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What Is Marketing? 10 Ways To Make Marketing Easier

Posted by Gary Henderson on Apr 16, 2023 5:27:55 PM

Marketing is hard.

It's hard to advertise, create, promote, and market yourself all at the same time. It's hard to get up every single day and create something new.

But it doesn't have to be.

Marketing shouldn't be hard, and it shouldn't take you dozens of hours every week to get zero to very few leads. 

The goal of this blog post is to make marketing easy for you. Check out this list of proven ways and my top ten tips to simplify your marketing.

Let's dive in!

Here are my top 10 ways to make marketing easier: 

  1. Identify your ideal customer

  2. Leverage the power of storytelling

  3. Use social media to build relationships

  4. Prioriize email marketing

  5. Offer high-quality content

  6. Utilize SEO (search engine optimization)

  7. Run limited time promotions

  8. Test and measure everything

  9. Collaborate with influencers and industry experts

  10. Implement a referral program

Before we dive into the ten ways to make your marketing easier, let's quickly review what marketing is and why marketing is important in the first place. 

What Is Marketing? Why Is Marketing Important?

how to create a marketing strategy for your instagram business

There are many definitions of the term marketing.

Marketing is influencing a person or business to take action and/or the process of distributing, promoting, or selling any product or service. 

The secret to marketing is to do good work and share it with people. 

Common examples of marketing include billboards on the side of the road, social media advertising like short video ads commonly seen on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, radio ads, flyers, brochure or magazine advertisements, and TV commercials. 

There are many different types of marketing, such as:

22 Types of Marketing:

  1. Traditional marketing: billboards, flyers, and radio spots

  2. Affiliate marketing: 

  3. Brand marketing

  4. Buzz marketing

  5. Content marketing

  6. Conversational marketing

  7. Digital Marketing 

  8. Social media marketing

  9. Email marketing

  10. Inbound marketing: 

  11. Influencer marketing

  12. Native marketing

  13. Partner marketing: "co-marketing"

  14. Personalized marketing 

  15. Product Marketing

  16. Relationship marketing

  17. Search engine marketing or SEO marketing

  18. Outbound marketing: cold calling, email blasts, print ads

  19. Video Marketing

  20. Voice marketing

  21. User-generated marketing

  22. Word-of-mouth marketing

Most businesses and companies use a marketing mix of these strategies that connects and resonates with their desired target audience to generate leads and acquire customers.

But, the goal is to show the right message to the right person at the right time with the right expectations. 

Now, let's dive in!

10 ways to make marketing easier

10 Ways To Make Marketing Easier

1. Identify Your Ideal Customer

Identifying your audience is the number one way to make your marketing easier.

Identifying your ideal customer(s) for your business or brand is one of the most crucial steps to setting up marketing campaigns and social media marketing strategies. 

Many businesses, coaches, creators, and social media influencers skip this step altogether or struggle to reach and naturally engage their target customers continuously online.

Remember, not everyone is your customer, and you shouldn't try to market to everyone.

Buyer PersonasRelated: How to market to your dream customer

Determining who is NOT your ideal client is an excellent starting point in identifying your target audience or ideal customer.

While defining your ideal client and segmenting your audience, gather as much relevant information as possible to build or shape your customer personas.

Try to be as specific as you can in this process.

How to identify your ideal customer and/or target audience:

  1. Define your product or service: Clearly outline what your product or service offers and the problems it solves to determine who will benefit most from it.

  2. Analyze your current customer base: Review the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your existing customers to identify common characteristics or patterns.

  3. Find where they are active online: What social media platforms are they using? Are they actively using Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube?
  4. Research your competitors: Examine your competitors' target audience and customer base, and identify potential gaps in the market where your business can stand out and easily solve problems. 

  5. Gather relevant demographic information: Age? Race? Occupation? Gender? Education? Hobbies? Interests? Maritial status? Do they have kids?
  6. Consider psychographics: Analyze your target audience's interests, hobbies, values, attitudes, and lifestyle preferences to understand their needs and desires better.

  7. Learn their pain points: Identify your ideal customer's biggest problems or challenges, and explore how your product or service can help these issues. What are their biggest challenges? Their biggest pain points What keeps them up at night?

  8. Analyze online behavior: Use tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, keyword research, and keyword tools like ahrefs to understand the online habits of your target audience, such as popular search terms, websites, and social media platforms.

  9. Determine geographical location: Identify the regions, cities, countries, or neighborhoods where your ideal customers are located, and consider how this might influence their needs and preferences.

Learning about your ideal customers gives you the opportunity to create personalized content and touchpoints that further engage your audience more effectively with your brand, business, and social media content and profiles.

The goal is to have customized pieces of content that speak to people at different stages throughout the buyers' journey.

R3MAT

Again, that's #R3MAT: marketing the right message to the right audience at the right time with the right expectations.

Note: Use our customer avatar worksheet below as a starting point, or draw inspiration from it to create your personalized customer avatar worksheet. Customize this process and customer avatar worksheet to suit your needs and business.

Avatar Worksheet Free download

To learn more about customer avatars and how to identify your buyer personas and target audience, read our other blog: How to Create a Customer Avatar in 5 Simple Steps.

2. Leverage The Power Of Storytelling

How to use storytelling in your webinar

The number two way to make marketing easier is to utilize storytelling. 

Stories are one of the fundamental ways that we learn. We learn by listening to stories. We learn by telling stories. We get entertained by stories. 

If you start incorporating stories into your marketing, social media content, and in your business and practice telling more stories to more people, your marketing will get easier. 

Why? Because buying is an emotional decision

Stories help you connect emotionally and with people on a deeper level.

By incorporating storytelling into your social media strategy, you can create better high-quality content that captivates your audience and makes your business or brand more memorable and relatable.

Using storytelling in your marketing will make marketing easier and more effective, ultimately driving more results for your business.

Beginners Tip: If you are new to social media or are trying to get started on social media with zero followers and don't know which social media platform to build on, research which social media platform(s) your ideal customer and target audience are actively using and start consistently posting high-quality content there or discover a social media platform that you love to use or are most comfortable with and start there. 

If you would like more information on how to grow a following on social media and get more followers check out some of our other blogs and resources below.

3. Use Social Media To Build Relationships

How to pick the right social media network

Now that you have a clear picture of your ideal customer and have practiced telling stories, it's time to tell stories that relate to your target audience on social media. 

So, the next step to making your marketing easier is to utilize popular social media platforms to build relationships with your target audience and ideal clients. 

Did you know approximately 4.89 billion people use social media?

By actively engaging with your audience on popular social media platforms in 2023, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, Clubhouse, and Reddit, you can attract new customers and retain existing ones, deepen relationships, and gain trust and credibility.

Social media platforms also broaden your reach, increasing brand visibility.

Incorporating storytelling when crafting content for your target audience on social media is key to building a loyal following, as it establishes an emotional bond and makes your message more relatable, resulting in a more captivating and memorable brand experience.

You can maximize your reach and impact by leveraging most used social media platforms while creating meaningful connections with your audience.

Ten most popular social media platforms in 2023:

  1. Facebook

  2. Instagram

  3. Twitter

  4. YouTube

  5. LinkedIn
  6. Pinterest

  7. Snapchat

  8. Clubhouse (audio-based social media platform)
  9. Twitch

  10. TikTok

Remember that social media platforms frequently change, and new platforms may emerge over time.

It is essential to stay updated on the latest trends online and on social media to ensure you are using the most effective online platforms to reach your needs and marketing campaign goals.

4.Prioritize Email Marketing (Build an Email List)

Grow your email list to grow your business

Number four is email marketing, a crucial strategy for any business, brand, coach, creator, or influencer.

Email marketing is important because people always receive and check their emails, even if they don't frequently engage with other platforms like social media or apps like Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Clubhouse, or YouTube.

The truth is that social media platforms and apps can come and go, leaving you no way to communicate with your audience, followers, or online community.

When you have a strong email subscriber list, you have your own personal ATM at your fingertips and can make money whenever you want by simply emailing your list and loyal subscribers with offers, whether they are your own or an affiliate partner.

Related: How to get email lists for marketing

So, make growing your email list a priority.

Regardless of where you spend your time online, find a reason for people to join your email list.

If you post videos on YouTube, create a reason for people to subscribe to your email list; if youre on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, create a reason for people to join your email list.

When you connect with someone new, find a way to get them on your email list so you can contact them at any other point and time. 

Once you have a strong email list, you can easily adapt, pivot, and move your audience to new channels like Discord and social media platforms without breaking a sweat. 

Having that direct line of communication through your email list is truly priceless.

5. Offer High-Quality Content 

How to create a content plan

The fifth way to make your marketing easier is to deliver value-packed content that your audience can't resist.

If you want to stand out from the competition, deliver high-quality, informative content at various stages throughout your sales funnel to meet your ideal customers where they are.

But what type of content should you create? What is the best type of content in 2023?

There are many ways to create and publish content online, and no type of choice is wrong as long as you add value, are consistent, and your content and message relates to your ideal audience and customers. 

Some types of content you could create for your business or brand are Clubhouse rooms, live trainings in Discord for your community members, YouTube videos, or a series of Facebook posts, Instagram posts, or Twitter threads. 

Here are the best types of content to create in 2023:

  • A.I. powered content
  • Short form videos like YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels, and Facebook videos

  • User-generated content and influencer content

  • Infographics

  • Behind-the-scenes content and "in the life of" content

  • Contests and giveaways

  • Social media polls like Facebook polls and Twitter polls

  • Instagram stories

  • Email and email marketing campaigns

  • Dance trends
  • Live webinars or evergreen webinars

  • Memes
  • Live trainings

  • Q&A's

  • Long-form content like blog posts and how-to's

  • Detailed guides and eBooks

By consistently offering value, you can build trust, foster loyalty, and ensure your audience stays engaged with your brand.

Remember, you don't only have to create free content. You can also create paid content that people pay to access or pay a fee to be a member.

6. Utilize SEO (Search Engine Optimziation)

how to do search engine optimization

 

Next up, focus on SEO (search engine optimization).

Focus on building a website, writing high-quality blog posts, how-to articles, and focus on creating content for your ideal audience, and getting top rankings in the search engines.

Related: How to create a blog post outline

You have the opportunity to attract hundreds or even thousands of new visitors to your website each month, week, or year just by utilizing SEO (search engine optimization).

For example, let's look at some real-time data from my website to show you how many visitors you can attract just by consistently writing and publishing blogs based on popular keywords in the search engines.

As you can see in the image below, we have received 56,042 visitors to our DigitalMarketing.org website from organic search so far this year. 

Screen Shot 2023-04-16 at 3.03.44 PM

how to do keyword research

 

7. Run Limited Time Promotions

Tip number seven is to run limited time promotions.

Running limited time promotions can be a powerful marketing tool, as they create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to act quickly.

For example, you could create a monthly membership that costs $49.

This monthly membership grants users access to various perks such as a library, community game night, and happy hour events.

To entice new members, you could create a limited time offer where the first month of membership is free.

Utilizing limited time promotions like this can make marketing much more effective and engaging.

8. Test And Measure Everything 

When running any marketing campaign, it's critical to identify your goals and know what exactly you are testing for. 

Every lead is not the same, and every buyer is not the same. 

Are you looking for new buyers? New leads? Or both? 

If you spend the money to advertise or promote your marketing message or social media content, please take the time to measure it.

Take the time to figure out your results, what you're looking for, and your expectations. Take the time to make sure your goals and what you are testing for are reachable and realistic.

Figure out how much money you are comfortable spending on marketing campaigns, social media advertising, and with social media influencers.

If you are willing to post something online or on social media, you should be willing to spend advertising and marketing dollars towards promoting it.

If youre not comfortable spending money on the type of content you are creating and posting online and on social media, you probably shouldn't waste your time posting it in the first place. 

9. Collaborate With Influencers And Industry Experts

Working with influencers and industry experts is one of the best inbound marketing strategies today.

Check out these shocking influencer marketing statistics about which influencer platforms marketers are using and how they plan to execute influencer marketing in the future:

  • 67% of marketers plan to spend more on influencer marketing campaigns in 2023.

  • The most popular ways to attract influencer-generated sales are with email addresses and referral links
  • 63% of marketers plan to use AI in launching their influencer campaigns. And 2/3 of these brands will use AI for identifying influencers.

  • Instagram offers the highest ROI to influencer marketers, followed by YouTube and Facebook.

  • 56% of marketers use TikTok for influencer marketing, making it the most popular influencer marketing channel, jumping ahead of Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for the first time.

  • Businesses, brands, and marketers prefer working with small influencers over expensive macro-influencers and celebrities.

how much do brands spend on influencer marketing?

10. Implement A Referral Program

Do you know when the best time to ask for a referral is?

The best time to ask for a referral or testimonial is right after the purchase.

Most people believe they need to deliver results and make the customer happy first, but the peak of satisfaction comes from the emotional high when a customer chooses to pay.

It's important not to wait too long to request a referral, as the customer may not achieve the desired results for various reasons.

Instead, ask immediately after they agree to purchase: "Do you have anyone else you think this would be an ideal fit for?"

You can also create incentives for people to give you referrals.

For example, if you charge $15,000 to help someone launch their community, you could pay a $5,000 referral fee to anyone that qualifies. 

Final Thoughts

That's a wrap!

Those are my top 10 tips to make your marketing easier!

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