10 TIPS TO BECOMING A GREATER MARKETER

1) Always Take Time to Learn

Online marketing is constantly evolving. And, it’s no longer enough to know high- level marketing concepts. Luckily for all of us, there are tons of great resources online to keep on top of online marketing strategies but more importantly, how to execute and analyze strategies. Here are some of our favourites:

GreaterMarketing.com/blog (Since you are already here!)

The goal of the Greater Blog is to share marketing tips, information on technologies, strategies we are implementing with clients, tests we are running, and other practical examples that will help you advance your business online.

Neil Patel.com/blog

Neil is the master of online marketing. Just when you think you know a lot, another post from Neil Patel will catch your eye and he will teach you something valuable that you can implement right away.

DigitalMarketer.com/blog

The DigitalMarketer team are true digital marketing experts. They teach what you should be doing, but also step by step how you can put concepts into action. Even the most experienced marketers will get value from DM’s blog, training and certifications.

2) Know Your Business

This seems obvious, but we are constantly surprised at the lack of knowledge and attention some business owners have for the details of their business. You must know and understand EVERY detail:

Every product or service name
The market, price, and sale price of every product or service
Buyer demographics
How have you sold your product or service online before? What worked? What didn’t?
What channels have you tried? What channels haven’t your tried?

3) Build a Marketing Foundation

With so many marketing opportunities and recommended strategies that could potentially work for your business, it is SO easy to get caught up in “the fancy stuff.” Check out our post on Building a Foundation For Your Marketing Program.

4) Understand The Funnel

We recommend following our blog to learn more details on implementing your funnel and the goals and KPIs associated with each stage, but for the purpose of this post, we want to introduce you to the 3 stages of the funnel:

Top of the funnel – How does your audience become aware or your product or service?

Middle of the funnel – This is when your audience is considering your product or service.

Bottom of the funnel – This is where we convert them to a customer.

To learn more about each stage of the funnel, check out 3 Important Funnel Marketing Basics To Grow Your Business to learn more.

5) Let The Data Make Decisions For You

It is VERY easy in marketing (especially as creative people) to get caught up in what we think looks the best or will work the best based on what we have seen. All decisions must be data driven! Utilizing the following tools will help you capture meaningful data to make online marketing decisions:

Google Analytics
Hubspot
Optimizely
Unbounce
CrazyEgg
TruConversion
And more!

6) Be Human

No matter what business you are in, you are most likely marketing to humans. Yes, we even promote human marketing for B2B brands because there will always be a person on the other end who will be making the decision to buy from you. Here are some tips to make your marketing seem human:

Tell your brand story
Have your internal team (subject matter experts) write your content
Know your audience
Be friendly and fun
Read it out loud
Use simple words

7) Test Everything

You won’t know what works until you test. Testing and optimization is a key part of digital marketing that will allow your brand to continuously make improvements.

Website/Landing Page Layout
Website/Landing Page Headlines and Content
Call To Actions
Colours
Content Offers & Lead Magnets
Images
Brand Tone
Email Content/Messaging
Email Subject Lines
Email Templates
Blog Titles

8) Use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

The better you know your customer, the easier it will be to maintain and grow your relationship with them. Using a CRM will help you manage your customer lifecycle, improve retention, and help you generate more revenue from each customer. It is important to choose a CRM that also integrates with other platforms you are using for ecommerce, bookings, customer service, email marketing, etc. so you can store your data on each customer all in one place. Here are a few of the top CRMs we recommend checking out:

Hubspot CRM
Salesforce
Zaius
Pipedrive
Zoho

9) Make Sure You Have A Blog

If you have a live and operating website, you are most likely looking for your company to be found online and/or promoting your website to potential buyers to learn more about your company. No matter what industry you are in, we recommend incorporating a blog into your website. A blog builds confidence, authority, and sales. If you are able to share relevant information and answer questions that your customers may have through your blog, it will build trust and authority when they are considering making a purchase from you.

Additionally, blog content will help your website be better optimized and found by search engines (SEO). Google determines how it will rank your site for different topics based on your website content. If your blog highlights content related to your business, you have a better chance of ranking higher when your product or service is being searched.

10) Email Marketing

Email marketing is a very effective in helping you stay connected with your audience. It allows you to keep customers informed, while delivering ongoing promotions to help convert your audience into buyers. Many ESPs also allow you to create advanced segments to target your recipients with personalized subject lines, content, offers/promotions, and more. If you aren’t currently running an email program, here are some simple ways to start acquiring email subscribers:

Timed Website Pop-Up– Add a timed pop up form to your website asking web traffic to subscribe to your email list. This is often in exchange for a small offer or discount.
Offer a Lead Magnet- A lead magnet is an incentive that you offer a buyer in exchange for their email address. Lead magnets offer value and are often educational – tips & tricks, guides, e-books, webinars. Lead magnets can be offered in pop-up forms, on their own dedicated landing pages, or throughout your site or blog via a Call To Action to download.
Contests/Promotions- Entry into a contest is a great way to incentivize your audience to share their email.

Check out our post on “Email Marketing Automation To Maximize Your Revenue” to learn more about ways you can automate your email marketing to revenue from email.