For a Business to survive, it has to grow and broaden its scope, for if they do not do that their rivals will beat them to it and ultimately lose market share. Growth for a business can be divided into broadly speaking two categories a)organic b)inorganic. While each strategy has its own merits, not all of them work perfectly for every type of company. Today we will discuss various marketing strategies crucial for a business to further drive up its growth.
But before we start let us briefly understand what is meant by marketing and how is the growth of business essential for survival in this market.
Marketing is a wide gamut that includes a whole lot of other functions too. Any organization which understands this excels while those who only think marketing is just another term for sales fall behind. You see marketing is much more than sales, it's brand building, image, perception, utility, impact on the minds, and a lot of other intangible objects which when grouped either make a product hit or flop.
Growth is another aspect closely related to marketing. For a business to survive it has to go beyond the traditional home zone and go beyond borders and target customers, this is how economies of scale come into play. Make locals sell global ideology.
Jungle Scout, Viral Launch, and Elite Seller are three of the top-performing Amazon seller tools in the market today, read here to find out who the best amazon listing companies are.
Nevertheless, the pandemic had a tremendous impact on shaping consumer habits, and digital has become a new normal to do many things. Even when the pandemic is over, consumer habits will remain the same. Brands will now need to learn about their consumers without relying on second- or third-party data.
Let us now understand various marketing strategies to drive growth:
1. Build A Solid Digital Identity:
With many customers already accustomed to doing things the digital way, it makes great sense for your business to start building a presence. A digital identity is not just a few posts and a website, it is much deeper than that. You will be needing constant engagement with your customers and also find a way to connect with them so that you resonate with their needs. For example, if you are a seller of kitchen chimneys then start your online identity process by making a connection with various chefs and homemakers. Because their insights and reviews will inspire a lot of confidence for your brand and will ultimately be responsible for building a rapport with your user base. Similarly, if you are a seller of industrial adhesive, post something related to industrial machinery or similar applications and build your journey from there, slowly. You should not post ten or twenty posts a day in the beginning and expect results, as these things take time, so start with two or three posts a day then slowly increase.
2. Conduct Webinars:
The pandemic has changed people’s perceptions and businesses' way of doing business. Earlier there used to be a roadshow then mega-events, launch parties, etc but now they are replaced by zoom meetings and online events. It's a good and bad thing both at the same time. The good thing is that you can really save some serious money conducting business events. The bad thing is it's extremely hard to get users and stakeholders focused and undivided attention. You will have to use a lot of clever techniques and philosophies to keep users from logging out of the webinars.
This problem was also there in physical events but it is even more pronounced over here. Try to do an interactive webinar instead of a speech-type traditional webinar. Also, try to conduct the webinar using the least amount of time possible as nobody likes to watch constantly at their screens for like three to four hours. Find a good engaging host who can bring out the best in the audience and keep the scripted parts to a minimum and keep the focus on the main topic but not too much, try to balance it out.
3. Digital Email Marketing:
If you think about it, your customer’s email inbox is his/her personal property and if they decide to let you in (by clicking on your email) then your email must have struck out with their mind and if lucky you will get their undivided attention. The content must and should always be personalized and relevant to the specific receiver customer group, you cannot simply mix the groups together and send a bulk email. Moreover, in 2022, the trend of creating custom content is likely going to be more important than ever. With all the changes in the digital landscape, people will be more and more selective about what they consume, as their expectations will increase. So it is high time that you hire a good digital team and improve upon your customer’s digital interaction experience.
4. Make Your Customers Understand More About Your Product:
One of the several setbacks which various companies face is when their target customers do not think of their product the same as they did while developing it. For example- You are making a rare earth stone engagement ring and people perceive that as an ordinary ring and hence are buying for that purpose. To avoid misconceptions like this, it is highly recommended that you educate your customer group with various use cases of your product rather than just hoping that the customers catch your drift. Instead of directly selling your products or services, educate your customers on why they need you. It has to be about convenience, and you have to show them that you can help them. A wonderful way to do this is to make demonstrations and show them to your customers and start a parallel marketing campaign about how to use the products like know-hows, walkthroughs, etc.
5. Lure Customers into your ecosystem using simple messages rather than click baits:
Many times customers are frustrated about falling prey to click baits and later develop deep hatred towards the brand. We want the opposite of this, we need customers to click on our website link due to their own interest which can mostly be achieved by using simple yet meaningful messages. For example, if you are a brand image building company you can use an advert like come visit us to start your online and offline presence building exercise. A short simple yet meaningful message should do the trick almost always. Also in the interest of luring customers do not at any cost promise something you cannot deliver. Always undersell yourself and deliver in a big way rather than doing the opposite. Consumers have become more interested in high-quality and unique content. But, unfortunately, the amount of information on the internet is enormous so you have to keep on thinking outside the box for fresh ideas.
6. Offer Trial Versions or Freebies:
This was a great tool to make consumers attracted towards a brand, in fact in the earlier days of e-commerce they used this trick to increase their growth. However, it has a major risk factor attached to it. The thing is once your consumers are inside your ecosystem, courtesy of this freebie it can become equally hard to make them stay inside the system once the freebies end. You have to make your value felt more profoundly and assure your customers what exactly they stand to gain from you if they continue shopping with you. Tread lightly in this type of marketing and it is advisable only for someone experienced to try it out otherwise you might end up burning a significant portion of your capital.
7. Loyalty Cards:
Customers just love these. In a survey, it was found that eighty percent of the shoppers were repeated shoppers just because of their accumulated points. You as a consumer brand need to think like your customers then only you will understand why this works. A little bit of negotiating power, a little bit of value proposition, etc all this works like magic in the customer’s mind, they feel highly motivated and joyful when they see their repeat business is recognized and not only that but are rewarded too.
8. Try to convey your brand’s vision to your customers:
Every reputed company has a vision or future goal, try to use that to your advantage to connect better with your target customers. Consumers don’t want to know how fantastic your product is. What they want to know is the story about the time you helped to solve a specific problem. For example- You could rope in a real-life user for an advert for say agricultural seeds and tell them to share their experience there. Like they could say use these seeds for a sustainable and healthy future, etc. The more practical use cases of your products or services you find the more this works for you. Consumers should feel trusted, rewarded, and proud to buy your products, this is the goal.
