Top 6 Picks to Include in Your Marketing Arsenal
What tools should you include in your marketing arsenal?
- – Brand awareness and management
- – Analysing and managing customer reviews
- – Having an optimised website
- – Google My Business Account
- – Incorporating Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- – Monitoring competitors
Brand awareness & reputation management
The goal is to have instantaneous customer association with your business and what you specifically offer. The aim is also to have a staple reputation and stand out from your competitors. It is statistically proven that customers are willing to pay higher fees to a brand they are familiar with rather than a cheaper option that is unknown to them.
So, how can this be achieved? All the answers are just a Google search away.
The first step is to have the whole team be aware of everything being said about the business on the web. The next step is to analyse the information that you have discovered. For example, what are people exactly saying about your business? Since we all know that bad news travels fast, you need to get ahead of what’s going around before it affects your reputation.
Customer reviews
One of the first things you’ll come across in your monitoring efforts is a review left by a former customer. With mass marketing, people are constantly exposed to different products and services, so they trust reviews. After all, a consumer is not going to lie to another consumer.
Whilst reviews published on your website are fantastic, those left on a Google My Business account are deemed more trustworthy. After all, people believe whatever they read on the internet. Another great place to grant the customer access to reviews is through your business’s social pages. Everyone loves a good review highlight.
If you come across a negative review, don’t panic, there is still light at the end of the tunnel. Negative reviews will occur no matter the industry, so it’s best to prepare yourself. A negative review should never be left ignored and unanswered. Potential customers will be frightened away. To keep this from happening, you need to reply to the review politely and attempt to rectify whatever concern the displeased customer may have had.
The best part of negative reviews- and yes, there is the best part is having your weak points located for you. Your customer’s complaint is the critical feedback you need to rectify mistakes and improve for the future. Say a customer felt as though you caused them delay with an untimely email response. This feedback should be taken on board and practices should be put into place, making sure this situation does not happen again.
Optimised website
An optimised website is easy to read, quick to scroll, has properly labelled headings and a catalogue option for quick access. It contains links to all your social media accounts and, most importantly, your contact information and address. Adding a Google Directions Search also adds a nice touch. All of this is important as the basic foundation.
Nowadays, an optimised website has a live chat option. For example, take the global giant Apple. We all know that setting up an appointment at the Genius Bar is both time consuming and, frankly, always booked up. Apple, of course, could not go without a live chat option. Most people would rather have a live chat in real-time than calling your place of business and speaking to a real person.
Now that you’ve got the lead with live chat, you can personalise your customer’s experience by assisting them directly with their specific problem and encouraging them to use your services.
Google my business account
Regardless of the industry, every local business should have a free to use GMB account. You want your customers to find you quickly and not your competition.
Make things easy for your customer by creating a GMB account and keeping it updated with your latest business information. The more information you provide Google, the more information available to your customers and the likeliness of raising higher up on the local rankings increases ten-fold. Customers trust a GMB, which means they will trust you.
With GMB you’re provided with a plethora of analytical data, from who your visitors are to how they engage with your business.
The review option on a GMB account is frequently visited as this helps the potential customer decide whether or not they want to conduct their business with you or go with your competition.
Search engine optimisation & local SEO
You can experience business growth by incorporating SEO into your marketing strategy. SEO, which stands for search engine optimisation, is a cost-effective digital marketing tool that drives organic search engine traffic. Your potential customer base must be able to find your website to use your services. Therefore, SEO will allow this to happen as your website will organically rank higher in the SERP and keyword search.
Local SEO also increases brand visibility- the aim is to be discoverable. If your website is ranking high on the search engines, then the increase in traffic will be exponential. Statistics show that 92% of traffic goes to business profiles that appear on the first pages of the search results. If you’re looking to increase your target market’s confidence in your business, then there’s nothing like receiving a recommendation from Google. Most people naturally defer to the recommendations of search engines because they already trust the search engine, so if you’re recommended, you’re automatically trusted. Besides, how often do you yourself click on the first few hits?
Local SEO creates the ultimate user experience by pushing for a well-optimised website and promoting it organically. Google prefers a website that strictly follows the guidelines of E-A-T Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. Well-optimised also means that the viewer can navigate the website easily and pull information quickly.
The competition
A close eye should be kept on your competitors to stay ahead of the game. New trends are constantly emerging, so if you see your competitors on whatever app comes after Tiktok, then this is where your business needs to be as well.
As previously discussed, reviews are one of the most essential marketing tools available. While your reviews identify precisely what your business is doing- positive or negative, your competitor’s reviews can also provide you with an invaluable insight into what is being done and what can be improved. After you’ve researched and analysed the information on your competitors, it’s time for you to revisit your marketing plan and see what ideas or tweaks you can make to your business.
So which of these tools are you going to be implementing?