Which Forms of Marketing Are Most Effective

Social Media, Direct Mail, Blog, Articles…

How to choose

There are so many ways you can promote your business and you only have 24 hours in a day and a limited budget so what is the most effective?  This is what I am going to encourage you to find out.

Most business have the following options:

  • Direct Mail

  • Networking

  • Cold Calls

  • Social Media ads

  • Social Media organic

  • Blogs

  • e-Newsletters

  • Articles

  • In-person talks

  • Podcasts

  • You Tube Video

  • Live Video like FB Live or IGTV

  • Video posted to your social media

  • Magazine or newspaper ads

  • TV commercials

  • Speaking engagements

  • Point of Sale Displays

  • Online ads

Process of Figuring out Which Forms of Advertising will have the Best Impact

1.       Know your customer.  In a previous blog I spoke about the importance of learning all you can about your customers and potential customers so that at this point you know what their needs, pain points, goals, motivations and buying behavior looks like.  You can put yourself in your buyer’s shoes.  If you know your customer well, you will know which of these they read, watch, or use.  This should allow you to narrow down your focus a bit.

Example:  If you are a real estate broker focusing on 1st time home buyers you might assume that they use digital media more than anything else.  Whereas if you are focusing on people retiring and selling their homes you would want to focus on print and direct mail.

2.       People generally buy from people they know, like and trust.  It is much easier to put together a bunch of ads and wait for the phone to ring. However, your in-person network is your key to success.  You may do this through video ads, YouTube, FB Live or networking events. People want to know who they are buying from.  This is your differentiator as a small business as well.  Example: If you have a bakery in town, you will want to make connections with the local chamber of commerce, influential people, and anyone who can provide 10 referrals. If you are a travel consultant, you need to call all the people you know to check in so that when they are thinking of traveling, they will think of you.

3.       What do you have the manpower for? Do you have a team to help you out or are you doing everything yourself from servicing the clients to running the business including sales and marketing? Things like social media, blogs, video and so forth take constant commitment. Other things like direct mail and ads you can do less frequently and set them to go for a while.

4.       How does your target make a buying decision?  Do you have a product that is an impulse purchase and you need to be top of mind all the time or is the buying process a long journey?  A cup of coffee is not a big investment, but customers may not be loyal, so you need to be top of mind or offer daily promotions.  On the other hand, choosing a tax attorney is usually a longer process with more considerations to make.  The longer the buying process, the more information the customer may need to make a final decision or buy.  If you have a long buying process you may want to consider a blog, video, or something where you can answer questions the customer might have.

5.       What is your budget?  If you have a lot of money to dedicate to marketing you might consider TV, but most of you probably do not have that kind of money.  The cheaper options are networking, cold calling, social media organic, newsletters, and blogs. 

Now that you have considered all of these, it is time to test.  Over the next few weeks or months choose 2 of these and see which garners the best results and keep testing.  Doing 2 at a time is the easiest and you can test further by tweaking content, design, timing, and other factors.  However, to start choosing the type of marketing you enjoy and will make the biggest impact on your audience. Allow enough time and test a variety of designs and content to determine which are best before eliminating and moving on. Get an Excel Spreadsheet and record your results over the next few months. Don’t forget to consider the ROI as well. If Facebook ads get better results than email consider the costs as well. High profit items like a house can afford more upfront expenses more than those with little margin.

If you need any help with this or any other marketing strategy questions, please feel free to email me at Liz@KohlerMarketing.com

Growing Your Small Business Smartly

Lizabeth Kohler