Connect with us

MARKETING

Does Marketing Really Matter? (8 Benefits That Show It’s Critical)

Published

on

Does Marketing Really Matter? (8 Benefits That Show It's Critical)

Many small businesses don’t think they “do marketing,” or need to “do marketing.” In fact, around 37% of small businesses in a survey of 500 small businesses don’t have a website to market their products and services.

The basis for this line of argument for many of them is that they’re too busy trying to get customers through the door to be bothered about “fancy marketing.”

However, marketing is a more effortless and surer way to bring in the business they want. This article will reveal some benefits of digital marketing for small businesses and show that marketing truly matters regardless of the business you run.

They believe that customers would inevitably find their way to them since they have a great product or service. But unfortunately, although this strategy might bring some customers (after all, who doesn’t love great products and service?), its results pale compared to what they’ll get if they use digital marketing.

The global pandemic and measures to curb its effects have changed the business and retail landscape. Many people have integrated online reviews and searching online into their decision to purchase a product or service. This reveals just how much digital marketing helps small businesses and why it’s in their benefit to take advantage of this new situation.

The market out there is simply too big and important to be ignored. According to the Global Overview Report, more than 4.6 billion people worldwide use the internet, and 46.3% of them use the internet to research products and brands.

Does marketing really matter? Stats proving that it does from the global overview report

Image Source

Advertisement

So, what does this mean? Having a great product or service is essential, but it’s ultimately futile if nobody knows about it. Digital marketing is how you get your product out there and should be part of every small business’s strategy for growth.

Why some small businesses don’t invest in digital marketing

Since marketing offers many benefits, it’s bewildering to see small businesses fail to invest in it.

However, it’s important to note that these owners have their reasons. Some of the common reasons include:

Service-based companies don’t need to do marketing.

On the surface, this looks like a genuine reason, but it turns out to be smoke and mirrors. As long as you’re a business selling something, you can benefit from a sound digital marketing strategy.

The business has tried marketing before and it didn’t work.

Just because you’ve tried something before and it failed doesn’t mean it can’t ever work. Have you tried something else? Sometimes, some businesses have started on the right marketing path but fall off because of a lack of patience.

It’s essential to measure the right metrics in any marketing campaign to judge whether it’s working or not accurately.

Advertisement

There is plenty of help available to small business owners who want to improve their marketing strategy.

The business is small and plans to stay small.

Growth isn’t for everyone and small businesses that say this can’t really be faulted. However, just because you don’t want to grow bigger doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from marketing.

For example, marketing can help you increase your retention rate and even improve the quality of customers or clients you attract.

Free Guide: Digital Marketing For Small Business

Digital Marketing Guide for Small Businesses

Download Now

Why Digital Marketing is Important for Small Businesses

Relying solely on traditional marketing methods will not achieve the desired results, so small businesses should adopt digital marketing.

With so many people connected to the internet, online searches have increased in volume and frequency over the past year. 79% of consumers currently use the internet to find information about local businesses, and a digital marketing strategy makes it possible to be found easily by searchers.

Why Digital Marketing is So Important: Bright Local Research

Image Source

Advertisement

Another reason why digital marketing is excellent for small businesses is that it can turn customers into brand ambassadors. Using digital testimonials can complement the “word of mouth” way of marketing and since 89% of consumers read reviews before buying products, integrating such testimonials is a no-brainer.

Digital marketing widens your reach. By using multichannel, you can increase conversions and reach potential customers where they are. Social media is a gem, with 4.20 billion people using it. So by tailoring your message on the different channels, you can boost your reach over time.

1. It increases your reach

Considering that people today are spending more time than ever before in front of their screen, digital marketing offers small businesses a great chance to reach new audiences.

Small businesses can use either organic or paid digital efforts to reach these new audiences.

2. You can target your audience at the right time

Most digital marketing channels have personalization and segmentation features that allow you to reach your audience with the right message at the right time.

Advertisement

For instance, you can send time-limited offers to subscribers on your email list. Or run Twitter ads during specific holidays to target your audience at the right time.

3. It improves communication at all stages of the buying process

People rarely go from being unaware of your brand to become customers. There’s typically a buying process they go through, and digital marketing channels help you guide your audience through this process.

For instance, you can create valuable content that answers questions your audience might have with your blog. Also, you can use social media to drive conversations and engagement among your audience.

4. It’s cost-effective

Compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing offers a low-cost method to reach your audience. Sometimes, with channels like social media and email marketing, you might not even have to pay to market your products and services to potential customers.

5. It’s easy to tack and monitor

Most digital channels come with analytics that help you quickly identify what elements work within your marketing strategy.

Once you identify an under-performing area of your strategy, you can quickly switch things up and monitor how well the new elements are working.

Advertisement

6. Marketing allows you to know customers better

Before starting your business, you likely had an idea of your ideal customer. However, marketing helps you even get to know this ideal customer more.

How they interact with your campaigns and marketing messages helps you identify what’s important to them and how you can connect better with them.

7. It lets the customer come to you

Consistently creating valuable content for your audience helps you build authority and subject matter expertise (SME) in your industry. When people have problems concerning the topics you talk about, it’s easy for them to turn to you.

8. Digital marketing can increase your revenue.

Assuming your conversion rates are constant, it goes without saying that you’ll make more money if you reach more people — and that’s exactly what digital marketing helps you do.

Using social media, a website, email marketing, and more digital channels, you’ll have more avenues to reach more people through at a marginal cost difference than you would if you used traditional or in-person marketing methods.

Use Digital Marketing for Small Businesses

Digital marketing can have a huge, positive effect on your business. Developing a marketing strategy might take some time, but it’s time well worth it. No business, big or small, new or old, should overlook the opportunity to generate leads and improve conversions that digital marketing offers.

Advertisement

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2006 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

New Call-to-action

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

MARKETING

How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

Published

on

A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

Advertisement

Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

Advertisement

Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

Advertisement

“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

Advertisement

Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

Advertisement

Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

Source link

Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

MARKETING

Trends in Content Localization – Moz

Published

on

Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

Source link

Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

MARKETING

How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

Published

on

How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

(more…)

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

Trending

Follow by Email
RSS