Marketing is always evolving, and what works today might not work tomorrow. So it's important to stay ahead of the curve and keep your marketing strategy up-to-date. If you're looking for some inspiration, here are seven effective marketing strategies for the rest of 2022 and into 2023.
Utilizing a market strategy that's in line with current trends is essential for any business that wants to stay relevant and top of mind for consumers. This article will explore seven effective marketing strategies you can use in the coming year to stay ahead of the competition.
What is a Marketing Strategy & Why is it Important for Your eCommerce Business?
The goal of a marketing strategy is to raise awareness of the company's products or services, generate leads and sales, and build brand equity. To achieve these objectives, businesses must create and implement a plan that includes various marketing activities.
A marketing strategy is a company's game plan for reaching prospective customers and turning them into buyers. It incorporates the company's marketing goals, policies, and actions into a cohesive plan.
For eCommerce businesses, a well-crafted marketing strategy is especially important to help to level the playing field against larger, more established businesses. By using an effective marketing strategy as a whole, eCommerce businesses can reach new customers and grow their sales even with larger competition looming overhead.
1. The Bell Curve
The bell curve refers to momentum. The momentum needed when starting a new business is often greater than what's required to keep it going. The same can be said for marketing campaigns.
The initial push to get people interested in your product or service is always the hardest, but once you start gaining traction, it becomes easier and easier to continue growing. The sweet spot comes in at the top of the bell curve when your marketing efforts yield the highest results.
This is why it's so important to start strong and put all of your efforts into those first few weeks or months. Once you've built up some momentum, you can then focus on maintaining it. That being said, there's always more you can do when it comes to marketing; more content, more traction, and more conversions. The rule of thumb with the Bell Curve strategy is to do more, keep your momentum going, and get to the sweet spot.
2. The Rule of 7
The rule of 7 is a simple concept: people need to see your marketing message seven times before they take action. Seven engagements with your brand before they make a purchase, sign up for your newsletter, or download your app.
This could be seven times in one day, or seven times over the course of a week, month, or year. The important thing is to make sure your message is being seen by the same people multiple times so that they have a chance to remember it and take action. If your product is more expensive, the rule of 7 could become the rule of 14, but seven engagements may not be necessary if it is less expensive.
There are a few different ways to go about this. You can run ads, post on social media, send
emails, or even host events. The key is being consistent and ensuring your target audience
sees your message multiple times.
3. The Mere Exposure Effect
The Mere Exposure Effect is a psychological phenomenon where the idea that people are more likely to like something if they'e familiar with it. That's why many brands use repetition in their marketing campaigns. The more people see your brand, the more likely they will remember it and eventually make a purchase.
With the Mere Exposure Effect, repeated exposure will lead to trust. Snowballing on the rule of 7, if people see your brand enough times, they'll start to trust it and feel more comfortable making a purchase. Using momentum to get to the sweet spot in the bell curve will lead to consistency and repetition, utilizing the Mere Exposure Effect to gain even more sales and conversions.
4. Go Deep, Not Broad
When it comes to marketing, it's important to focus on quality over quantity. You can have a
million followers on social media, but if they're not engaged with your content, it won't do you any good. It's better to have a smaller group of engaged followers than a large group of people who don't care about your brand.
The same can be said for email lists. It's better to have a smaller list of people who actually want to receive your emails than a large list of people who will just delete them without reading them. Determining your target market and then catering your content to them is the best way to create quality engagement. Look at yourself and your business for what it is and who it's for, then create content that will resonate with that target market.
5. Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA)
ICA or Ideal Customer Avatars are a tool used by businesses to help them zero in on their target market. By creating an avatar of your ideal customer, you can then create content and marketing strategies that are specifically tailored to them. This typically breaks down into three categories:
● Demographic - This includes things like age, gender, income, occupation
● Geographic - Location, climate, city size
● Psychographic - Interests, values, lifestyle, beliefs, political affiliation
By understanding who your ideal customer is and what they're looking for, you can create content that will speak to them directly. This will help you increase engagement and conversions by making sure your target market is seeing content that they actually care about.
Having multiple ICAs can be helpful as well. This allows you to create different content for different segments of your target market. For example, if you're selling a product that could be used by both men and women, you would want to create separate content for each gender. The same goes for age groups, income levels, etc. By understanding the differences between your ideal customers, you can create content that will resonate with them on a personal level.
6. Miracles and Miseries
Further understanding your ICA will segue into understanding their "miracles and miseries."
Miracles are their needs, wants, interests, and desires. Miseries are their pains, problems, and challenges.
Your mission is to move your ideal customer from miseries to miracles. This means taking them from a place of pain and frustration to a place of satisfaction and joy. By understanding what their miseries are, you can create content and marketing strategies that will help them overcome those challenges. This will increase engagement and conversions by showing that you're a business that cares about its customers and wants to help them succeed.
7. Benefits vs. Features
The benefits vs. features strategy involves injecting value into your content by highlighting the benefits of your product or service instead of just listing the features. For example, if you're selling a new type of toothbrush, listing the features (battery-operated, four different brushing modes, etc.) isn't going to do much to sell the product. But if you highlight the benefits (whiter teeth, healthier gums, etc.), you're more likely to get people interested in the product.
This is important because people don't care about the features of your product; they care about how those features will benefit them. Benefits are emotionally driven, whereas features are logically driven. As humans, we intrinsically buy based on emotion and then justify our purchase with logic.
By focusing on benefits instead of features, you can connect with your target market on an
emotional level and increase engagement and conversions. When creating content, always ask yourself, "What's in it for them?" and make sure the answer is clear.
If you do not see conversions, consider your ICA, their miseries, and miracles, and try reversing this strategy. If your ideal customer is more logical, they may respond more to features than benefits.
Final Thoughts
No matter what strategy you use, if the content isn't valuable, it's not going to convert. Take the time to understand your ideal customer and what they're looking for, and then create content that will address their needs. Forming your strategy with these points in mind will help you create content that will actually drive results.
When it comes to marketing, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. What works for one business may not work for another. Schedule a call with us today to find out more about what may work for you. We'll help you create a personalized marketing strategy that will help you reach your goals and grow your eCommerce business.
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