Maximize your Marketing in 2012
Happy New Year! The holiday celebrations are done, now let’s get down to business. In case you have not noticed, the way in which companies market, find new customers, and complete sales, have drastically changed in 2011. Digital marketing is showing its full potential. The digital marketing has become a hyper-competitive environment!
Why is your digital marketing plan so important? Ninety-two percent of prospects almost never book a meeting from a cold call or email, according to a study by UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business. Social media and digital marketing have basically re-invented how businesses prospect for new customers. The prospecting has become self-sufficient as marketing and sales efforts converge.
Here are the Top 5 ways to maximize your digital marketing efforts in 2012:
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Customer Engagement: Customer engagement is your top priority!
- Establish relationships by providing value First! Promote and sell later.
- Keep your content FRESH and in CONTEXT for your business. Publish white papers, podcasts, videos, product updates, and other business related content through your website and social media channels to encourage your customer to visit your website.
- All businesses should have a social media address because social pages rank well in search results.
- Establish social media addresses for all sales reps. Social media addresses are as important to sales reps as e-mail or a phone!
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Be the Authority: Become the trusted authority in your business market! Put your business on top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)!
- Customer engagement through your social media efforts will also boost your authority!
- Determine the key words (and alternate keywords) for your target market. Direct your marketing and social media efforts in that direction. Put your key words on your web site, in your social media efforts, and focus your pay per click (PPC) campaigns around them.
- Make Purchasing Easy: It is easy for prospective customers to go and shop your competitors. Make the sales process as easy as possible so that you can convert clicks into sales. Are you making your customers establish an account to buy from you? Your competitor just made a sale in half the time it took your customer to register for your site!
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Embrace Mobile: You can no longer afford to ignore mobile web usage. Forrester Research predicts mobile commerce will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 39% through 2016, and Infinite Research forecasts that tablet adoption will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 56% per year through 2015.
- Develop specialized mobile web pages
- Be sure to include contact information (directions, maps, clickable phone numbers and email addresses), hours of operation, menus, product info, promotions, specials, and anything else your customers need to know.
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Use Data/Intelligence: Use analytic data and sales performance to adapt your marketing plan.
- Optimizing your marketing efforts is an ongoing process, not a quick fix.
- Establish an analytics account or enlist the help of an SEO professional.
Those companies that adapt and combine their marketing, social media, and sales process into a cohesive effort are poised to reap the benefits of this developing environment. Companies like Home Depot, Farmers Insurance, Best Buy, and Ford are doing it right. How are you going to maximize your marketing in 2012?
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