Are you struggling to keep up with the ever-changing world of marketing? Are you tired of feeling left behind by the latest digital marketing trends and techniques? If you’re running an old-school business, it can be challenging to keep up with the fast-paced world of marketing. In this blog, we’ll explore some new marketing ideas that are perfect for old-school businesses.
New Marketing Ideas For Your Old-School Business: Influencer Marketing
Influencers are people who have built a reputation and following on social media in a certain niche. This could be fashion, lifestyle, gaming, and more. Influencer marketing involves partnering with influencers who have an audience similar to yours to reach more potential customers and increase brand awareness. To be successful with influencer marketing, you should:
- Define your goals and your audience. Determining what you want to achieve with your influencer marketing campaign will help you be successful. State what you’re wanting to achieve whether that’s increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, or generating sales.
- Research potential influencers. Look for influencers who are active on social media and who have a large following with an audience who will be likely to be interested in your brand.
- Negotiate terms. Once you find a relevant influencer, you should negotiate the terms of your partnership which could include compensation, content requirements, and timelines.
- Create content. Work with the influencer to create content that aligns with your goals and resonates with your audience. This could include sponsored posts, reviews, or giveaways.
- Track results. Use analytics tools to track the performance of your influencer marketing campaign. Look at metrics like reach, engagement, and conversions. You can use this data to improve your strategy and results.
Social Media Marketing
Social media can be a powerful tool for promoting your business… even an old-school one. It’s great for connecting with your audience whilst also reaching more people and a place where you can learn how to come up with content ideas.
More than half the world (4.76 billion people!) use social media, so if you’re not currently on there, you’re missing a trick.
By creating a social media presence for your business, you can reach a wider audience, connect with customers, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to your website. But how do you get started?
- Determine which social media platforms are best for your business. The most popular platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Each has its own unique audience and features, so it’s important to choose the ones that are most relevant to your target audience. For example, LinkedIn is great for business-to-business marketing, whereas Instagram is perfect for reaching a younger audience.
- Create and share content. Once you’ve chosen your platforms, it’s time to start creating content. This could include posts about your products or services, behind-the-scenes of your business, images, videos, and much more. It’s time to use your imagination!
- Engage with customers. Creating content isn’t the only goal for your business. Getting engagement can help your brand to grow. Encourage engagement in your posts by asking questions and then responding to comments and messages. You can even run social media content and share user-generated content.
- Track everything! Track your performance on social media and adjust the strategy as needed. Monitor your reach, engagement, and conversion rates with analytics tools and use this data to improve your content.
Content Marketing
You may have heard the saying ‘content is king’. And there’s a lot of truth to it as 44% of business owners said improving the quality of their content has led to success. Content marketing involves creating and sharing relevant, helpful content with your audience. This could include articles, videos, images, podcasts, and other media. Even though you may have an old-school business, it’s important to establish yourself as an authority. This approach to content marketing establishes expertise, promotes brand awareness, and keeps your business at the front of people’s minds when it’s time for them to buy what you sell. Steps include:
- Define your goals and target audience. Start by identifying who your audience is and what their pain points are. This will help you create relevant content that resonates with them. You should also determine what you want to achieve whether that’s increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, or generating leads.
- Come up with ideas for content that aligns with your goals and that is relevant to your audience. You should focus on helpful content first rather than promoting your product or service.
- Create a content calendar. Regularly adding or updating content on your website is important for becoming an authority on the subject. Determine the frequency of your content and stick to the schedule.
- Measure your results. Use analytics tools to track the performance of your content by looking at the metrics on your website, engagement, and conversions.
Email Marketing
Email marketing involves sending a commercial message to existing and potential customers to advertise products and services, request business or solicit sales or donations. Email marketing may be one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, but it’s also one of the most effective with 73% of millennials preferring communication from businesses to come via email.
- Build your email list. Create a list of emails from existing customers, your website, or social media channels. Add the list to an email marketing platform of your choice.
- Create email content. Develop your content including a compelling subject line and clear call to action. Define your goals beforehand whether you’re promoting a singular product or service, or a sale for example.
- Design your email. Use a responsive template to ensure your email looks good on all devices.
- Always send a test email to make sure it looks great.
- Send and track. Send your email to your client list and track the progress through analytics in your email marketing platform. Consider tweaking and testing new strategies.
Video Marketing
The world is moving more towards engaging elements such as images, music, and other engaging elements, and video marketing has everything you need to create a truly engaging strategy. Videos are all over social media, whether you’re on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or even LinkedIn. They draw in users and provide easy entertainment compared to huge blocks of text. Here are steps you can take to create a successful video marketing strategy.
- Define your goals. You should come up with the purpose of your video marketing strategy. Is it to increase brand awareness? Generate leads? Drive sales?
- Identify your audience. Understanding your target audience can help you create videos that resonate with them. Think about their age, gender, interests, and pain points so your content speaks directly to them.
- Determine video type. Consider which type of video will best communicate your message. Common types include explainer videos, demos, customer testimonials, and educational videos.
- Plan your content. Once you have all the above in place, you can brainstorm video ideas that align with your goals and messaging. Look at what others are doing and create something better and more informative. Create a content calendar to ensure you release the videos regularly.
- Create, produce, and optimize. Use a professional video team or do it yourself on software such as Adobe Premier, CyberLink PowerDirector, and more. Create engaging videos that are visually appealing before optimizing for search engines and social media. Add relevant hashtags, captions, and transcripts, and make sure they’re shareable!
- Analyse and track. Track the performance of each video and adjust your strategy according to the results.
Conclusion
Although you have an old-school business, your marketing doesn’t need to be old school too! Whether it’s influencer marketing, email marketing, or social media marketing, updating your strategy can help you gain brand awareness, new leads, and more sales.