Ten Ways to Improve Your Marketing

Posted: 01/18/16

By Richard Rutigliano, PriMedia Inc.

Here are 10 marketing strategies for 2016, including three timeless guidelines and seven timely tips to keep you in stride with the evolution of consumer choice and perception.

Three Timeless Guidelines

1. Set your direction. Understand your company, your market and how to benefit from the changes that are occurring in your industry. The best marketing plans are closely aligned with long- and short-term sales goals. Decide what you want to accomplish, and plan to market accordingly.
   
   
2. Collaborate effectively. Clients who know how to engage effectively with an outside firm derive the most value from their marketing agency services. Start by assigning responsibilities well within your company. Decide who will communicate with the agency, and remember that collaboration is an art unto itself.
   
   
3. Develop a plan. Commit to differentiating your company and capitalizing on your strengths. Embrace marketing as a top priority, and allocate an aggressive budget that will enable you to make some real headway. Ask your agency to develop a plan that will support your objectives, and let them know how much you’ve allocated towards your marketing campaign. Ask a lot of questions and give thoughtful feedback so that the plan matches and supports your objectives.

Seven Timely Tips

1. Think mobile. Online activity continues to shift from the desktop to mobile devices. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, and create a highly functional site that meets the needs of a time-challenged, purpose-driven site visitor.
   
   
2. Improve customer experiences. Customers and clients are more demanding than ever. Look closely at everything they see and touch, and optimize every experience. Connect with a website that exudes professionalism and is easy to navigate. Use technology effectively to improve timeliness and personalization. Develop effective procedures for handling the most common requests.
   
   
3. Increase online reviews and testimonials. Customers and clients increasingly read what other people are saying online. Initiate procedures to get all your positive testimonials and customer letters on the website and encourage customers to post to review sites. Monitor reviews, and respond to them promptly and in a professional tone.
   
   
4. Be concise. Use messaging that is clear, straightforward and to the point. Create easy-to-digest graphics. De-clutter the website home page.
   
   
5. Mind your NAP. Keep the company’s name, address and phone number (NAP) consistent across all directory listings. This is a key element for success in search results, and as voice-activated search (Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana) gains ground, basics such as NAP will become even more critical.
   
   
6. Target your advertising. Facebook and Google AdWords both offer precise targeting of online advertising that helps you get your company in front of suitable audiences at a reasonable cost. Behavioral advertising and remarketing are solid strategies for improving name recognition and keeping yourself in front of potential leads.
   
   
7. Monitor and adjust. Google Analytics and similar services can tell you everything you what is happening with your websites and online advertising. It is critical to find out what works, track your online assets and analyze the patterns. Pinpoint what’s most effective … and do more of it!

There you have it – 10 ideas to boost your advertising efforts. Implement some of these, and you’ll be more in control of your marketing processes and will see better results.

If you want to hit the ground running for 2016, PriMedia is happy to help. Please give me a call at 800-796-3342 or email me at rrutigliano@primediany.com.