The last two decades have seen significant changes in the way we live and work. Communication, in particular, has gone through a sea change for instance and reaching out to people across the globe has never been easier. With such seamless communication opportunities for setting up businesses and growing them have also grown in tandem. Experts have also teamed up to offer strategic business consultancy for small businesses. Marketing is an essential component of any business, but the manner in which marketers handle this component has changed significantly too. Budget is no longer the key driver for marketers, while creativity and ingenuity have moved several notches up. Today, even small businesses have the ability to beat established giants in the global arena if they can offer a service or product that is remarkably different and exceptionally useful to the consumer.
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How do you break away from traditional marketing strategies?
The first step is to do some intense research on how you can arouse the interest in your customers. Your product or service should address the real needs of your customers or solve their problems so that their life is easier. In other words, you should not be spending huge amounts of money on cold calls or lifeless sales pitches. That brings us to the importance of being at the right place, at the right time and before the right audience. This is also known as the 3 Rs of marketing. Many start-up businesses have effectively carved out offbeat niche methods of communicating with potential customers. Often times, these methods have proved to be not just cost-effective but also significantly rewarding in terms of building a customer base and growing it consistently. Many small business consulting services are also adopting this approach.
Number of buys than the number of hits
Certain marketing strategies will talk about growing traffic to your website. While getting more traffic is indeed desirable, the success of the business depends largely on the number of ‘buys’ or the conversion rate. If the conversion rate remains in low double-digit or single digit, then the business cannot expect to march forward.
The magic wand that brings customers to your business
Each product or service is different and therefore the strategies to reach potential customers also will be different. Today, mobile apps have become a very convenient and inexpensive tool to reach your target audience and engage them. How you build the app or get it done by a freelancer is a matter of your choice. If you dig into the world of freelancers, you will find that you can hire professionals of nearly every description at an affordable cost. Perhaps, you may even find the right professional right in your backyard. Remember that this is just one example of building your customer base and growing it. The digital media has a wide array of methods and tools that can help you reach your target customers. You can also find strategies that have helped other small businesses when you create an active profile on social media platforms. Yes, you should spend quality time researching these because that is the stepping stone to your success.
Twitter and Facebook mentions
You can devise distinct methods for promoting your product/service through twitter/facebook mentions. There are many ways of achieving this and a good professional can guide you through the process of exploiting Facebook and Twitter platforms. For instance, think of adding an algorithm to the app to add twitter/facebook mention of your channel partners/customers every time they visit your site or share information with you.
Gather reviews and opinions from your customers
By focussing on optimization of the App store, you can help the publishers to rank your app higher in the app store searches. Higher ranks bring increased visibility for potential clients and in turn translate to more traffic and potentially more customers. Remember that two-thirds of the apps are discovered just through a general search. The keywords and title should be your focus while optimizing the apps. Another important factor to remember is that reviews from customers give more credence to your business and is liked by search engines too. You should, therefore, find ways to encourage your customers to leave feedback.
Viral content
Another useful measure to promote your business is to create viral content. There are many US and European businesses that have exploited this medium very effectively. Through this route, you can increase your reach, build a better image for your brand, and enhance your engagement. By creating a distinct type of superior quality content based on conversations relevant to the brand, you can increase your interaction with your target audience using dedicated hashtags.
Conclusion
While the strategies outlined above are helpful in getting you started with the task, they are by no means comprehensive. Therefore, you should engage in focused research to add to these.