Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C space, your goal is to attract highly qualified prospects and move them forward through the customer journey. Below, we highlight 7 effective marketing strategies to make this happen:
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Content Marketing
Content marketing includes web content, blog posts, articles, and digital assets that are part of inbound marketing campaigns (e.g. ebooks, reports, white papers, checklists, etc.).
All of this content needs to take an “information-first” approach that delivers meaningful, relevant value to customers. Once that primary objective has been achieved, it’s both acceptable and agreeable to brand the content by (for example) inserting a call to action.
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Email Marketing
When email marketing hit the scene several years ago, it was widely hailed as a marketing miracle! It was inexpensive to create, free to distribute, open rates were through the roof, and engagement and conversion rates weren’t far behind.
However, while a lot has changed over the years, email marketing is still among the most effective marketing strategies – provided that it’s done correctly. Similar to content marketing, email marketing has to deliver relevant, meaningful value to customers. What’s more, it has to be designed professionally so that customers read, watch, click and move forward.
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Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing isn’t just about having a Facebook, Twitter and maybe a LinkedIn or Instagram account (depending on whether the target is B2B or B2C). That’s the easy part.
The more challenging and strategic part, is pushing relevant content to these platforms on a regular basis, and driving customers to take desirable actions – such as visit a website, download an ebook, share or like a post, and so on.
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Online Ads
Online ads can also be an important part of the marketing mix, as long as campaigns are custom built and constantly monitored. Indeed, there are plenty of horror stories of businesses spending thousands or tends of thousands of dollars a month on Google AdWords, yet generating little or no sales.
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SEO
These days, SEO is fundamentally driven by quality content (which is what we’ve been highlighting above), and “offsite SEO”. It’s VERY important for businesses to steer clear of shady consultants and firms that make insane SEO-related promises.
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Meetups
Meetups (or any other kind of workshop) are an excellent way to establish thought leadership, build and increase a network of both prospective customers and influencers, and generate publicity and buzz.
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Conventional Marketing
Conventional marketing includes radio advertising, TV advertising and print advertising, and so on.
Some people may be surprised that we’re including these among the most effective marketing strategies. However, in our experience they can indeed be smart, strategic and profitable investments – provided that they’re designed and managed properly. Otherwise, they can quickly turn into a money pit!
Learn More Highly Effective Marketing Strategies
To learn more about implementing effective marketing strategies in your business, check out our Guide to Inbound Marketing Best Practices by clicking below.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
