out to people through YouTube and Twitter, you’re missing the millions of people that are logged onto Instagram and Facebook. It is also important switch up the way you market. For example, posting videos attracts audio-visual learners, and posting articles attracts people who prefer to read. It is always beneficial be diverse when it comes to how you market and where you market.
It is no secret that going mobile is getting more popular day by day. By evaluating the performance of your mobile site, you can ensure that your audience is getting what they need and want, when and where they want it. First, you should know how much mobile traffic your company is receiving. In order to do this, go to Google Analytics, click Audience and then Overview, go to System and then Operating System. By retrieving this number, you can not only analyze how many people are accessing your site through mobile, but also who is actually ordering your products or joining your mailing list, or taking further action other than just reaching your site. If your site is not necessarily performing well, you can visit your site on a mobile device, such as a phone or tablet, and create a list of improvements that can be done, such as shrinking text or moving images around to accommodate the space on the page.
Similar to strategy 4 above, marketing to different audiences not only in the US but also among other countries around the world is one of the most important marketing strategies for 2017 that will help you get the most out of the people you reach. The US isn’t the only country in the world that has money, speaks English and could potentially be interested in what you have to offer. By promoting your product or service internationally, you create a more diverse audience AND you could most likely be cheaply reaching a platform with less competition, which means more awareness, performance and profit. To view where your traffic is coming from, go to Google Analytics, click Audience, click on the Geo menu, and then click Location. You can also research keywords that users from other countries are utilizing when searching. Companies that have successfully branched out internationally include, but are not limited to, Red bull, Nike, and Dunkin Donuts which has 3,100 stores in over 30 countries outside of the US.
Overall, it is important to advertise your product across multiple audiences, channels, and platforms and provide your potential customers with a diversity of options. These 6 marketing strategies for 2017 will help you efficiently market your product and satisfy your potential customers’ needs.
