Over 50% of marketers say about half or more of their budget is dedicated to lead generation. Meanwhile, nearly 93% of buying processes start with an online search. Unfortunately, 96% of the people who visit your website aren’t ready to make a purchase.

Without a strong marketing idea, you could struggle to generate traffic to your website in the first place. You’ll need a strong plan to convert those visitors into leads and sales, too.

Here are five tips that can help improve your marketing strategy. With these tips, you can generate brand awareness, website traffic, and leads. Then, you can start boosting sales to improve your ROI.

Don’t let your business fall behind the competition this year. Instead, discover how to reach your customers online. Start improving your marketing idea with these tips today! 

1. Audience Research

Before you start marketing, it’s important to learn as much as you can about your target audience. Researching your customers will help you appeal to their needs and interests. If your content doesn’t appeal to their needs, they could turn away.

Learn more about your customers based on demographic and psychographic data. For example, you can determine their:

  • Location
  • Household income
  • Marital status
  • Pain points
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Language
  • Education
  • Interests
  • Career
  • Hobbies

If you’re trying to reach a broad audience, segment them into smaller groups. 

Once you determine who your customers are, gather keyword research. What words and phrases do they use to find your business online? You can use your keyword research to build an effective marketing idea.

Use marketing tools like SEMRush, Google Trends, Keyword Planner, and Answer the Public to build a list of keywords. Focus on keywords with a high search volume. Try to find longtail keywords, too. 

2. Unique Branding

Your brand will help you stand out from other businesses within your niche. Without a strong brand, your marketing ideas might not prove effective. You could struggle to demonstrate your unique value proposition, too.

Determine what you can offer customers that no one else can. Consider what your customers value above all else, too.

Shared values account for 64% of brand relationships. You can connect with customers on an emotional level to draw them to your business.

Make sure you keep your branding consistent with every marketing idea you develop. After all, 59% of people prefer shopping from familiar brands. If your branding is inconsistent, you won’t build brand awareness or recognition.

If you’re looking to create a unique brand for your company, consider hiring a PR agency. PR agencies can help you develop and execute a marketing strategy that will help your business stand out from the competition. They can also help you create and manage collateral such as website content, social media campaigns, and advertising materials.

3. Website Design and Development

Once you update your branding, consider updating your website, too. Otherwise, a slow, old website might scare away visitors. You might struggle to generate leads and sales as a result.

First, make sure your website is fast and mobile-optimized. You can run your site through Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Mobile-Friendly Test to check.

Then, consider Google’s Core Web Vitals. Appealing to the Core Web Vitals will ensure a positive user experience (UX). A positive UX will encourage people to explore your website and content.

Your clickthrough rates and dwell times will rise as a result. Improving these metrics can strengthen your search engine rankings. 

As you update your website, consider your:

  • Hosting
  • Page load times
  • Security
  • Negative space
  • Hierarchy
  • Readability
  • Responsiveness

Give visitors more than one way to convert on the page, too.

First, make sure your forms are short and quick to fill out. If the forms are complicated, you could miss a chance to generate conversions.

Consider adding a chatbot, too. Chatbots can answer frequently asked questions. Visitors will have an easier time finding what they’re looking for.

As you develop your marketing strategy, consider scheduling an annual website audit. Regular audits can help you catch problems before they impact your business.

For example, you might have broken links on your website. Broken links could cause visitors to leave feeling frustrated. If a negative UX frustrates your visitors, they might not return.

You could struggle to make the most of your marketing ideas if that’s the case. 

4. Content Creation and SEO

About 90% of marketers use content marketing to generate inbound leads. In fact, content marketing can generate three times more leads than traditional strategies. Businesses that blog generate 126% more traffic than those that don’t, too.

Creating content for your blog can help consumers learn more about your business. The more they learn, the more comfortable they’ll become. They can read your content to recognize your experience and expertise, too.

Demonstrating your EAT (expertise, authority, trustworthiness) within your content can help you generate brand trust. Consumers might decide to try your business for the first time. Then, you can generate fresh leads and sales.

In fact, over 60% of customers make purchases after reading recommendations on a blog. 

In time, the brand trust you generate through content marketing can become loyalty. You can retain long-term customer relationships to generate repeat sales. Your ROI will improve as a result. 

As you develop your marketing idea, consider incorporating different forms of content. For example, you can create:

  • Blog posts/articles
  • eBooks
  • Polls
  • Quizzes
  • Webinars
  • Videos
  • Infographics

Nearly 80% of content marketers include press releases as part of their content marketing strategy, too. 

Are you asking yourself “Do I need to write press releases?” The answer is likely yes! Press releases are a great way to generate brand awareness.

You can also leverage the brand trust readers already have with a publication. Consumers might feel inclined to trust your business as a result. You can also use press releases to generate more traffic to your website.

If you’re asking yourself, “what is a press release, exactly,” consider working with an experienced agency. They can help you create newsworthy press releases.

Search Engine Optimization

Once you start creating content for your blog, it’s important to optimize your content for search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) can help your content rank higher on Bing and Google. As your rankings improve, you can:

  • Increase brand visibility
  • Generate brand awareness and recognition
  • Generate more website traffic
  • Demonstrate your experience and expertise
  • Position yourself as an industry thought leader
  • Boost brand trust and loyalty
  • Gain credibility
  • Boost leads, sales, and conversions
  • Improve your ROI

In fact, nearly 70% of online interactions start with a search engine. About 53% of all web traffic starts with a search. SEO can even drive 1,000% more traffic than organic social media.

The leads you generate from SEO have a 14.6% close rate, too.

First, use the audience and keyword research you gathered. Look for longtail keywords (made up of four or more words). Longtail keywords are more precise.

Use your keyword research to cover specific topics through content marketing. When someone searches for that keyword, your content could appear.

As you start creating press releases for distribution, make sure to optimize your releases for SEO, too. More consumers will find your press releases online. Your credibility will rise, too.

Using content marketing and SEO can ensure your marketing idea helps you generate website traffic and leads. Without SEO, however, consumers might struggle to find you online.

Make sure you continue creating high-quality, unique content throughout the year. As part of your SEO strategy, make sure to generate backlinks, too.

Backlinks send readers on one website to your site content. Backlinks can boost your SEO rankings.

Otherwise, keep track of the latest SEO trends to continue improving your marketing strategy. 

5. Social Media Marketing

As part of your marketing strategy, it’s also important to keep informing and engaging your target audience. Consider adding social media to your plans this year. Social media marketing can help you connect with your target audience.

First, make sure you’re using the right platforms. Use your audience research to determine where your audience is most active online.

Then, start sharing your blog content on social media. Consider reformatting your posts so they’re easier to consume.

For example, you can reformat a long blog post as an eye-catching infographic or video clip.

As you share your content online, make sure to direct your followers back to your website to learn more.

Keep up with the latest social media marketing trends, too. For example, video content is becoming more popular. Use polls and quizzes in your Instagram Stories to generate engagement, too.

Otherwise, consider working with an influencer this year.

Influencers already have a strong following online. You can leverage their brand trust to build your own following. Ask an influencer to promote your product or service.

Their recommendation could help you draw more customers to your business. You might have an easier time generating social media followers. Meanwhile, consumers might feel more inclined to trust your brand.

As you use these marketing ideas, make sure to review the data from your efforts. Determine which strategies are working to accomplish your goals. Make sure to track your key performance indicators along the way.

Set for Success: 5 Tips and Tricks for an Effective Marketing Idea

Developing a strong marketing idea can set your business up for lasting success. Use these five tips to get started. With the right marketing strategy and tools, you can boost your business with ease.

Get ahead of the competition this year with these useful tips today!

Searching for more helpful tips? You’re in the right place.

Check out our latest guides for more useful advice. 

Avatar

By SARAH