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Are you aware of your current marketing strategy and whether it’s current? It may not be a question you have considered before, and that could be a problem. As a business leader, you must be aware of your current marketing strategy and where it’s taking your business. As a successful young entrepreneur, you want to ensure that your business development and marketing strategies are fine-tuned. The Digital world we live in now is vastly different from the one five years ago and will be vastly different from the one in five years to come. If you’re not keeping up with all the business strategies, you’re not going to tell that your marketing is actually outdated.
From checking on your SEO organic traffic to your website to understanding what your marketing team are currently doing to make sure that your business is visible online, how will you tell whether your marketing is presently outdated or not? When was the last time you looked at your strategy? This is an important question because things change very quickly in the marketing sphere. Below, we have several ways you can tell that your marketing strategy is relevant.
- You are still cold calling. One of the best ways to tell that your marketing strategies are outdated is that you are cold calling people who do not want to pick up the phone. Cold calling with blind intent is even worse because if you are calling people, you should have a reason for it. When you want to market your product or service, you shouldn’t be picking up the phone and calling random phone numbers from a bought list off the Internet and spilling your spiel about your product. That’s not how to win customers; that’s how to annoy people. If you’re still picking up the phone and calling cold lists rather than warm ones because you’ve been working on building your customer mailing list, you are being left behind.
- Sales numbers mean more than success. You should focus on customer retention rather than just sales numbers. Almost any business can sell a bunch of products, but can you retain your customers? If your business only focuses on sales and fails to provide post-sale service, you won’t be able to build a loyal customer base – they won’t care. You need to go above and beyond to ensure that your service continues to satisfy customers because the returns of this are unbelievable.
- You’re sending out spam. This is a big no-no for every single business that actually wants to remain successful. If you’re going to send out emails, make sure that your emails have value. The last thing you need is your email opening rates to be plummeting because you’re just sending out spam email after spam email and not actually selling anything. Your customers don’t want to sit and read the spam emails you’re sending; they want to see the deals you’re offering them.
- You’re fixated on the clock. A good way to tell the marketing is outdated is that you’re too busy focusing on your business development being a 9-to-5 job. Business development is something you could be doing at all hours of the day because being online makes you available all hours of the day. Social media networks are huge, and you can even use your personal social network to bolster business.
- You don’t use email marketing. It’s a rookie mistake in today’s digital landscape. It’s a nice idea to want to be old school and send that snail mail to customers, but newsflash; your customers don’t want it. If people sign up for things on your website, they want to know that you’re a company that saves paper, not wastes it. Send emails like a good digital company does, and ensure that you’re reaching out the right way.
- It’s not authentic. When you are marketing your products, there shouldn’t be a script to work from. In fact, you need to ensure that the language you use isn’t over the top and sales. You see this often in the retail industry, but your customers are not going to be interested. The best thing you can do here to check if your marketing message is outdated is to ask your customers what they want to see from you. A business that actually listens to customers is the business that customers respect.
- You have no idea why you’re doing things the way that you do them. When was the last time you reviewed your marketing strategy? If you can’t remember, then perhaps it’s time to throw it all out and start again. If you don’t know your “why”, you shouldn’t be doing anything at all! You want to be able to hook your customers, dazzle them and keep them – and you also want them to recommend your business to others. It sounds like a lot to ask, but it’s not.
- You’re not providing anything. Waste is a big problem for most businesses. Still, if you are spending and spending money on your marketing strategies and routines but are not providing a service to customers, you are causing the waste. There is tremendous pressure for managers, and you need to make sure that you are meeting your marketing obligations to provide something of value. There has to be less promotion and more providing; otherwise, you will not be able to hook your customers the way you want to.
- You’re trying to drive referrals and not your website. It’s lovely to get word-of-mouth recommendations from customers, but if you’re putting all of your time and effort into trying to grab referrals, but you’re not putting your money and your business website, you’re doing it wrong. You need to make sure that people can see you and that you are visible online.
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