There is no single marketing strategy that will fit every business. Any team offering a “one size fits all” solution isn’t likely to take into account the needs and specific circumstances of your business or field. However, a lot of businesses make a mistake by not implementing a little balance in their marketing methods.
We’re talking primarily about the balance between organic marketing and interruptive marketing, but there is also a balance in digital and physical to pay attention to, as well.
The Organic Side of Things
One of the biggest mistakes you can make with online marketing is to neglect the organic approach. This is marketing that is designed to target and draw in customers that are already looking for services like yours. Search engine optimization is the most popular (and effective) form of organic marketing, but content marketing, social media posting (not advertising), and setting up landing pages are all good examples of how to organically draw customers into your conversion funnel, as well.
Both on-page and off-page SEO are crucial, and they’re also much more cost-effective. Though SEO services cost money, it’s often a matter of investing only once and then again when you need a major update to your strategy, rather than paying consistently for ad campaigns.
Getting Interruptive
One lesson you should not take from the above point is that you don’t need any advertising. Advertising is also known as interruptive marketing, which also includes things like pop-ups, exit surveys on sites, and more. It is true that it is more jarring than organic marketing, but that’s because you need to be bold to catch the attention of the customer who is ready to convert, but not actively looking for your business.
Smart interruptive marketing is about working with advertising agencies who know where to put your ads, who to target them, and the best ways to win over those customers. Spending money on throwing out ads with no plan isn’t a good approach, but well-targeted ads can be very cost-efficient, as well as being the most effective method of driving a lot of clicks, conversions, and revenue in a short period of time.
Dangers of Going All-Digital
Digital marketing gives you the opportunity to target the broader market of customers that there is. However, you might be missing out on the power of traditional marketing, as well. Because fewer businesses invest in things like direct mail marketing, there are few brands to compete with, allowing you more of your customer’s direct attention.
If your business is locally based, then you should certainly be using methods like billboards or radio advertisements to target your local customers as well, as they will find it much easier to find you in person than amongst noise online. The balance of both digital and traditional marketing is what drives real success.
To ensure that your business isn’t missing any “easy wins,” it’s important to make sure that you have at least some measure of both organic and interruptive marketing, as well as both digital and traditional marketing. Rare is the business that won’t benefit entirely from one of these four categories.
