Ah, the question of the year… what’s the best marketing mix for 2019? We have never been so spoilt for marketing options in the history of marketing: influencers, Facebook, Google Ads, print, email, billboards, Snapchat, Youtube, blogging, video, TicTok, and so much more. The possibilities are endless, but every brand’s marketing mix should be tailored to their target market and needs, not to the endless options.
Facebook Advertising
The first on the list of paid advertising will be Facebook. The social media giant still dominates the world’s paying eyeballs, which is what most companies are looking for: a target market that has purchasing power. Facebook allows you to segment your target by location, gender, age and even by interests so you can really target the consumers you need. It also tells you how large or small that audience is going to be before you buy, so you have full control over how many people you reach.
Also, Facebook and Instagram are connected, so when you publish a Facebook ad, you have the option of displaying it on Instagram, gathering impressions from the two largest social networks. Currently, Facebook ads are the cheapest form of advertising with some of the best conversion rates and if you’re not taking advantage of it right now, you’re losing out on the deal of a century.
Email Marketing
Email is still alive and kicking, although not in the same spammy way it used to be. Spam, unsolicited bulk email, is banned with most email marketing mailers, as they discourage spam and encourage the magic of re-marketing to your existing consumer base. That being said, using email marketing to re-engage consumers is an excellent way to encourage them to reconnect and stay in touch.
But then, how do we email new prospects? Well, you don’t, or at least not in bulk. Bulk here means more than one at a time. Say you’re a business who’s trying to grow your business to business (B2B) revenue… The best way to go about this is giving them a cold call and then sending them an email. A little old school, but it’s effective and individual emails are more personal and may even have a higher success rate for you.
Now, for those who are mass consumer based, setting up a simple subscribe form on your website or blog will help you collect their email addresses with ease, and because they double opted-in, you’re not spamming them, because they literally asked and confirmed that they wanted to be contacted by you. That’s a win-win right there.
Content Marketing
Content is king, and has been for a long time. I’m sure everyone reading this has heard of content marketing before… but what is it really? In a nutshell, it’s content created for marketing (yes, kind of obvious). Consumers have changed their behaviour towards brands online. We live in the era of “jab, jab, jab, right hook” as Gary Vee so beautifully puts it. Value, value, value, ask. You’ve got to give before you can get and the idea behind content marketing is to give consumers valuable content from your brand, and they will remember you for it. Empty memes and stealing someone else’s content won’t always work because it’s not relevant to your brand; and you need relevant content that reflects your brand’s core values (that cat video may be funny, but it won’t sell your product, unless funny/silly is a quality of your brand’s personality).
Many brands choose to educate consumers on the details of their product, or develop behind the scenes videos about their process. Some brands even go one step further and develop content about their wider industry. Whatever your content plan, it needs to be engaging, relevant, timely, and useful.
LinkedIn is one of the most underrated tools in business development right now… Only a small percentage of their users actually understands how it works, and that gives them the competitive edge to make it work wonders for them. Remember how cold calls used to be? You pick a company from a master hit list, ring up, get blocked by a gatekeeper, and when you’re just trying to get a name, they cling to a no-name policy like a lifesaver?
Linkedin changed that game entirely. You can pinpoint the exact person you’re looking for, send them a private message and have a one-on-one personal chat with this person outside of emails and gatekeepers. It’s a direct line that you don’t have to work too hard for. The secret is in not being spammy, but there are many tutorials online about LinkedIn message formats, so I won’t get into that right now.
Believe it or not, Twitter still has a massive following. Just look at the trending topics and you’ll see how many people in your region are tweeting. While it’s nowhere as large as Facebook, you might find your niche target market right there on Twitter; and it’s a lot easier to reach as the overall network is smaller so you have less competition to compete with. Don’t knock it til you try it!
While Reddit has mainly been a US brand, over the last few years it’s made itself a lovely dent in the UK, and overall it seems to be consistently spreading all over the world as an alternative to Facebook for longer conversation and higher quality of content consumption. That being said, Reddit is a powerful tool that most brands are not paying attention to as it requires some leg work. You can’t just schedule posts to go out and wait for the responses to pour in. With Reddit, you have to go to the conversation (subreddits and threads) and give your opinion or advice. A word of caution though; be sure to really know what you’re talking about because unlike Facebook, Redditors will happily downvote and point out every flaw in your opinion. Reddit is a wild and savage land, but like the Wild West, it’s full of the best potential.
Quora
While we’re on the topic of establishing your brand as an industry expert, Quora is an honorable mention. Quora is where a user asks a general question and industry experts answer. The key to Quora, like all forms of media, is consistency and frequency. It’s a lot of work, but it does pay off in the long run.
Above all, the best way to position your brand is to ensure your logo, messaging and website are all consistent, modern, and relevant. TILT is uniquely positioned to deliver a 360º brand marketing strategy, that encompasses brand, social media, website and real life stuff too – and we manage all the work for you 🤓. Contact us today at 07955 805 340 or by visiting us at www.TILTcreative.agency.
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