7 Quick and Easy Ways To Improve Your Marketing

If you're in charge of inbound marketing for your business, you know the definition of "overwhelming". In order to continually engage potential leads, you run yourself ragged updating landing pages, sending out email marketing messages, writing eBooks, "SEO'ing" your existing content, and more. With all these responsibilities on your plate, it's imperative that you are efficient at your job. Here are 7 quick and easy ways you can improve your marketing strategy in little to no time.

Link To Internal Content/Offers - When you're busy creating new content, don't forget that internal linking is not only a huge SEO strategy, but it's also a way to take advantage of an interested lead. If your lead is reading an article that they find intriguing, and you have other content that's relevant or you have an offer that's relevant, link to it! For example, if you have a blog post about "Facebook SEO Strategies" and you happened to have written an eBook about that same topic, highlight the words "Facebook SEO" in your blog post and link to your eBook. Just be sure not to mislead your reader by linking to something that's not relevant at all. It establishes a "spammy" appearance and can create a feeling of distrust.

Get Interactive - Being social is just a part of business, and any good inbound marketer will have several social platforms to keep up with, whether it's Facebook, a blog, Twitter, a forum, etc. Take a minute out of your day to respond to comments left on these platforms. The whole point of having a social platform is to promote a feeling of interactivity between the customers/fans and the business.

Call-To-Action - It's amazing how often a call-to-action is left off of content. You should literally have on one each and every piece of content you put out. Go through your existing content and make sure you have some sort call-to-action. If you don't, add one. It can be something as simple as "opt-in to our newsletter to receive special discounts" or "click here to get your free eBook".

Reword Your Content - This is especially true for blogs and or page titles. Any good SEO firm will tell you that your meta titles are not only extremely important for indexing, but they are also important for traffic. You can't get leads without traffic, and you can't get traffic if your blog posts or page titles are boring. Take a minute to go through a couple pages/blog posts to make sure the titles are enticing.

Share - You've got all this great information to give people, so share it! If you're a marketer and you're not sharing your content via social networks and other outlets (i.e. press releases), well... it's time for a new job.

Button Up - Make sure your call-to-action buttons are not boring. Do they need a little more life? Studies have shown less people click on buttons that are titled "Submit" than any other button. If you have "Submit" buttons, change them to something more relevant or more exciting. Make sure it's something that seems noncommittal; otherwise people will be less likely to click on it. For example, "Submit" seems official, whereas "Get Your Discounts Now" does not.

Get Bold- Go through any landing pages or sales pages (including your website's home page) to see if it passes the blink test. What's the blink test? A lead should be able to look at your website and within the amount of time it takes them to blink; they should be able to get the gist of what your site offers and whether it's relevant to them. Go through and bold or italicize words/phrases that can sum up your business' offer and value quickly.

Shifting to a Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy

Abstract

During the marketing classes we all have heard about the four 'P's (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) which is also known as the marketing mix. It has always been the best parameters to control the internal as well as external constraints of the marketing environment.

In today's hypercompetitive world, the four P's are no longer an effective model to penetrate and exist in a market. Through the power of mass media, channels and technology, the control has slowly shifted from marketers to consumers. This is where 'customer-centric marketing' comes into existence which is now considered as the new model for marketing effectiveness.

Customer-centric marketing

According to Chaffery1[1], "Customer-centric marketing is an approach to marketing based on detailed knowledge of customer behavior within the target audience and then seeks to fulfill the individual needs and wants of customers." It centers on the needs and wants of the customer, and not about what the marketer or seller wants a customer to buy. Thus by understanding the needs, wants and problems of the customer, businesses could gain direct insight into them and build a mutually beneficial relationship and rapport. Understanding how a customer or prospect is engaged with the brand and then tailoring resources, products, services, and communications to reflect their engagement level demonstrates a customer-centric business approach.

Thus;

• Customer-centric approach is more like creating relationship sales by understanding your consumers as opposed to product or promotional approach.

• It focuses more on the satisfaction and mutual relationship with the consumer

• Communication becomes an important factor to get regular feedback from consumer

• Will be investing on potential consumers thus avoiding vain investments on low potential customers

• Sales will be generated as a result of a solid relationship, listening and problem solving

• Consumer information will be integrated across marketing, sales, and service departments

• Integrated mass and direct communications with the customers will be made regularly

To help frame a customer-centric strategy, Forrester[2] has identified five key dimensions which marketers must focus on:

1) Establish a customer-centric marketing culture;

2) Rethink business processes;

3) Create a centralized view of the customer;

4) Use analytics to drive customer communication; and

5) Invest in a consistent measurement framework.

Why companies should change to customer-centric approach?

There are many benefits by switching to a customer-centric marketing approach and adjusting marketing practices to deliver relevant messages through multiple channels.

• The first reason would be 'an improvement in selling and experience' as there are no sales tosses

• Least expensive marketing program and improved referrals

• Marketing investment will be better aligned with customer profit potential

• Increase in profits through customer loyalty. Customers will buy over a long period of time

• Lasting business relationship

• Raises awareness and optimizes appeal