You've no doubt heard the old saying before that "if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll never get different results." The truth is that most businesses that are in startup and even survival mode execute their marketing strategies differently than those in growth mode, and with good reason.
Startups need to lean into those few strategies that are working and do them exceptionally well, rather than trying a lot of different things in the hopes that something will "hit." At that phase, the budget for the "kitchen sink" approach just isn't there.
When you're in growth mode, however, the rules change.
At that point, you have a bigger budget to work with. You've also clarified your brand and your position in the marketplace. You're already established - now you're trying to own the market. That opens the door for a variety of next-level marketing strategies that you didn't have the funds (or the time) necessary to capitalize on before.
What follows is a list of ten tactics that we've seen first-hand be successful for established businesses in growth mode. Not only can they keep you on the right path, but they can help take you places you never thought you'd be able to go as well.
SEM is an acronym that stands for "search engine marketing." It refers to a paid search strategy that can help you rank higher in the results on sites like Google. Since the vast majority of people will encounter your brand for the first time through a search engine, it's easy to see why this is a good idea.
PPC stands for "pay per click," which refers to a strategy where you only pay for an ad when someone actually clicks on it.
Inbound content marketing - like writing guest articles or starting a blog - is a great way to leverage your website's online content to your advantage. Not only does it get your business' message in front of the widest audience, but it helps make sure these pieces are read in a way that establishes you as an authority, too.
Influencer marketing is when you use the power of someone else's audience to your advantage. You get an individual with a devoted following (who has enough influence to impact those people's purchasing decisions) to talk about and show off your products and services.
Video marketing is a terrific way to promote and market your product or service via a format that people love. It's also a perfect chance to communicate with your audience, to increase engagement online through your website and social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and more. It can even help you build and strengthen your brand by showing off your business's personality and it can help educate customers about who you are and what you're all about at the exact same time.
The power of email marketing in particular rests in the quality of the relationships it helps you forge. It provides a consistent, easy channel for communication with your customers about virtually any topic. Whether you're launching a new product or you just want to remind people that you're out there, email marketing is a cost-effective and great way to do it because you can virtually guarantee that they're checking their inboxes every single day.
SEO is an acronym that stands for "search engine optimization," which is yet another way to make sure that your website is ranking as highly as possible on engines like Google. Here, you're using various strategies to organically draw new visitors to your website - meaning that you're making changes to your page and other content as opposed to paying outright for that visibility and those clicks.
Even though we're living in a decidedly digital-driven world, traditional marketing still brings with it a number of unbeatable opportunities. Radio ads, magazine ads, and others are still quite effective and they have a long history of driving advertising results that few other techniques can really match.
Where else can you find a marketing channel that has the potential to connect you with billions of people around the world in just a few quick clicks? Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even LinkedIn all fall under that umbrella of social media marketing - and you can sign up for every last one of them for free.
Now, the chances are slim that there are actually billions of people around the world who will become your ideal customer, but that's okay. These platforms allow users to build their own social networks that they share information with. In addition to helping you build your brand, you can also get people to talk about it and share your content in a way that exposes you to new potential customers. This can build trust, increase sales and drive website traffic - all in one fell swoop.
Digital marketing is somewhat of a "catch-all" term that describes a variety of different online advertising methods, all of which have to do with digital targeting. Programmatic advertising is one example of this idea in action, for example. Have you ever looked at a product page on a company's website and then navigated away, then were almost immediately greeted by an ad for that very same product? That's an example of programmatic advertising (and digital marketing) in action and rest assured they are very effective.
Finally, we arrive at the concept of Connected TV or CTV for short. This is a type of tech that allows users to stream video through their own Internet connection. They can do this via a smart TV, as well as through popular streaming devices like Apple TV and Roku. Connected TV lets you reach an entirely new target audience who may not have traditional cable television at all.
One of the most essential things to remember about all of this is that not all growth mode marketing strategies will work for every business. Don't assume you'll be using all of the aforementioned methods. Instead, you need to find the ones that fit in with your strategy and goals. You need to leverage those techniques that will take your company in particular to soaring new heights, rather than looking for some kind of "one size fits all" solution that doesn't really exist in the first place.