Rethinking your Marketing and Outreach in 2019

What are the key requirements for your business to take off with success? Of course you need a product or service that sells, a gap in the market ideally, but your ideal customers can’t buy your product if they don’t know that it’s out there. Effective marketing is at the heart of every successful business, reaching out to leads that matter, and ensuring the right people hear about the thing they absolutely can’t miss out on! The importance of ingenious, up to date marketing is obvious, so here are some ideas for staying ahead in the coming year.

Paid vs Organic Marketing

While not every business will require or have the budget for paid marketing, particularly when it comes to small and start up businesses, organic marketing is a tool that simply cannot be ignored. Organic marketing strategies won’t bring you business in numbers over night, rather it will build you steady and reliable custom over time.

Organic marketing eliminates the sketchy sales pitch in your campaign, instead bringing customers to you through the content you output in an authentic manner, generating trust right from the start. The phrase quality over quantity can apply to your customers too. A returning customer with whom you have a good rapport is far more valuable than reaching larger numbers of leads that go nowhere.

Get your Message Remembered

While targeting the right people is a significant step in marketing, holding their attention is what matters most. In such a fast-paced world where most content is now viewed on mobile devices, it seems that people’s attention spans are getting shorter. How can you get around this? The answer is video marketing.

Research shows that not only do people prefer to view video than read text, they also retain more of the information that they’ve viewed. By using a video brochure product, people are almost 50% more likely to seek further information about your product and your message is up to 10 times more likely to be remembered.

Get Personal

Building relationships with your customers is such a crucial step that you can’t afford to skip. Listening to your customers and acting on their needs generates trust and satisfaction, which means not only will they return, but they’ll probably spread the word, too. The majority of consumers check reviews before making a buying decision, therefore positive reviews and effective complaint management are crucial for your business.

Take a look at IKEA, the Swedish furniture company. Customers responded in uproar when one season, they changed the font in their catalog. IKEA could have stuck with their decision and ignored such minor complaints, but instead they switched it back in the next catalog, valuing the desires of their customers.

There are many other ways to make a lasting impression or boost an existing relationship through getting personal with your customers. The use of Social Media Stories is an increasingly popular way to connect with your audience. Limited time availability sneak peaks into the runnings of your business, or daily life of your team are very enticing and help your audience to learn more about you, creating an ever stronger bond.

Focus on these ideas in 2019 to keep on top of the marketing game.

Charlotte Giver

Charlotte is the founder and editor-in-chief at Your Coffee Break magazine. She studied English Literature at Fairfield University in Connecticut whilst taking evening classes in journalism at MediaBistro in NYC. She then pursued a BA degree in Public Relations at Bournemouth University in the UK. With a background working in the PR industry in Los Angeles, Barcelona and London, Charlotte then moved on to launching Your Coffee Break from the YCB HQ in London’s Covent Garden and has been running the online magazine for the past 10 years. She is a mother, an avid reader, runner and puts a bit too much effort into perfecting her morning brew.