4 Marketing Tips from the Pros

For the uninitiated, digital marketing can feel a lot like speaking another language. But fear not, there’s a ton of resource out there to get you started! If you don’t feel like sifting through all that material right now, start by checking out these four key pieces of advice from world renowned marketing professionals…

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  1. Know your personas

Whether you’re writing tweets, publishing posts or battling with blogs, you can’t simply ‘set it and forget it’. What do we mean? Well, we mean that you can’t churn out a ton of automated posts and hope that they’ll resonate with your customers. Instead, give your business a better chance of succeeding by tailoring messages to particular individuals. Matt Quinn, head of marketing at Sauce, told Docurated that by “start[ing] with your persona, you’ll be able to identify what makes [your customers] who they are (i.e. haven’t made a purchase in three months) and thus will direct the path of what you should actually be [writing]”.

 

  1. Listen

Michelle Killebrew (Digital Marketer, TEDx speaker and technologist) recommends that in order to strengthen a social media presence, brands should listen. Killebrew observes that “if [your customers] are not conversing with you as a brand, then you are not engaging them in a discussion – you are talking at them through various channels”.

 

This is a trap that businesses need to be aware of: social media is all about two-way conversations and building a closer relationship by recognising how your audience wants to be engaged and reaching them across a variety of platforms.

 

  1. Learn to be a good storyteller

Whatever your business is selling – be it staples or superfast broadband – you need to be a convincing storyteller. This is because people buy products having connected with the emotions and benefits they elicit, rather than product features or technical specifications. As a result, your digital marketing strategy needs to focus on using empathy and good story telling techniques.

 

Laura Ramos, a professional specialising in B2B marketing advises that “arousing feelings like fear, joy, surprise, or sadness causes buyers to use more than just the language centres of their brains when experiencing your message — making your message more likely to stick”. If you’re struggling to do this, Ramos recommends using interactive tools such as surveys and games to “help [to] create an ‘across the table’ experience even with potential buyers who may be thousands of miles away”, so why not check out SmartSurvey or look into a marketing medium called ‘gamification’?

 

  1. Welcome guest posts

Finally, keeping a blog is crucial for your business. Not only does it demonstrate that you are a thought leader in your industry and have ideas worth listening to, it also helps to showcase your brand, values and tone of voice. However, if your team is too busy to maintain and promote your blog in-house, why not ask for guest posts? Jon Miller, co-founder of Marketo and a marketing speaker, blogger, entrepreneur and adviser told Scoop It that “you can often get a good flow of content from partner companies”, meaning you can scale up your efforts with the help of guest contributors.

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