9 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Marketing Strategy

Calm down! There’s plenty of time to improve your marketing strategy and you do not need to panic. Summer is a slow time for a lot of businesses and just because you are not seeing the numbers you hoped for, doesn’t mean your plans didn’t work. It’s not time to throw them out the door, it’s time to review them and see where you can make improvements. It takes 2-3 months to get an idea of what’s working so whether it’s summer, fall or whenever, if you’ve been running campaigns for a few months it’s always a good time to check them out and see what’s happening. Here are some ways to can improve your efforts:

1. Get social: If you are not on social media then you need to be. Every business, no matter what you do, needs to have social media accounts. Even if it does not equal any traffic or sales, the profiles will introduce your brand to new consumers and also rank on search engines when people research you.
2. Have a promotion: People love to brag about the deals they get and whether you’re an established company or not, the best way to get eyes on your products or services is to offer a promotion. Whenever a grocery store wants to introduce a new product to consumers they always offer it at a discounted price. This encourages people to give it a try because they are putting less money up to experiment.
3. Expand your email list: If you aren’t doing email marketing then you are missing the boat. Social media and email marketing are two things you need to be doing on a regular basis above all else. This helps build brand loyalty. Whether you have a list of your own or not, you can expand on it with a targeted campaign that works locally as well as nationally.
4. Get active: What have you done recently to encourage consumers to come to your store or visit your site? It’s time to get active! Think of 2 restaurants, one has an hour wait and the other is empty. When people see that 9 times out of 10 they will go to the crowded one and wait. Being inactive is a sign that you are not a good business and can turn consumers away.
5. Read reviews and comments: Reputation management is important but it’s not just about fixing your bad rep. Look at the reviews customers are writing on sites you are listed on, the comments they post on your social media, how they respond to your email marketing efforts and so forth. This gives you an idea of how you are viewed by the public and what you can do to take advantage of that.
6. Reevaluate Adwords: If you are not running an Adwords campaign it’s time to look into it. If you are and it’s not getting you a solid ROI then you need to reevaluate. Are your bids too low? Are you focused on the wrong keywords? Do your ads need to be changed?
7. Keyword research: Speaking of keywords, this is a big part of your online presence. It’s not just about SEO, focusing on the right keywords can improve brand loyalty as you are found in several areas when people search. Remember, Facebook alone gets 1.5 billion searches a day so social media works as SEO as well.
8. Find what’s working: Look at your entire marketing strategy and find what’s working. These are the areas that are producing or not costing you a lot of money. Look at what you can do to improve them whether it’s increasing the budget, adjusting something or anything else.
9. Find what’s not working: Everyone has something they can improve on when it comes to online advertising. As you look through your plan, try to find what’s not producing but have realistic expectations. If you sell cars and you only get one sale a month from social media, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not working.

Understanding that every platform in your strategy, whether it’s email marketing, SEO, Adwords, social media or something else is going to produce different results based on what you’re putting into it and your industry. Taking the time to evaluate everything is going to make sure that your results get better as well as that it’s more cost-effective.