There’s a reason this article isn’t titled “How to Be Successful in Marketing.” The mere concept of success in a marketing strategy comes with so many variables and influences. Every business has different goals, resources, and know-how that impact its ability to create success. The best businesses that consistently find ways to grow are the ones that build consumer value.
Consumer value is the concept that what you offer as a business is worth buying into as a consumer. That could be a product or service, but it goes beyond that as well. Ensuring your marketing strategy is valuable for your audience means taking the time to learn their needs, study their habits, and find ways to keep them interested in everything you have to offer. Here are five ways you can start doing that with your marketing plan.
Marketing Should Focus on the Habits of Your Consumers
First and foremost, marketing needs to focus on consumer habits. If you go out and market your business to the ether, you’re going to draw attention from a fraction of the people you’d appeal to if you knew for whom you were truly marketing. Firstly, identifying the consumer base for your product or service narrows down who might want to buy what you’re selling. Then, you can take time to learn their habits.
Consumer habits come down largely to knowing where your consumers spend their time. For most businesses, that means “digital time,” such as websites, apps, and social media platforms. If you’re seeing that many of your target consumers enjoy using Pinterest, then find the best ways to utilize and advertise on Pinterest.
You have a million and one platforms at your disposal to reach customers. Focusing on the ones that are habitual for your intended audience saves you time and energy.
Keep Customers in the Loop Across Multiple Channels
As mentioned above, it’s rare to see consumers use only one digital platform for their online activity. If you know your customer base is going to be younger, then you can assume many of your target audience is on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and a slew of other apps. While you don’t need to utilize every single place you might find consumers, you do need to pinpoint which channels earn most of their time.
Your website can feature a blog to update your audience on new products or exciting sales. Additionally, your email marketing strategy can focus on short blurbs about noteworthy stories impacting your business. Social media channels that your audience uses can be a place to connect to their interests and needs. A well-rounded approach to managing a multichannel marketing strategy can go a long way.
Focus on the Most Impactful Social Media Channels for Your Consumers
Once you have an idea about where your consumers spend their digital time, you can assume some hold more sway than others. The Shop feature on Instagram is much newer than the Facebook Marketplace. Therefore, there’s a chance that when a consumer thinks about checking out products on social media, they lean towards Facebook over Instagram. If that holds true, and you end up seeing more sales from Facebook, you know that your focus should be on the platform with the biggest impact.
Other challenges with social media can include getting followers to become consumers. An organic social media strategy for e-commerce businesses requires everything from user-generated content to simply keeping your products in front of consumers for when they’re ready to buy. It’s a challenge, but one that requires your attention if you want to maximize your consumer value.
Get Others to Talk About Your Business
If you’re looking for loyal audiences online, then it’s helpful to get people talking about your business. Partnering with influencers can be a great tool to build marketing value. If you have people providing testimonials about your product or service online, then that can help spread the word and encourage two helpful phenomena.
Firstly, other influencers with large platforms might also want to work with your business. Secondly, customers who like your products and already bought something might be encouraged to share positive words about your business online as well. When in doubt, a fun giveaway that encourages tagging your business and other users is a great option to build a conversation about your value.
Use What Makes You Special to Build an Even More Loyal Audience
There’s probably something that you offer that the competition does not have to give consumers. Utilizing that can help you stand out among the ever-growing crowd of businesses looking to maximize social media and digital platforms.
Dynamic videos and images that focus on what makes you special can go a long way. Blogs and social posts are great, but to catch someone’s attention, it’s best to catch their eye first. Doing so helps them narrow into what you’re talking about and then that’s when you can prove to them why your business offers more value than the rest.
Conclusion
It’s an ongoing challenge to maintain and increase your value for consumers. Marketing value is something that industry experts talk a lot about, but it’s hard to pinpoint its exact formula. At the end of the day, that’s going to vary from business to business. The only constant in marketing is the need to adapt and innovate. By focusing on consumer value rather than the frills of a successful campaign, you’ll always be centered on what makes the biggest difference for a successful business.
