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(There’s more to marketing than turning that money-making tap on, you know).
Digital marketing for beginners: Marketing strategies
If your business is dabbling in marketing for the first time (or like many, you’re returning after a failed attempt), you might be feeling overwhelmed with choices.
>Which channels should I use?
>What figure should I set my budget as?
>What kind of results am I hoping for?
>Is my industry right for social media?
>Should I manage my own marketing, or use an agency?
And to be honest, there’s no straight answer to the above questions. Successful marketing strategies depend on endless variants, and the only true way to know is by starting somewhere so you can test, gather data, and tweak until you find a method that yields the results you expect.
Unless you’re in e-commerce, ROI targets won’t be your starting point
Now, I’m going to speak frankly here – because the last thing a business needs is to throw money away under a false promise of getting the return on investment they want when they’re not going to get it.
If you’re an e-commerce brand, ignore me. It’s feasible to set solid targets based solely on ROI. You promote a product online – the product is bought. You put money in – you get money out.
However, if you’re not e-commerce (accountants, construction workers, estate agents, lawyers, travel companies – I’m looking at you!) it can be difficult to quantify the exact ROI for every £1 you spend. The customer journey is longer, harder to track because they engage with you several times via different devices and channels… and mostly, they’re not purchasing a physical product with a set price tag. How do you quantify a return on an unquantifiable investment?!
Thank you, next…
Some industries need brand work, not direct sales generation
Digital marketing isn’t just about getting to see a return on monetary value; it’s used to help raise the brand and dedicate a full mix of online communications which work on convincing your target audience that you’re the right service for them. These customers might not need an estate agent, accountant, lawyer, or what-have-you immediately – but once your brand is familiar in their mind, you’ll be the one they turn to if and when they need you. It’s more marketing graft, but as a non-e-commerce brand, it’s what you need to prepare yourself for.
A suitable action plan for non-e-commerce brands
At Burst Creatives, we deliver marketing communications via four bespoke content `pillars`. These pillars (or you could think of them as the number of attempts you make to contact potential customers), help to entice people towards your brand.
- Levitate authority by sharing industry knowledge
- Build trust by presenting previous projects
- Evidence your work by boasting testimonials
- Show your know like & how by talking about your services and advising on how customers should spend their time and money on you
Hello again, Team Brand
So by now, you’ve probably realised your marketing strategy is more `Team Brand` than `Team ROI`.
If you’d like to give me a quick call, I’ll run you through the next stage of your marketing strategy.
Hope this helps!
Caroline [Burst Creatives MD]
