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Ways to use marketing to quickly scale your web traffic

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Ways to use marketing to quickly scale your web traffic.
The impact of the pandemic on businesses over the last couple of years has been devastating. Still, if there is one silver lining, this has shown us all the importance of being agile and ready to capitalise on opportunities as they present themselves. We are now 3 months into 2023, and now more than ever, having a comprehensive marketing strategy gives you an edge in today’s competitive market.
In this blog, we will focus on how leveraging effective marketing practices can drive more web traffic to your site and help scale your business for the future. Whether you’re a small business or have teams across continents, implementing these strategies can immediately impact your online presence right away.

1. Understand the latest consumer trends and how to leverage them
Holy heck, how can anyone keep up with the latest trends?
Twitter to Facebook, Instagram carousels to Reels, TikTok back to Snapchat, back to static images, for all we know, the next trend will be dial-up internet and yellow pages advertising.
Staying on top of the ever-changing consumer trends can challenge businesses.
The answer is… What you like isn’t important; what your customer likes that matters.
How do you do this?
Write out your current customer journey, where they are coming from, their pain points, and their buyer persona.
You need to analyse your existing points of contact to find out which trends are having the biggest impact on your target audience so you can ensure you get the most bang for your buck when leveraging the latest trends. This also saves money when investing time in the latest big thing.
TikTok takes a lot of time and might not reach your target audience, so do you invest time and money on a tool that is more for vanity than ROI?

2. Utilise artificial intelligence to maximise customer engagement
While AI can not replace Marketing Managers or Content Managers, it can help them save hours a week.
Utilising AI within marketing strategies can maximise customer engagement, ensuring businesses connect to their target audiences more effectively and efficiently.
AI can help businesses determine which campaigns will have the highest success rate, decreasing time wasted on unsuccessful plans and enabling well-thought-out, high-converting strategies.
The ability to utilise AI means that businesses can now acquire real-time information about their customer base, allowing them to update their marketing plan accordingly and identify any immediate changes that need to be made to reach maximum effectiveness. We recently found a new app that will save hours of our own time editing and uploading podcasts. If you want to start a podcast, we recommend https://www.descript.com/
Let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want more time in their day?!

3. Establish a strong presence on social media platforms
With social media taking over the digital space, setting up your company on those channels can be overwhelming.
But don’t worry – taken step by step, it doesn’t have to be intimidating! Your first step is to just get started.
You can choose which platform or platforms to start with, such as Facebook and Twitter, if you’re targeting a B2C market or LinkedIn for a more professional market. Creating content that resonates with your target audience is essential- focusing on interesting and relevant topics to keep followers engaged.
Spend some time exploring your competition’s social media for posts ideas that may work best for you.
Have fun, be creative and play around with each platform’s different tools!

4. Create personalisation through client communications and campaigns
Personalisation is a crucial factor in any client communication, no matter your industry or product offering. It can effectively create connections with audiences and increase engagement around your emails. It doesn’t have to involve a huge overhaul of your current strategy, though – small details with big impacts, such as addressing the recipient by name or tailoring the tone of your emails to fit the individual, are great places to start. Need more ideas? Consider segments tailor-made for specific customer types, automated send times based on recipient preferences and automatic recommendations based on previous purchases. Whichever route you take, personalisation through email campaigns shows that you care about your customers and want to give them the best experience they can get – so make it count!

5. Invest in content creation that is optimised for SEO
Whether you read this or not, this is part of a successful SEO strategy.
If the content is considered “King”, relevant and SEO-driven content is Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran with a splash of Harry Styles.
With great content, you can boost your page rankings, increase website traffic and enhance customer experience by providing valuable insight or advice. Investing in content creation optimised for SEO means that you’ll have the edge over the competition and ensure that your audience can find your web pages quickly and easily.
Boasting user-friendly navigation, helpful information and fresh copy, you can use strategic keyword placement to increase visibility and analytics tracking to analyse performance. Take the plunge today and invest in great content – your website – and search engine rankings will thank you for it!
And a top tip that will boost your website immediately, make sure you have a current and active sitemap on your website. You might not know what that means but Google uses it to find your information.
FINALLY but if you don’t have time to do any of the above, of course, this is our time to give ourselves a cheeky plug and recommend our services but also

6. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and fast loading
When building your website, remember to make sure it’s optimised for mobile!
With a fast-paced business life, people rely on their mobiles to Google, Bing, and Duck Duck Go and upload their lives to social media.
Ensuring that your website is mobile-responsive is essential for success.
A fast-loading website is essential as today’s internet users have little patience for waiting and will likely move on to another if a page takes too long.
Many search engines consider website speed in their ranking algorithm — using a slow site could result in ranking lower in search results! To make sure your site is up to standard, use resources such as Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and PageSpeed Insights to check your score.

If you’ve made it this far, well done you; you are already ahead of the game. Now if you want to chat with one of The Marketing Room experts, where we will give you solid tips to improve your current marketplace position.
We may be the in-house business partner you’ve been looking for all along.

The Power of Recurring Revenue: How Subscriptions Can Transform Your Business

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We all know that one business that pisses you off as a customer but as a business owner, we get it; we’ve all been there. Profit is low, and the pipeline is dead.

The usual way to increase revenue is to get on the phones, cold calling, warm calling, emailing and sending sms’ to the point of overload.

The problem with this tactic is you burn through leads, and unsubscribes and only offer yourself fluctuating income growth.

What everyone needs is that steady stream of revenue coming in the door, regardless of sales actively.

So, stop upselling, reselling, cross-selling, and overselling and focus on offering subscription-based services.

We hear you already saying, “but aren’t they only for newspapers, magazines and Netflix” well, let’s be honest, who even buys a magazine anymore, so even they need a new business model?

But did you realise there are one-off high-ticket items offering subscription services now?

BMW now has a subscription service; they are offering customers the ability to switch on and off luxury services like heated seats to get them used to the product and experience while not noticing the $19 a month coming out of their account.

Now think about it, why would BMW worry about a $ 19-a-month subscription? It’s not like BMW need to worry about income, but they have become aware that a set-and-forget constant stream not only stabilises their revenue generation across the year.
While floor sales teams come and go, markets crash, and businesses rely on EOFY sales, the forgettable subscription is here forever.

For a service-based business, you are a mechanic that could offer an oil change or a maintenance subscription.

If you are an online business, you can offer content, support, e-learning and membership subscriptions.
No excuses; find something your customer can subscribe to!

7 Things Every B2B Marketing Plan Must Include

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Take a moment and cast your mind back.

Back to the 80’s when marketing was simple and was more about sales than branding.
It was a time when you named your business AAA Electricians or A-Z bookkeeping so that you were on the first page of the yellow pages.

When your monthly marketing budget was taking clients out for dinner, and your car had your name all over it to reach more people.

Fast forward to 2023, marketing is a 24/7 beast!

Requiring brand recognition, social media, lead generation, SEO, SEM, CRM’s text messages and email campaigns.

Marketing is hard work and expensive.

In the year 2023, it is vital now more than ever to plan the rest of your year out.

Planning means you don’t jump on the next fad bandwagon and waste precious time. I mean, who has time to waste?

Step one: is where you look back and work out what worked in the past and what may not be working anymore. And with the things you want to continue, look at automating those tasks.

Step two: requires research. Look at new concepts or ideas that might help your business capture a wider net across your ideal clients.

Step three: keep reading this blog, as we have included a list of 7 things every B2B marketing plan must consist of.

7 Things you need In your B2B Marketing Plan.

  1. An integrated approach: Gone are the days of relying on a single marketing strategy. Instead, B2Bs should create an integrated approach that combines multiple methods to create a cohesive message and reach more potential customers. This includes everything from SEO and PPC campaigns to content marketing, social media and email campaigns.
  2. User-generated content (UGC): UGC is essential for engaging with your audience in meaningful ways and encouraging them to advocate for your brand. Incorporate customer reviews, photos, videos and other forms of UGC into your marketing plan so customers can authentically connect with your brand.
  3. Personalisation: With AI technology becoming more advanced, it’s easier than ever to personalise marketing efforts for each customer. B2Bs should take advantage of this technology to create more targeted campaigns that speak directly to the needs of each customer.
  4. Automation: Automating routine tasks like email campaigns, social media posts, and website content can save you time and money while giving valuable insights into your customers’ behaviour. Invest in automation software or work with a digital marketing agency that offers automated services so you can focus on other aspects of your business.
  5. Mobile-friendly design: Mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular, which means it’s essential for B2Bs to optimise their websites and marketing materials for mobile users. Your website should be fully responsive, have straightforward navigation and display appropriately on any device.
  6. Social media presence: MORE is more and social media is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience, so B2B’s need to have a presence on these platforms. Tip for newbies though social media is about writing content that resonates with your customers, not just what you like!
  7. Measurement and analysis: Measuring your marketing results is essential for understanding what works and doesn’t. Invest in analytics tools to track customer behaviour across all channels and use this data to inform future strategies. With careful measurement and analysis, you can optimise your marketing efforts for maximum return on investment (ROI).

If you follow our tips, you will have a well-prepared plan to reach more customers, which will reflect on your bottom line.

If it sounds like too much work, we understand, reach out and let’s discuss a way of The Marketing Room being able to take away some of the pressure.

Adobe Digital Trends 2022 – Retail Focus

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Adobe Digital Trends 2022 – Retail Focus report, which was based on Adobe’s annual survey, highlights the evolution of the retail customer experience, and emphasises the importance of creating a strong digital customer experience that is, ideally, ahead of customer expectation.

Although digital has been fundamentally present in the past decade, the impact of the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of retail companies. Businesses were forced to rely almost solely on digital and rethink their engagement with customers. Which simultaneously, reiterated the need to be adaptable and agile. The report concludes that companies who can optimise technology and digital data will be able to act on customer insights and therefore “be better placed to achieve customer-centric experience innovation – and sustain business growth”.

Adaptability

The nature of digital, combined with the pandemic, emphasised the need for businesses to be agile and vigilant to adapt to their ever-changing environment. However, the need to have a strong solid foundation of skills, technology and organisational structure remains. Businesses need to be able to adapt to customer’s expectations and use technology to execute this. Companies that have quickly adapted to their changing environment and customer expectations have been successful at retaining customers. A prime example is Door Dash, and other rapid delivery services, that were able to meet the need of speed and convenience for their customers during the pandemic. With only “57% of retailers keeping the pace with customers”, companies need to increase their ability to adapt and stay on consumer trends in order to retain their customers.

Blending Online and Offline Retailing Data

The past two years have been explosive for online retailing, and it will only continue to grow. Businesses will be required to optimise digital, as well as offline retailing, to create a strong customer experience. This will require substantial investment in appropriate technologies, data integration and touchpoints, for example digital self-service. In fact, 85% of retail marketers cited digital self-service as the most important tool to meet customer expectations online. Although digital is prominent, brick and mortar stores are still prevalent, and therefore a blended approach is the key to success for customer experience. Home Depot exemplified this as they combined data from both digital and in-store to analyse the customer journey and create their customer experience. They have since increased their net sales by 9.8% year-on-year in 2021. The report suggests that there is ample opportunity available to businesses, no matter what size, to upgrade the customer experience by using their data and technology more effectively.

Marketing Insights

The report highlights how the termination of third-party cookie data would significantly halt the ability for companies to gain insights on customer behaviour. Regardless, gathering, analysing, and acting on marketing insights is the key to understanding consumers and creating a customer experience. Therefore, companies will need to prepare for this post-cookie environment. This preparation will involve implementing sophisticated ways to gather and use existing customer information, and to have a “quality over quantity” mindset when it comes to gathering new data. They will also need to rely on contextual and creative targeting, as well as taking cues from social media audience modelling. Consequently, companies will face a barrier from consumers to share data, and the solution to overcome this, is to be explicit with promising the privacy of their data.

Artificial Intelligence and Employees

The report suggests that to strengthen the digital experience beyond customer expectations, companies need to first focus internally on their employees. By understanding the role and responsibilities of each employee, companies can implement technologies to support them and maximise their efficiency. Artificial Intelligence technologies and machine learning can be implemented to complete rote activities so that employees can complete higher value asks that solve customer pain points and improve the customer experience.

The Digital Trends report calls for companies to focus on upgrading their technology and digital capabilities to not only, maximise their operational and employment efficiency, but to upgrade their digital customer experience, beyond expectations, which will enable them to achieve sustained growth.

5 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2018

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As we gear up for 2018, it would be ill-advised not to turn our attention to the upcoming trends that will dominate the world of marketing over the next 12 months. We may not have a crystal ball, but we can confidently predict that these five trends will play a major role in 2018.

  1. Big Data – Vital in Converting Customers

What is it: large data sets that reveal actionable insights about your customer base.

Big Data will play a crucial role in helping you understand your audience and the customer journey. Greater understanding about who you are targeting, will allow you to reach the right people at the right time with exactly the right message.

Mining data from available resources also allows for predictive analysis into customer behaviour, a tool that will inevitably grow in popularity throughout 2018.

  1. Smart Content – Intelligent Distribution and Integration with the Customer Journey

Content seems to be the buzz word around town. And as digital platforms continue to be widely embraced, content will continue to be King throughout 2018.

However, it will no longer be enough to flood your audience with content in the hope that something sticks. To stand out amongst the barrage of messaging that consumers receive, content needs to be intelligent, personalised and thoughtfully crafted.

To drive conversions, it is vital that content is not ‘churned’ out. It must be created off the back of data and research, it needs to be purposeful and diverse and it should be distributed in such a way that it truly becomes a valued part of the customer’s journey.

It will need to communicate the right message at the right time and it needs to extend beyond a simple blog post. Content comes in many forms and a successful content strategy should embrace this. Forms to watch include video and augmented reality which both gained momentum in late 2017 and show no signs of slowing down.

  1. Transparency – Authenticity is the Key to Building Relationships

Everywhere you look there is marketing. It invades our lives 24/7. To cut through the noise in the past, foolish brands have tried to beef up the truth, engage in cause marketing or have made grand promises that simply don’t hold up.

After years of ‘false promises’ consumers are getting smarter and more progressive. They want Transparency.=

Moving forward, authenticity will be the key to winning customers. Building trust through genuine communication is the way to build relationships with cautious customers. 

  1. Integration of Platforms – Lines Will Blur

As digital platforms continue to evolve and as consumers continue to adopt these platforms into everyday life, it is undeniable that online and offline worlds will continue to collide.

Digital will no longer stand alone as a separate discipline. The most successful brands will recognise the need for integrated marketing strategies and will extend digital activities into the offline world.

Larger brands are leading this trend and it is expected that smaller brands will follow suit in 2018.

  1. Customer Experience – Personalisation Will Define Successful Brands

Floppy disks, fax machines and impersonal email blasts – these are all things that have become a thing of the past.

As customers become accustomed to hyper-targeted communication and interactions, automated bulk email blasts will quickly find their way straight to the trash can.

Targeted communication, tailored messaging and personalised landing pages should form the basis of all campaigns. Doing so, will result in rich connections with existing and potential customers which leads to retention and growth.

To achieve marketing success in 2018, it is vital that all marketing activities are personalised and tailored to the consumer.

To make sure your business is at the forefront of these emerging trends, speak to the knowledgeable folk at The Marketing Room today.

 

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