Here are some best marketing tips to help you progress through the new year and make the right decisions to grow your business.  Marketing is about getting customers to your business. If you do not do marketing right, you will not have enough customers to your business.   The biggest problem is that most people do not know how to go out and look for customers. When you talk to most companies that fail, you will realize one pattern. Most of them complain that they did not have enough customers!  Have you heard this before? I guess you have because I have heard that several times.  So what are these essential and best marketing tips to consider for success in your business?

1. Marketing Makes The Most Money In Your Business

Invest more in the marketing department of your firm. Most activities in your business make you lose money instead of making it. Marketing, if done right makes the most money in your business and helps you reprioritize what you need to do daily.

It is the single highest-leverage area in any firm where you can increase your profits without much ado.

2. Marketing Begins With Understanding Your Customers. 

Advertising and putting up a website is not marketing your business. The real marketing starts when you start understanding your customers.

Knowing who they are,

• The language they speak,
• Their needs and wants,
• Their fears and insecurities.

When you understand them more than they know themselves, you will be able to build a deeper relationship with them. Knowing them will help you develop products that are suited for them and that they will be ready to buy and consume.  Our jobs as marketers is to understand how the consumer wants to buy and help them do so.

3. Marketing IS An Ongoing Process

Does this sound familiar to you? It does to me in particular. We always have in mind that we are doing the right thing. Having this in mind makes us carry out marketing tactics that may not be profitable to us nor our business.

If you develop the mindset that every marketing is a “test” you are in a better position. It is better to try as many formulas as possible and always carry our AB testing.

Measuring and testing will help you to use those that work best for you and discard the others that do not. This mindset enables you to save time and energy and focus on what works best. 

4. Marketing Should Evoke Actions

Some of the best marketing tips you should have in mind are that your customers hate to have the feeling that you want to sell to them on social media.

Don’t get me wrong!

They love to buy but don’t feel comfortable having your products or services on their timelines all the time.

Having this in mind, what do you do as a marketer to get your brand out there without being too “salesy”?

A better way will be to appeal to their emotional side. Most buying decisions people make are emotional. It can also be because they feel something for a particular product or service, then they justify it with a logical appeal in their minds.

Appealing to their emotions will provide what they need in their minds to make that “buying decision.”

Appearing too “salesy” and convincing people to buy your products is more expensive for you in the long,

• It deteriorates your brand image.
• It often leads to an increase in return articles for refunds.
• Cost you money in customer service ( you may need more customer service agents) since they are unhappy with your products.

5. Create A Consistent Brand 

Your customers will feel more comfortable if you can provide them with all they need. You should be consistent with your message and brand messages. Most purchasing decisions take place after at least 6 to 10 contacts or experiences with your customers. This communication helps them to get to know you much better and what you can offer to them. It could be through;

• Emails
• Social media
• Advertisement
• Sales pages

One thing should stand out, stay consistent and deliver what you promise to build a loyal customer base.

6. Find Your Customers Where They Are 

You should find your customers where they are and not where you want them to be. What do I mean by this? Expecting your customers to see you in your world is a big mistake most marketers make. Here is an excerpt from my Instagram feed. I posted a bit about this topic and here is what I got as feedback from my audience on Instagram

In case you are uncomfortable or not familiar with a particular platform ( where your potential clients are) I can help you by managing and reaching out to them.

Don’t wait for them to find you! Go out and reach out to them. For example, if you are marketing cosmetics or jewelry to women, Pinterest should be one of the platforms you are using. Even if you may not like using this platform, you must be there if you want to meet these women.

You should go out and find them in their real world. Even if you hate wearing ties and suits, if your potential client likes being formal, you should be formal each time you have to meet them.  

7. Your Marketing Success Depends On How Your Customer´s Perception 

Here is one of my best marketing tips. Your marketing success depends on the perceived value you create for your clients.

All value is perception. It is not enough to have a product and create banners for them saying ” Come And Buy My Products.”

In our world of today, customers need to find value in your products before making that emotional connection to buy it.

You should be able to prove to them why you are the best in comparison with your competitors. You should be able to connect all the dots and show to them how you can best solve their problems.

For this to happen, you need to master your target audience. Learn how to make a sale with them that feels very natural.

The more you speak the language of your clientele, they more valuable they will perceive you and want to buy anything you sell.

8. Learn! Learn! Learn!

Continuous learning is essential to everyone even if you are not a marketer. Committing yourself to education and mastering the art of marketing is a never-ending process.

Your financial future depends on how best you can market your business to the world. The internet and the world changes at a fast pace hence you should invest in yourself and learn more to keep up. Note that, you will never know how good your marketing is if you do not test and optimize it regularly.

My little tip, find the top guys in your industry and set up a Google alert for their accounts. Learn what they are doing, master their mistakes and try to use that to your advantage.

9. Invest In Content

Content is king, and so far as you produce quality material, it will rock your marketing as a whole. This marketing strategy is one of the best marketing tips you can use to market most businesses. This strategy is unbeatable especially when it comes to attracting new clients, sales leads, inquiries and subscribers.

There are several types including:

• Blog post
• Videos
• Slideshares
• Infographics
• Ebooks, PDFs

One thing to note with content marketing is, you should know your customer avatar so that you can produce content that resonates best with them.

 “The reason we struggle with content marketing is because we haven’t started with ‘Why?’ Customers don’t care about your vanity metrics. Ask them, ‘How can I help?’”

10. Are You Using Email Marketing?

Most businesses who spent time building their Facebook Pages discovered that Facebook had reduced their reach. If you want all their Facebook fans to see your posts, you now need to produce high-quality content or run ads. You do not own your Facebook fans, Facebook does! These change in policies is a perfect example of why you need to build your network.

With email marketing, you are in control, and it allows you to make an increasingly valuable asset to your audience

Marketing using emails is not only cost-effective, but one of the best marketing tips to use to grow your business online.

These are some of my best marketing tips to improve and boost your business.

Guest Blogger:   Apolline Adiju -   Apolline is a Certified Digital Marketer / Social Media Manager based in Stockholm, Sweden. She specializes in the Inbound Marketing methodology, acquiring and nurturing new customers using the most cost-effective but efficient marketing funnels that convert. She works and assists business owners & companies (as a consultant) both in Sweden and the world (remote). She helps them build and establish robust social media / digital marketing strategies to increase their online marketing efforts & grow their business.