Out With the Old, In With the New

As we begin the new year, it’s time to review previous marketing strategies and strategize for the upcoming year.  Here is a list of 6 proven marketing tips that will boost your business. We hope you find something of use that you can implement right away..

1 – Sell Benefits, Not Features

Selling needs to focus on the benefit to the customer. Target how your product or service will improve users’ lives. People do not buy things just for the sake of buying- they want it to solve their problems!  It has been proven that most purchasing decisions are emotional, not rational. Marketers need to spend a great deal of time getting to know their target market, or buyer persona. Once your target market is identified, it will be much easier to personalize sales and marketing messages, anticipate the needs of your target market, and exceed expectations. It is a proven fact that having a well-defined buyer persona can help you build a more effective marketing plan as well as targeting your marketing campaigns and offers to the right groups of prospects. Hasse Jansen has written extensively about the benefits of buyer personas.

2 – Use a Variety of Marketing Channels

There are currently so many marketing channels. There are many social media platforms to can market on. Another important parts of your marketing strategy are content and email marketing, as well as the vast online world. The world is your oyster– take advantage of it!

• Content Marketing can be a very powerful tool, but it’s important that the content you create is of extremely good quality and value.  Make sure to publish a combination of evergreen content and trending content. Another thing to be cognizant of is making sure to include a sharing button. The more exposure (whether it be blogs, newsletters, infographics, webinars, special events, etc.) to your content, the better.
• Email Marketing is one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools out there. Knowing your buyer persona, or ideal client, allows you to target your email messages and offers to the right people. I would suggest building your own email database, rather than purchasing one. To read some tips on email marketing from enCloud9 click here.
• Marketing Automation is an amazing tool to use in your email marketing. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t do it all. Let automation do the hard work for you. Why start the New Year out with tasks/emails that could be automated? Marketing Automation not only saves time and money, but also alleviates a lot of stress and has been proven to increase productivity, efficiency, and customer retention. Contact enCloud9 today to find out more about our Marketing Accelerator. Our Marketing Accelerator combines the power of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for managing sales and ClickDimensions for marketing automation.

3 – Market Your Products Before They Are Ready

Most companies do exactly the opposite. They wait until a product is perfect and then they market it. What they really should be doing is generating interest before the product is offered. Let customers know the product is coming. Sell the benefits before the product has arrived. When the product is here, you are ready and so are they. A great example of a company that does this is Microsoft. Microsoft puts out a little information about upcoming products and future updates. They generate interest before the product is actually here.

4 – Research Competitors

The market is becoming increasingly competitive! Your competitors are likely offering products and services that are very similar to what you are offering. Look at what your competitor’s offerings – and improve on them. You need to make your offer the most attractive and do something that stands out. This goes back to the idea of selling the benefit – not the feature. Convince prospects that your offer is going to solve their problems. Spend some time thinking about what makes you unique and focus on it! That is what is going to make prospects choose you over the competitors. It is not suggested to simply offer the same thing as your competitors for less. Look at what they are offering- and offer MORE!

5 – Measure Results of Marketing Campaign

If you are going to invest time and money in marketing, you want to be sure your investment is paying off. You need to be able to track how many conversions stem from each particular marketing campaign. You may want to run many marketing campaigns at once so you can compare. Throw out the ones that don’t work and keep the ones that do. Its similar to cleaning out your closet at the end of the year. You throw out the clothes you don’t wear and you keep the ones that work. 

Marketing Automation, combined with a CRM system for managing sales, is a great way to track and monitor your marketing campaigns. If you are not currently taking advantage of marketing automation and would like to know more about how enCloud9’s Marketing Accelerator can benefit you – visit http://bit.ly/2FhV1Vq.

6 – Invoke Curiosity

Many companies do exactly the opposite. They try to answer as many questions as possible and give as much information as they can. You want to give prospects a reason to contact you. There should be a basic level of information offered, but it should inspire them to contact you.

Looking Ahead to the New Year

So there you have it- 6 proven ways to boost your marketing in the New Year. We hope you found something of use on our list of marketing tips. Want to learn some other simple ways you can step up your marketing?

If you use Dynamics 365 as a marketer then this idea book will give you a jump start to fuel your creativity. Created by the folks at ClickDimensions, the topics covered include:

• Creating and publishing a great newsletter every month
• Tracking the effectiveness of your online advertisements
• Designing nurture campaigns that generate better-qualified sales leads
• Split testing emails to improve your open and click rates
• Launching new content marketing campaigns and landing pages

Click here to download the Dynamics 365 Marketing Idea Book.