If you’re a business owner, you know your products or services are only as good as the strategies you use to sell them. You write a blog, maintain your social media channels, put money into advertising, or using product marketing books, but are you getting results? Are there other media you could produce and other tactics you could apply?
Here are five marketing strategies you should add to your business plan today.
1. Create a YouTube channel.
Whether you’re using interactive ads on Facebook or dynamic Stories on Instagram, video content boosts conversions and improves ROI. If you run an ecommerce business, however, YouTube is especially valuable.
The average YouTube viewing session for mobile users is a whopping 40 minutes, yet only nine percent of small businesses take advantage of the platform’s high engagement. With free quality video editing software like Blender, Lightworks, or Shotcut, you can create stunning videos without breaking the bank. Monetize your channel with ads for additional revenue.
Some of the top-grossing YouTubers made their names through makeup and hair tutorials. Increase demand and decrease customer complaints by creating tutorial videos that demonstrate how to use products correctly and reveal creative product applications. If your online store sells celebrity-endorsed brands, interview these figures in-studio or via video conference. Form long-term partnerships with popular vloggers to create product reviews and unboxing videos.
The primary purpose of your YouTube content is to educate and entertain. Draw on your industry expertise but don’t be afraid to let your humor and personality shine through. Keep aggressive sales pitches to a minimum; instead, embed product links in the videos and put your landing page in the description. Every video should remind viewers to like, subscribe, and click the bell icon to receive updates.
Monitoring video trends is important, but tailoring your content based on viewer response is even more essential. Read comments thoroughly, respond to questions, and incorporate subscribers’ feedback into your videos to let them know they’re appreciated.
2. A/B Testing.
Rather than just churning out content and hoping for a positive response, smart marketers test audience responses beforehand. A/B testing, or split testing, is a method of dividing your audience into groups and showing different variations of a marketing campaign to each. For example, you might test different titles, fonts, colors, or layouts on your blog to determine which variants increase web traffic and conversion rates or decrease bounce rates and abandoned carts.
To do A/B testing effectively, you must test only one variable at a time, so you’ll know which factor influenced performance. For example, your goal might be to find out whether adding a CTA button to your website improves conversion. Your unaltered website is your control, and the new version with the button is your challenger. Divide your audience into two randomly selected groups of equal size, then show your control to Group A and your challenger to Group B.
You also need to decide how significant you want your results to be. If you’re only 60 percent confident that adding a CTA button will boost conversion, it’s probably not worth implementing. Aim for a confidence level of 95 percent and above. Another factor to consider is how big of a difference your variable produces. You might be 99 percent confident one variable will increase conversion by two percent, but if you’re 88 percent confident another variable will increase conversion by 50 percent, the second variable is worth the risk.
3. Start a Referral Program.
Lots of businesses include customer testimonials on their websites, but not all of them put their happy customers to work. Referral programs offer existing customers a discount or other reward when they recruit new customers. Because consumers tend to trust recommendations from friends and family the most, referrals can be a powerful growth tool.
Offer small rewards for customers who send a recommendation to everyone on their email list and larger rewards when these referrals result in new sales. Better yet, provide a referral code that gives existing customers kickbacks and gives new customers a discount on their first purchase.
4. Advertise on Google.
You know the benefits of SEO marketing, but don’t overlook the potential of Google search ads. By bidding on high-performing keywords, you can put targeted ads in front of your ideal customers. While SEO can help put your website in Google’s top ten search results, search ads always appear at the top of page one.
The average business makes two dollars for every dollar spent on Google Ads. You only pay if someone clicks on your ads, and the dashboard allows you to set caps on daily spending to stay within your marketing budget.
5. Ebooks and whitepapers.
If you already produce a steady stream of blog posts, consider repurposing this content in a longer format. While eBooks are extended guides designed for a general audience, whitepapers are academic reports designed to present new research to industry experts. Both publications demonstrate the full extent of your expertise and innovation. Offering customers a free eBook or whitepaper in exchange for their contact information generates leads and provides added value.
What marketing strategies are you using in 2019? Let us know in the comments.
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