Nine marketing tips to end your year with a bang!

A good time to revisit and retool your marketing efforts

It’s natural for many business owners to take a breath and coast through to the end of the year. However, if your competitors are doing just that, they’re letting their guard down and creating an opportunity for you to gain an edge by retooling your marketing efforts. Here, we offer some considerations to help you make your mark, distinguish your business, engage your audience, and build relationships with your colleagues. Hopefully, you’re already doing some of these. Nonetheless, they should still be revisited on a regular basis.

1. Refine your user personas

Although you may already have a good idea of who your audience is, instead of thinking of them as a monolithic group, try viewing them as individuals or subset groups. Who are these people? What makes them tick? Are their buying decisions driven solely by economics? What other factors come into play? Are they emotional? Understanding and identifying your perfect customers enables you to focus more energy on high-value prospects and tailor specific campaigns and incentives to them. Personalizing your message can also be very effective. And, in this day of electronic marketing, it’s easy and more affordable than print.

2. Enhance your customers’​ experiences

Customer experience is everything. It’s vital to see your business the way others view it. If your messaging is all about you, try flipping it to be all about them. But, make sure you’re doing more than just changing the “we”s into “you”s. Find out your prospects’ emotional buttons to identify ways to address them and determine the best communication channels to reach them (website, networking, social media, public speaking, content creation, etc.). Here’s a hint: their genuine needs likely transcend the product or service you’re selling. If you’re unsure where to begin, survey your best customers to understand their habits and expectations. You may need to offer them an incentive to participate.

3. Engage in real-time targeted marketing

The days of taking a shotgun approach to marketing and promotion are long-gone. Instead of casting wide advertising nets like we did years ago, you need to be where your prospects are looking. That means understanding them, where they get their news, what entertainment they like, and more. Markets can be driven by a multitude of outside forces, including current events, social change, and new technology. Look around, see what’s going on, and find a place where you naturally fit. Use your voice in a way that reinforces your relevance and offers value to your audience.

4. Build a customer community

Clients need to be continually engaged. Consider creating an online forum for your customers to provide them with an opportunity to interact and exchange ideas. By moderating the forum, you can keep the conversation on track and, more importantly, reaffirm your position as the go-to resource for what you do best. But, don’t stop there…

5. Create a network of trusted allies and cross-promote each other

Enlist colleagues who offer complementary services or products to widen your influence and bring objectivity to your efforts. Find those who are willing to meet regularly, learn about each other, and cross-promote. A primary goal should be uncovering opportunities to share subject matter expertise and drive your market instead of just following it. This sphere of experts can also be a community “board of directors” to bring accountability and challenge each other’s efforts.

6. Embrace video

Your online presence is about much more than just having a website and Facebook page. People expect to be engaged and informed. One great tactic that is becoming easier and more affordable is to produce videos for your website and social media channels. (Google LOVES to see videos on a home page.) Videos can include tips and best practices, commentary about current trends, product demos, event recaps, and, especially, client testimonials. Video content has become an important part of the customer sales journey. So, make their journey a fruitful one for both you and them.

7. Bolster your thought leadership through blogging

Buying decisions are not solely based on price. People will pay a premium if they feel they are dealing with an expert and gaining more than a quick fix to an immediate problem. More and more, it’s the expertise of the business that is the distinguishing factor in the buying decision. If you have a blog, remember, it is for sharing, not selling. Try publishing posts that provide answers to common questions and address pain points. Empathy is a very powerful tool! Share what you know that others will find helpful. By doing so, your prospects are more likely to come into the sales funnel trusting you because you’ve already helped them. If you’re unsure what to write about, solicit ideas from them.

8. Explore using AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. While it is still in its infancy, it will only get better. As a production tool, AI creates opportunities to streamline your processes, but is sometimes only best for simple tasks. For example, as a writing tool, it’s not quite there, generating somewhat generic content that tends to have a sameness to it. But it can certainly get you started. If you frequent social media, it’s pretty easy to tell which content is AI-generated and which isn’t. Original content still requires the real-life perspective and “voice” that only humans can provide. That being said, AI can be a great tool to take your existing long-form content and dice it up into a series of effective daily posts. Image creation using AI can be very powerful with the right prompts. But, once again, a similarity of look-and-feel tends to show up far too often. And, you really need to scrutinize it for blatant errors. At this point, we still look to real photography to help keep our images original and help our valuable colleagues stay business. Nonetheless, as a marketing tool, AI is not going anywhere. So, consider diving into it.

9. Set realistic budgets

If you’ve set lofty goals for the coming year, make sure your marketing budget doesn’t undermine them. That doesn’t mean more money as much as it means smarter spending. If you’re looking to outsource your marketing, be sure to research what you should expect to pay. As you engage candidates, look for those who offer advice and value beyond the project at-hand. Marketing should be viewed as an investment instead of an expense. So, weigh your investment against the cost of inaction. If you don’t think you can afford it, perhaps you can trade services to help offset the cost. Remember, it usually comes down to priorities more than it does to budget.

Take a step back

As the calendar year winds down, it always a good idea to take a step back to revisit and refresh your marketing. Your business will be better off by doing so. But, don’t go overboard and be too disruptive. You don’t want your market to sense a lack focus or over-reaction to short-term market dynamics. Uncertainty is a major turn-off. Make sure any retooling is done with purpose, has a long-term strategy behind it, and helps your audience. This is not about hard-selling or self-promotion. By engaging and informing your audience, the promotion will come naturally.

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