The world of marketing has changed. It’s now not enough to make sure your business is in the yellow pages and that the local radio station mentions it; people have split into niche communities and very rarely interact with those outside of their core groups online or in person. Because of this, marketing now needs to focus on finding the right niche communities and getting your product or service in front of them. The following will explore a few tips that can help you better market your business in the current era.
Don’t Make Assumptions About Traditional Media
While television commercials during prime time used to be a golden ticket, people are taking in less traditional media than ever before. More than half of millennials and generation z never watch cable television. If you’re in the process of brokering a deal with a traditional media outlet, be sure to ask for the hard numbers. How many people watch or listen in the time slot being discussed? What are their demographic details? More often than not, the bigger non-traditional media options have a larger following. You might discover that a random podcast is pulling in stronger numbers than standard media options.
Understand Industry Norms
Depending on the industry your business is positioned in, there might be marketing standards that you should take the time to understand. Certain kinds of marketing aren’t appropriate for all businesses. For instance, you probably wouldn’t want to visit a doctor with a case study section on his website where he describes in detail other people’s medical situations. But if you’re looking for software that helps small businesses, you might very well want to read a few case studies. Marketers at https://www.onthemap.com emphasize that you also need to take extra steps if your business relies on local clientele. Professions like law, plumbing, videography and car repair all need localized marketing as their customers aren’t coming from all over the world but within a certain mile radius.
Take Micro Marketing Seriously
In addition to the slow death of traditional media, there’s another fascinating flip in the marketing world new media has brought about. It used to be that getting your product in front of the biggest audience possible was the name of the game, but with the popularity of online communities, marketers are finding better results with much smaller, more targeted communities. Small niche communities should be looked at as warmer leads, whereas bigger communities that aren’t so focused should be seen as cold leads. What is a better prospect, one thousand warm leads or ten thousand cold leads? For many products, the smaller group turns out to be more profitable; micro-influencers (less than 10k followers) also tend to get better results than standard influencers as their communities are often more tightly knit. Focused approaches on your ideal customer are almost always better than widespread attempts to reach large numbers hoping that some are your ideal customers.
Never Sacrifice Digital Security
People are slowly learning how important it is to protect their identities and data, and this means that it’s going to be harder as you move forward to convince people to part with their email addresses, contact information or other data. These elements are staples of marketing in the digital era, so you need to do your due diligence and take steps to protect the security of people who share their information with you. Read the terms and conditions of all platforms and extensions you use and figure out what happens to the data of people who visit your site, social media pages, and mailing list. Chances are, the platform that you’re using is mining that information. Take steps to protect the people who trust you and share that information on your website for those who are interested in understanding it. Cybercrime has exploded in recent years, costing businesses nearly 7 billion dollars. It shows no signs of letting up, which means businesses need to take protective steps. It’s only a matter of time before people start making decisions about which businesses they interact with based on how safe those businesses are in the digital sphere.
The above information should have given you some marketing guidance for the modern era. When reading online articles or books on marketing, it’s a good idea to check the publishing date of the piece. If it’s more than three years old, look for an updated version or an alternative. Algorithms and marketing trends change at a rapid pace, and outdated approaches usually stop working after a while.