The Five Pillars of Modern Marketing Success

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StrategyDriven, Business Management, SMS marketing, Email Marketing, Marketing Campaigns,Marketing is everywhere in modern life, and understanding it is crucial to entrepreneurial success. Everything you purchase has been advertised to you through strategic marketing, from the food you eat, to the furniture in your home, to your car, to the software you use daily!

When you start a business and are trying to find the right marketing strategy to take it to the next level, it can be difficult to know where to begin. There’s so much saturation online these days when it comes to marketing advice, how do you know who to trust?

In this post, you’ll learn the five pillars of modern marketing success – no bias, no pitch, just straight-up advice from experts. These are also known as the Five P’s – product, place, price, promotion and people.

By learning these Five P’s and applying them to your business strategy, you’ll have a clear idea of how to proceed with your marketing campaigns in the future.

Let’s get going!

Pillar #1: Product.

Of course, the primary feature of a great marketing strategy is the product. Without an amazing product, the remaining pillars are all holding up a concept that simply won’t be strong enough against your competitors. Even with amazing promotion and prices, a weak product will not stand the test of the modern sales climate.

Whatever your product or service may be, it needs to be watertight. That means that you must invest solidly in the manufacturing, sourcing and researching stages before your final product is ready to hit the shelves. Rushing the product creation stage is a mistake that so many new entrepreneurs make, and it comes back to bite them down the line.

Not only is having a great product important for your customers, it is also important for your company and your team. Having an incredible product that everyone believes in 100% will help rally your troops when times inevitably get tough. Believe in the product with all your heart, and the other pillars of marketing will serve to support this with strength and integrity.

Pillar #2: Place.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the concept of “place” has been, well, displaced. Whether you want your company to be local to your community or an online sensation that ships worldwide, you need to decide on the appropriate place in which to market it. Using the wrong platforms will hit the wrong customers, thereby making you miss out on key opportunities to expand your customer base and build a solid foundation.

When considering where to market your product, it is crucial to think about who you want to market the product towards. If your customer demographic is Gen-Z and Millennials, your product or service needs to be purchasable online, and marketed via social media and email marketing in an extremely effective way. On the other hand, if your product or service is designed to catch the attention of older generations or local people, making it available in a physical store and supporting it with great customer service is a must.

Pillar #3: Price

The price of your product or service is dependent on a huge number of external factors at play. These include:

  • Inflation or reduction of prices across your industry as a whole.
  • The coronavirus pandemic’s effect on pricing.
  • The location in which you are offering these services or products (for example, a massage therapist appointment in a metropolitan city will be priced more highly than one in a more rural area).
  • The quality of the product you are producing. If you are producing a mass produced product for little money, there should be a low price to reflect it – as opposed to a more elite product that costs more.
  • The reputation of your business. A new business might not be able to price as highly as similar competitors, because they will need to pull clients away from those competitors with lower pricing.

Pillar #4: Promotion

So you’ve got an awesome product, the right price point and the perfect place to sell it. What’s next? The next stage of your perfect marketing strategy is promotion. In order for people to know your product or service even exists, you need to promote it in the right place, in order to reach your customer demographic easily.

Nowadays, targeted ads and personalized marketing are the way forward. Email and retail SMS marketing are on the rise, as customers are searching for a more personal, unique experience from their retailers. They want the retailer to anticipate their needs and meet them. Getting a one-up on email and SMS marketing is one of the first things you should do as a new business.

Social media marketing is also an essential in this day and age, as we move into an age of social media being the go-to platform for shopping and socialization. Promoting your products using promotion ads, hashtags, giveaways and influencer gifting is a great way to make your business relevant in today’s world.

Pillar #5: People

The people who make up your business are of paramount importance when it comes to creating a successful marketing strategy. Without people who are experienced, hardworking and positive in the workplace, you might find that your brilliant ideas slip through your fingers.

Nobody achieves entrepreneurial success, even if the ideas and concepts come from their own brain. You need a team of dedicated individuals around you who have their finger on the pulse of modern day marketing, in order to achieve the success you dream of. Don’t underestimate how people can make or break your marketing strategy when push comes to shove!

It’s also worth noting how vital high-quality marketing materials are throughout this process. The most fundamental aspect of this is your website; it should be as high-quality as possible. Doing so will ensure customers find your site attractive, which makes them more likely to convert. Working with a web design agency can ensure you accomplish this.

Final thoughts…

The five pillars of modern marketing success are absolutely essential for any entrepreneur to learn. Marketing is becoming more and more intricate and complex, and in order to stay relevant and keep pushing to new heights you need to put huge investments of time, money and energy into your marketing campaigns.

Use this comprehensive guide to get you started if you are an entrepreneur looking to better your marketing skills!

The Lowdown on Influencer Marketing and How You Might Use It for Your Restaurant

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Influencer Marketing|The Lowdown on Influencer Marketing and How You Might Use It for Your RestaurantAs the owner or manager of a restaurant, it’s natural that you’re flat out looking at many of your business’s everyday operational components. However, to achieve tremendous growth and turn your restaurant into the powerhouse you hope it to be, it’s vital to market the brand and its wares. One option to consider is influencer marketing.

Many hospitality entrepreneurs haven’t gone down this path yet, but it can be an innovative and often lucrative marketing tactic to test out. It’s time to learn the basics of influencer marketing and how you might utilize it in your venture.

Understanding Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing refers to situations where people, influencers with an extensive profile and the ability to affect how a brand gets viewed, promote and sell products or services. The idea of businesses partnering with well-known names and faces isn’t new, as it’s something that’s been around for decades. However, today’s influencer term relates to those who have a large following on social media and use this audience to market wares online.

Organizations can pay influencers for their voice in different ways. For example, this can be done with monetary payments or with free products, discounts, or other incentives. The benefit for businesses in using influencers is that their followers trust these people. In turn, influencer recommendations and other content get taken seriously, and people are more likely to make a purchase or complete some other call-to-action.

Consumers place much less trust in traditional advertising campaigns now and often don’t pay much attention to it at all. Trusted brand advocates can help cut through the noise, though, as their content is seen, by their followers at least, to come from a place of authority.

Types of Influencer Marketing

If you’re interested in using influencer marketing for your restaurant, it’s crucial to understand the different ways you might go about this. You can work with influencers by making them long-term brand ambassadors who promote your business, dishes, and dining experience on their social media pages, website, and related avenues. This activity is generally done for a set period, and you’ll want to ensure that the influencer you choose can’t plug any of your competitors while they’re an ambassador for your firm.

When you want to see more direct results, where customers make bookings and dining right away with you, consider creating incentives. Influencers can use them for marketing your latest menu items or deals and get consumers to head into your restaurant. Influencers get rewarded for the referrals they send your way.

You could, for instance, have influencers mention a limited-time coupon or discount code consumers don’t want to miss out on. Influencers make money through affiliate links here, earning a percentage or dollar amount every time someone clicks through to your restaurant’s social media page or website or makes a booking online, etc.

Many restaurants also find they achieve solid results from running competitions and giveaways that influencers promote. If you want to get the word out more about your business and engage consumers, consider having an influencer send a special text message to their database via a mobile marketing platform for restaurants or a sponsored blog post online.

You could also have an influencer attend an event at your restaurant or hire them to take over your social media pages for a period to boost traffic to your website and premises. Find influencers you feel are a good fit for your brand and chat with them about ideas they might have for marketing strategies, too.

Tips for Top Results with Influencer Marketing

To get the most out of influencer marketing, refrain from picking people to work with until you’re clear about your business goals and what you want the promotions to achieve. Then, don’t just go with any influencer you can get to respond. Choose the right person or people with high numbers of engaged followers in your specific niche.

Locate influencers who are likely to have a genuine interest in what you offer and how you do it. For instance, a vegan restaurant would search for influencers who already live a vegan lifestyle and possess animal-friendly values. Put together a shortlist of people you’re interested in working with. Then, try to build a relationship with them before contacting them and asking them to get involved with your restaurant.

Authentic connections help you test if the fit is correct and increases the likelihood that people will respond to your approaches. When pitching, look for ways to show how the partnership can add value to the influencer’s life and projects, not just tick boxes for you.

With so much competition these days in the hospitality arena, anything you can do to make your restaurant stand out for the right reasons is helpful. Approach influencer marketing with a clear strategy to boost your chances of success.

How To Stand Out As A Small Business

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Small Business|How To Stand Out As A Small BusinessWhether you are looking to start a company or your small business is in motion, you will want it to stand out. Although, standing out as a small business can be a challenge. With there being new businesses entering the market every day, you may be at risk of being lost in the sea of similar businesses. Thus, it is important to understand what it takes to stand out and put the tips in motion.

Get the branding right

Your businesses branding is so important to ensure that you are recognizable and distinguishable. Your branding should reflect your businesses vision and purpose. Having niche branding that is unlike any other will help you stand out among the crowd of similar businesses.

For instance, an eye-catching logo that is like no other will ensure that your branding is recognized. It will also make it easy to remember. An inexpensive logo design company like Logoglo can help you with designing your logo to align with your brand. Ensuring that your logo is memorable and unique will be easy to achieve with a design expert. You can rely on them to ensure it matches your business, its branding and your vision.

Have a niche

If your business is similar to others, you may want to have a niche in order to stand out. A niche will make your business unique. It will help you have your own goals and identity that will set you out among the rest.

A niche may not be an easy thing to think of. However, if there is something you want to offer that nobody else does, then go for it. In whatever way you can make your business different, go for it and see how it works. After all, you never know what could happen if you don’t try things as a small business. Plus, the best time to try new things is at the beginning as it is a time where mistakes will likely happen.

Provide value

Providing value to your customers will encourage them to use your business as it will give them a purpose. For instance, offering them the option to shop products before mass release or offering rewards will reflect your appreciation for them.

Keeping customers engaged and feeling respected will help your small business attract loyal customers, which will help your sales and profits.

Utilize marketing

Marketing strategies is key for any business, especially small business. There are many free tools that you can take advantage of to maximize brand awareness and promote your business to new customers.

You can use social media platforms to engage with customers, share new releases, and provide answers. Then, you could use emails to offer discounts and keep customers in the know. Moreover, you can use marketing automation to run your campaigns without needing to be physically present at all times. If you learn the secrets to marketing automation implementation, you’ll soon have the capacity to make your business reach far and wide.

Utilizing marketing strategies will leverage and identify real customers. Being available online and establishing your brand will increase recognition and help you stand out among the crowd.

As a small business owner, it is so important to stand out from the getgo. Whether it be creating a niche or establishing yourself on social platforms, it will help your business be recognizable and reachable.

3 Real Estate Marketing Tips for 2021

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Real Estate Marketing|3 Real Estate Marketing Tips for 2021There has been significant economic concern about inflation rates in the US, which have increased to 4.2% in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic recently.

According to one Federal Reserve official, this could have a particularly detrimental impact on the national housing market, as the failure to create sustainable inflation of around 2% could trigger further waves of boom and bust within the sector.

However, there’s no doubt that homeowners are currently looking to cash in on rising property values, with the median price for sales of existing homes up by 23.6% year-on-year in May. So, what marketing tips can help you to optimize your chances of selling your home in the near term?

1. Feature Virtual Tours Through Facebook Live

Most real estate firms now invest heavily in targeted Facebook ads, in order to capture an increased audience in specific locations.

However, such ads are also subject to more checks than others, so the approval process can take longer and be highly debilitating in a volatile marketplace.

The same cannot be said for Facebook Live, however, which can be leveraged immediately and to provide free, real-time tours of marketed properties.

Available through a Facebook Business page, you can optimize your live tours simply by launching a Facebook event URL and promoting specific windows in which potential buyers are invited to join.

Then invite all of your contacts and prospects, to create a highly efficient viewing that connects any number of potential buyers to a particular property within an incredibly short period of time.

Try to time your live tours to ensure that you’re capturing as large a target market as possible while taking steps to optimize the lighting in your home and making sure that it’s presented in the best light possible

2. Grow Your Email List

When you launch a Facebook live event, you can invite your online contacts and individuals featured in your email list.

This provides an opportunity to transcend Facebook and liaise with those who may not be connected through the site, boosting your potential reach and optimizing any return on your marketing spend.

With this in mind, it also makes sense to focus on growing your email list when marketing real estate. This can also benefit a number of alternative digital marketing channels, while you can look to target potential buyers through the creation and distribution of a regular email newsletter through this medium.

Of course, the primary challenge here is incentivizing people to give you their emails in the first place, especially if you look to move away from your existing contacts and expand your network.

The key is to provide something of tangible value to contacts, whether this is a free checklist of things that homeowners must do before selling their home or an educated insight into the prevailing market trends in your community.

3. Create an Integrated Marketing Strategy

The key to successful marketing in any sector in 2021 is to create an integrated approach and one that combines the very best of both offline and online channels.

This way, you can optimize the volume of assisted conversions that you’re able to create as part of the typical customer journey, while also generating targeted and large-scale leads through mass marketing channels such as billboards.

With an integrated approach, you can also leverage a range of highly engaging print materials as a way of building awareness, from direct mail and basic flyers to more lavish and high-quality brochures that showcase property in a more favorable light.

Brochures are definitely a relatively cost-effective way of sharing property information and showcasing high-definition imagery, while they can also feature consistent branding and various reminders that reinforce the brand’s wider visual identity.

Not only can this help to sell properties directly, but it also creates a level of brand recognition that may encourage recipients to use your services when buying (or even selling) real estate in the future.

7 Inbound Marketing Mistakes Your Business Must Avoid

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Inbound Marketing|7 Inbound Marketing Mistakes Your Business Must AvoidAs the world continues to battle COVID-19 and continue with vaccination efforts, many business owners are left wondering how to promote their brands in a post-pandemic world. There’s no denying that inbound marketing is the way forward for many organizations.

After all, inbound marketing enables businesses to get a better marketing ROI and boost their bottom lines. However, some entrepreneurs aren’t doing inbound marketing correctly and end up wasting their time – and money.

You’re likely reading this article today because you want to make sure your inbound marketing efforts aren’t for nothing. With that in mind, take a look at these common mistakes that you must avoid the next time you launch an inbound marketing campaign:

1. Not Having a Strategy

It might surprise you to learn that many businesses end up with lackluster inbound marketing campaigns because they don’t have a strategy or plan. Instead, what they have done is throw some content out there and hoped for the best.

You shouldn’t ever launch an inbound marketing campaign without having a strategy in place first. In other words, you need to have clearly defined goals so you don’t lose focus and you can measure your results easily.

2. Not Having a Long-Term Plan

You may decide that you have a strategy and you’re planning to use B2B lead generation as part of your campaign. But, you only want to run your campaign for a short period. The thing is, your business is a long-term operation – not something that will stop next week.

Instead of chasing quick fixes to draw in more customers and generate brand awareness, you need to have a long-term plan for your inbound marketing campaigns. For example, how would you like to promote your products and services in the next 12 months?

3. Writing Lackluster Content

If your inbound marketing campaign involves directing people to your website, what do you think might happen if they look at your content right now? Will they feel impressed enough to follow through your CTAs, such as subscribing to a newsletter or buying something?

Or, will your audience take one look at your content, laugh, and forget your brand even exists? You need to make sure that you offer high-quality, relevant content for your prospects to read. It goes without saying that your content should also be engaging and valuable.

4. Not Focusing on Your Target Audience

The reason you are performing inbound marketing is that you want to attract a specific group of people. Your goal is to have them do something, like visit your website or give you a call and ultimately spend their money with you.
That sounds like a simple strategy. However, things become complicated when entrepreneurs, companies, and other organizations fail to focus on their target audience. Instead, they end up targeting the wrong people.

Make sure you have a clear focus with your inbound marketing campaigns. You need to know who it is you want to attract, and you must know why you want to attract them. It’s worth taking the time to understand your target market and what drives them.

5. Not Doing Any Research

It’s no secret that the key to any good outcome in life is by conducting the right level of research. The same concept applies to inbound marketing campaigns; you wouldn’t spend money on your marketing without researching what will return the best ROI.

With that in mind, you need to always conduct plenty of market research and determine which methods will work best for your business and niche. Don’t assume that certain marketing methods that work for someone else will automatically work for you too.

6. Forgetting to Analyze Your Results

It might shock you to learn that many companies spend money on their inbound marketing campaigns yet fail to do any proper results analysis. They might see an increase in sales or interest in their brands, but they don’t understand how or why that has happened.

That’s why it makes sense to conduct plenty of results analysis to ensure your inbound marketing campaigns are working. When you analyze the results, you can then tweak your campaigns by making the right adjustments for an increased ROI.

7. Not Having a Social Media Focus

Lastly, did you know that some companies spread themselves too thin across social media platforms by signing up to literally all the leading social networks? When they do that, they don’t realize that they’ll need a team of people to manage all those social media profiles.

Sign up to the social networks that you feel will significantly benefit your business. Don’t spend your time signing up to all new or obscure social networks, hoping to cast a wider net to your target audience.