Like most companies using social media, Cisco knew they were benefiting from it, but couldn?t put a dollar sign on how much. That?s when they decided to launch a product solely on social media. The outcome would prove how much social media was boosting their bottom line.
Effective marketing strategies can save you a lot of money by focusing your efforts on those most interested in your product. This article will show you how to get the most out of your marketing budget. Here are the most effective strategies for marketing.
1. Hubs and Spokes
A hub is any kind of digital offering, such as an ebook, how to, or buyer comparison guide you give out in return for an email. This isn?t the same hub some websites refer to when they mean their blog. It?s what all your additional marketing material for the next several months will lead back to.
So for example, software companies could offer a free trial of their new program. This would be their hub. For the next few months, they would publish additional content in the form of blogs, webinars, and infographics that have a call to action leading back to the hub. These are the spokes.
It?s best to treat each hub as an individual product launch. This will keep the spokes focused on one particular hub instead of confusing prospective buyers by leading to several offers. Your hub is the chocolate factory and its spokes are the golden tickets attracting current and potential customers alike to your product.
2. Explainer Videos
Explainer videos are cheap to produce and engage your audience with solutions to their problems. Including a video on your landing page, which counts as one of your spokes, increases conversion by up to 80%.
That?s almost double the conversions just by adding a video to one of your spokes. If your prospects are still further out in your sales funnel, get them to open an email from you with a video. Having the word video in the subject of your email increases open rates by up to 19%.
3. Organize Scattered Research
New tech companies can still benefit from marketing technology even with a limited budget. Often studies pertaining to your customers may get some publicity when released but lose momentum fast.
Organizing the results of several studies that answer your readers? questions can be a low-cost way to add high-value content to your campaign.
4. Team up with Businesses That Share Your Values
The best tech companies team up with other services and products their customers are using. Cloud service provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) and popular virtualization software maker VMWare launched their first hybrid product in late 2017.
It?s been so successful for both sides that VMWare now offers a professional certificate for the hybrid product. Partnering with similar businesses, but not direct competitors solves many of the problems your users may have with compatibility.
5. Host a Class
This is one of the most effective marketing strategies for new tech that relies on teaching customers how to use their product. Most community bulletins don?t allow business advertisements but educational events are welcome almost anywhere.
Types of marketing strategies that give nuggets of useful information away for free are often the most successful. Providing educational content is a good way to teach customers if you can?t provide a full class. To see a great example of educational content in action, learn more information here.
6. Hiring Outside PR Help
While some business owners think hiring a public relations (PR) firm is out of their budget, agencies vary a lot in size. Even if you?re a startup looking to spend less than $1000 a month you can find a freelance PR agent willing to work within your budget.
Hiring outside help allows you and your employees to continue working on business operations while someone else devotes a full-time effort to get your name in front of people. A good PR campaign can set off your business like a caffeinated cheetah on a rocket ship. If it worked for Airbnb, it can work for you.
7. Email Marketing
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to stay in touch with customers is with email lists. A good email marketing strategy should include:
- Thank you emails for past purchases
- Discounts and referral offers
- Instructional videos
- Infographics
- News relevant to your industry
Emails are one of the best spots for a call to action. Someone on your email list is already interested enough in what you have to offer to give you their contact information. Continue to build this relationship with relevant content and offers.
8. Use Linkedin
Not only does Linkedin have a high number of tech professionals on its platform, but half of all buyers of business-to-business (B2B) services and products also use it as well. Out of those buyers, 76% use recommendations from their Linkedin network to make buying decisions.
Linkedin is great when you want to make a personal connection with someone at another business. You can share your press releases and popular content from your website with prospective clients.
9. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The term SEO gets thrown around a lot, but what is it really? The great thing about working SEO into your strategy is that it?s a low-cost way to get a lot more eyeballs on your hub and spokes.
Even with paid advertising taking up more and more of the market share, a good SEO strategy can still rank you high in organic listings. Experiment with aspects of your site like its title metadata.
Title metadata tells a search engine what your website is about and what kinds of keywords it will contain. You can get higher search engine rankings just by adjusting your title metadata to be more descriptive of your content.
Successful Marketing Strategies Costs Less Than You Think
Cisco executives were floored when the results of their social media marketing strategy came in. Not only was the launch of their new router one of Cisco?s top five most successful product launches of all time, but it also cost over $100,000 less than their previous marketing campaigns.
This article has shown you how effective marketing strategies can work with any budget. You don?t have to try everything on this list at once to see results. Pick two or three to focus your resources on. Start learning more about strategies like SEO by reading this article now.
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