Email Marketing and Other Digital Strategies for Business. What You Should Know
A working marketing strategy is vital to any business. That is because it effectively informs the market of your products while providing you with feedback on what needs improving.
Consequently, an effective marketing strategy helps you to not only achieve brand visibility but also discover new market needs and novel areas you may need to explore.
Great marketing methods are those which can efficiently deliver on these twin principles- sales and feedback.
Today, digital marketing has emerged as a dependable component for businesses as it seamlessly delivers on all the marketing goals required by enterprises. And, unlike previous methods, digital marketing achieves results at a much faster rate.
Digital methods rely on the internet and its technologies to reach potential clients and markets in real time.
Due to increased dependency on the internet by many individuals and corporations today, the efficacy of such marketing methods continues to grow.
Below are some of the leading digital marketing methods you can deploy to boost your brand visibility and business sales.
Cold calling
Cold calling is the unsolicited pitching of your products to new prospects. It is typically done via telemarketing or phone calls.
Due to its unsolicited nature, some prospects may prove to be non-receptive, which is why your cold callers must always be tactful and polite in their approach.
The good news is that you no longer need to do the cold calling yourself but can outsource the function to dependable consultancy firms to handle it for you.
While it may seem like a daunting task to the uninitiated, cold calling yields sales when done right. Where you opt to handle the cold calling yourself, be sure to bear some things in mind.
The first thing is to always approach it as a learning experience first with the possibility of a sale. Do not let the fear of rejection stifle your efforts.
Even when you get rejected (as you invariably will), turn it into a learning opportunity by asking the prospect what they prefer.
That way, you still reap valuable market data from the process.
Also, always structure your calling schedule in a manner that respects your prospects’ time as well as your own. One way to achieve this is by having pre-structured talking points and follow up questions.
Email marketing
Email marketing involves the dispatch of commercial information to several people via email.
In this case, the email is designed to inform the recipients of your brand and products and, hopefully, entice them into buying.
However, unlike cold calling, email marketing adopts the more targeted approach of using verified email contacts of warm leads or people likely to be interested in what you offer.
The generation of email lists can be done for you by a professional Email Services Provider (ESP). ESPs are companies that supply updated and verified email contacts of key decision-makers within a given field or marketplace.
Once you have your email list at hand, write and format a compelling email that is informative and professional.
Poorly done emails can ruin your chance at generating and nurturing an otherwise good lead. If you doubt how to do your solicitation emails, you may also consider having your ESP structure the email for you.
Equally important is when you send the emails. Schedule your emails so that your recipients receive them when they are most likely to act on them.
According to GetResponse.com, an email marketing Solutions Company, the most likely time to get people acting on business emails is between 10 am- 1 pm.
Therefore, if you happen to have email contacts across different time zones, it is best to figure out when you should dispatch each email for optimal feedback.
Marketing analytics
Most digital marketing methods come with dependable analytics tools that enable you to get a comprehensive look at market behaviour and how you can leverage it to drive sales.
Marketing analytics will show you how the competition is attracting its customers, what products the consumers are interested in, and which segment is engaged with and likely to buy from you.
That kind of information was not so readily available in the past.
However, thanks to digital analytics, you can now predetermine who your most likely customers will be, how to retain them, and how to relate with them by delivering the right message at the right time.
An excellent example of free digital analytic tools are those offered by Google, Bitly, and OpenWeb analytics.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms and networks to promote your brand, products and engage with your clients while soliciting sales.
Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are examples of social media sites where people with similar interests connect and interact online.
Due to the versatility offered by social media, the digital marketing methods that spring from these platforms are innumerable. These include social media influencer marketing, microblogging, social news, community blogs, and media sharing, to name a few.
Content marketing
Content marketing features the publishing and distributing valuable and detailed product information to your clients through digital means.
The content may be published on your website as an article on a blog. It could also be carried as a YouTube video, website video, or articles posted on an affiliated website or blog page with links to your website.
Content marketing aims to direct and increase web traffic to your website.
For that reason, to be effective, your content must be fresh, constant, comprehensive, and always up to date.
It should also make proper use of keywords to make it easily ‘discoverable’ by search engines. After all, it is the search engines that will direct online visitors to your site.
However, occasionally, your brand can share fun content that lightens the mood of your audience and also carries your brand image positively. For example, Saleshive.com, a leading B2B cold calling agency, occasionally shares sales memes and gifs with its audience.