The word diverse brings to mind many things:
- Diversification of funds
- Diversity in the workplace
- Income diversity
Regardless of the subject, the sentiment is the same; there’s safety in numbers when balancing risk versus reward. Employees from different backgrounds, assets divided into numerous investments, multiple sources of income, or in this case – a balanced marketing portfolio – various ways of reaching your potential customers and clients.
You know you produce a product or provide a service that hundreds, thousands, or maybe even millions of people want or need… but how do you reach them? You could pour all your coin into airing a television commercial, or maybe you’d rather sink your budget into a magazine spread. One local billboard is another possibility, or you could rent a banner plane. All plausible, yet pricey, possibilities guaranteed to reach some of your target audience… once or twice. No one is saying running a few radio spots or placing an ad in the local newspaper is a colossal waste of money, but smart marketing it is not.
Just as diversification is used by financial planners for reducing volatility and minimizing risk, successful marketers know that promotional diversity is the most efficient and effective way of boosting exposure and maximizing spend. Let’s look at some marketing tools you have available and talk about why you want them in your arsenal.
SEO and Local Citations
One of the first things on your to-do list, after creating your business, was probably investing in an awesome website. Your website defines your brand, houses access to your products or services and acts as a home base for your company. But what good is your website if no one is finding it? Optimizing your website for search is what pulls perusing prospects and turns them into paying customers by:
- Making your website discoverable by matching relevant keywords
- Telling users your site is an authority in the industry and trusted by search engines
- Local citations – SEO that drives high-value traffic based on keywords and geographical area
Email Marketing
According to the 2018 Email Marketing Industry Census, email marketing is the most effective channel, with an ROI of over 4000%! And it keeps getting better! Email marketing serves a dual purpose; besides being a fantastic way of keeping customers and potential customers up to speed on your products, it’s also the most cost-effective way to get leads.
Social Media
You don’t need statistics to know that 7 in 10 Americans use social media. Look up from your own phone right now. How many others do you see glued to their mobile devices? Social platforms cater to all – regardless of age, race, gender, marital status, job title or income – your customers are on social media so your business must be too.
- Facebook – boasts 2.2 billion active users every month
- Instagram – is now the second-largest social media network in the world
- Twitter – 126 million people use this platform daily
Take the time to find your target audience, create content that truly speaks to them, use the right images, videos, gifs, and graphics and you’ve found a FREE recipe for success:
- Increased brand awareness
- Elevated brand loyalty
- Personal connections with your customers
- Increased website traffic
- More lead generation
- Increased sales
Social Media Advertising
Now that you’ve worked on growing your social media presence, it’s time to leverage it into targeted advertising. Unlike traditional advertising which uses generalized demographics on a broad-reaching medium, social media advertising allows you to find and engage with those most interested in what you’re selling, in a far more personal way. Your research has told you who is most likely to buy, where to find them, and how to speak to what ails them. It’s also far less expensive than traditional advertising with a much higher ROI. With social media, you get:
- Amplified reach
- A good fit for any budget
- Boosted brand awareness
- Maximized content marketing
- Access to mobile users
- Valuable market insights
Blogging
The word blog used to conjure images of angst-filled college kids banging out written rants on everything from politics to cafeteria food. Today, however, your business blog is the voice of your company. From announcing events to product reviews, tips and tricks, to interviews and polls; your blog is how you build authority in your industry. Done right, your blog is a dedicated media channel into all things YOU – connect with your customers over pain-points (and how your product is the solution,) give your opinion on a current controversy, or simply write a silly-fun post for the holidays. Just remember to post your blog on your social media channels with a link back to your website!
Inevitably, after trying diverse ways of reaching your target audience, clear winning tactics will start emerging. Maybe most of your leads are coming from Facebook, or your new app is going viral, definitely invest more time and energy into those platforms, but don’t stop everything else. Drill down on the data and you may find that while social media ads are bringing in the most leads, 8 of your last 10 conversions originated from an email video. Reaching your audience where they live is key, and because they live in multiple areas, your job depends on finding them there… and everywhere… every time they’re there.
