The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” I like to think of marketing as a combination of strategic initiatives an organization leverages to showcase its brand to target audiences. Either way you look at it, marketing activities are critical for any size of business or non-profit entity to strategically share its story.
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
-The American Marketing Association
Marketing is a key component of any business’s operations, yet it can be simple, cost-effective, and easily achieved for even small businesses. Marketing is all about the mix—the right grouping of both digital and traditional communication activities—that is unique to every organization.
Mix It Up
Turning attention to digital marketing, think about the following statistics:
• We now spend more time on social media than in our email inboxes. (Source: WSJ)
• Instagram is the overall engagement winner. Engagement with brands on Instagram is ten times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter. (Source: Trackmaven + Social Pilot)
• Facebook has over 8 billion video views each day. (Source: TechCrunch) A Facebook executive has also predicted that video will continue to comprise a larger percentage of content each year.
Current marketing trends point to a 100% digital strategy. Yet direct mail response rates are at the highest they’ve ever been at 5.1%. (Source: Capterra) I’m also a big fan of the well-positioned one-pager as a leave-behind or an incredibly designed postcard. The moral of the story: businesses must have a comprehensive approach to share their brand message across multiple channels. So where do we start?
The Value of a Clear Value Proposition
A good place to start is detailing what your organization can do better than anybody else: your value proposition. This will feed messaging, future content strategy, and any available communication channels moving forward, including website, email communications, print marketing, social media, public relations, video, broadcast advertising, billboard, and on and on. The point is, if an organization hasn’t taken the time to define its brand and properly communicate its value proposition, marketing tactics will not be as solid and based on the key principle.
Once an organization knows its value proposition, the right mix of initiatives based upon target audience, time, and budget can be determined. Is the company a small business targeting local consumers? One might consider a mix of direct mail within a certain zip code and geofencing (i.e., placing digital ads around a local hangout or store), as well as a robust client testimonial collection process. Is the business offering services to other businesses? Perhaps a grouping of networking and community involvement paired with a social media campaign targeting other small businesses is in the cards.
Strategic storytelling should be at the center of any great marketing strategy, and the right marketing mix is unique to every organization. The good news? With a focus on what you’re offering your clients to make their lives easier, better, or more enjoyable is a message people want to hear. The sweet spot is the intersection of great messaging in the appropriate channels…which is the fun part!
This post was originally written by Shan Bates-Bundick for The Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Business Voice magazine in October 2019. Click here to view the original article.