Spring is officially here, marking the start of Q2 for businesses big and small everywhere. After the first few months of the year, many businesses will be taking this time to update their marketing and advertising techniques. A few strategies to do this have stood out so far this year that can help these businesses draw in new customers and improve brand loyalty.
Focusing On Local Business
In the digital era, it can be incredibly tempting to expand your marketing focus to a larger audience across a wider area. However, this could be a mistake that actually decreases the number of new customers your business draws in. 85% of a business’s customers live or work within a five-mile radius of its location, making local marketing both important and shockingly effective. Remember to look at local customers when revising your marketing strategy in Q2; even if you have online shopping options or other ways for longer-distance customers to interact, narrowing your audience can help make your marketing more specific.
Building Diverse Communities
Building diversity within your company isn’t just the right thing to do – it can also give your business a competitive edge. Research shows that gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform their peers and ethnically-diverse companies are 35% more likely to do the same. People from different backgrounds contribute unique perspectives to your business and marketing strategies, so take this into account when looking at your overall employee makeup. It can also help show your commitment to social causes, which can help further develop a company narrative that you can use in marketing.
Multi-Media Marketing
When it comes to specific techniques to build your marketing strategy, look to bring your advertising into the twenty-first century this quarter with multi-media marketing. Even when you’re just looking at online content, there are many ways to communicate your company’s message that could be more effective than you think. Go to where your ideal audience is and find what sorts of content are most effective on that platform. For example, if you’ve got a Millennial or Gen Z customer base, consider Youtube videos. There are about 300 billion searches on YouTube monthly, making it likely people will find your content. If you find that video is effective, consider incorporating live video on your social media channels.
Content Is Key
Most importantly, consistently creating content is key to modern marketing methods. The internet is filled with many types of content on a regular basis, but consistently generating high-quality content on a regular schedule has been proven to work time and time again. In fact, companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month receive nearly 3.5 times more traffic than companies that publish zero to four monthly posts. Focusing on important SEO keywords and tactics can also benefit your small business, and this tried and true method of marketing will almost certainly continue to be effective well into the future.
Marketing as a small business can be a challenge, but companies worldwide can make use of these strategies for the remainder of 2019 to draw in new customers. Every business’ strategy will be different, but these essentials can help companies of any size in a wide variety of industries.
