Brand Marketing vs. Performance Marketing
June 6, 2023
Should you prioritise building a strong brand image or focus mainly on driving immediate sales? Let’s address this question today…
Marketing Hacks for All Businesses
Have you ever found yourself looking for some growth hacking shortcuts that will help you get the most out of your marketing activities? If so, you’ve come to the right place.
Whether it’s social media, SEO, or other channels you want to optimise, there are always some quick and easy growth marketing hacks out there – whatever type of business you have. These tactics will help you better reach your audience, boost engagement and lead generation and, of course, improve your bottom line.
In this article, we’ll be looking at a few of these hacks so you can maximise the impact of your current marketing activities.
Boost Your Social Media Results
Social media marketing can feel like black magic at times, but you don’t have to be a marketing expert or have a large budget to grab some of the low-hanging fruit here. There are plenty of ways you can improve your social media strategy, but let’s take a look at three simple marketing hacks you can try.
Start Creating Short-Form Video Content
Don’t underestimate the power of video. Over 3 billion people watched videos online at least once a month in 2020, and experts project this number to rise to 3.5 billion by 2023 (Statista).
Looking for a quick social media win? Including short-form videos in your strategy is the way to go. You only have to look at the popularity of TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts to understand this trend. Clips of around 20 seconds grab viewers’ attention and keep it. It’s enough to pique their interest and leave them wanting more.
If your budget is restricted, not to worry. According to a 2021 Ernst & Young survey, Gen Z values “trust, transparency and authenticity” in companies. Put simply, they want to see the people behind the brand. So, record authentic videos that give them a glimpse of the human side of your company.
Poll Your Audience for a Free Market Analysis
One of the biggest mistakes that companies make is talking at their audience. The true value of social media is that it’s interactive. It’s not simply about barraging your followers and trying to sell to them – you want to engage with them in a genuine and thoughtful way (which will help with your growth marketing efforts and win their loyalty). So, get off the old soapbox and connect with your audience – better yet, connect with them and gain valuable insights at the same time.
LinkedIn and Instagram Reels allow you to do just that, thanks to their poll features. You can tap into these features to get a free market analysis while also engaging with your followers. Whether you want to ask them what products they want next or what they think of your services, this is the quickest route to an honest answer. So, make the most of this opportunity to do a quick bit of market research at no extra cost.
Join the Online Conversation
While we’re on the topic of engaging with your audience, here’s a quick marketing hack you shouldn’t ignore. Getting involved in the online conversation can mean commenting on other brands’ social media content, giving your opinion in online discussions, or retweeting a trending post while giving your own commentary on the situation.
If you need some inspiration, look no further than Aldi’s digital strategy. The brand is known for its conversational input and witty responses on social media. Back in 2021, the tongue-in-cheek Free Cuthbert campaign ran predominantly across Twitter. It quickly became a viral sensation, leading to 75K likes across the brand’s social media platforms.
The takeaway is simple: Adopting a colloquial tone on social media is one of the easiest marketing hacks. Try mirroring the way that real people interact with each other on these sites. Monitor the news and consider where you can share your company’s opinion.
Position Your Brand as an Industry Expert
How can you offer real value to your audience? Whether you’re writing long-form blog posts or even producing video content, there’s one simple answer: Solve their problems.
Create “How To” Content that Solves Problems
Chances are, you already have the answers that customers are searching for. For example, if you own a bakery, you will know the best way to bake sourdough. If you own a removals company, you will have some packing advice people can’t get elsewhere.
Knowledge is power — make sure that you use it. Creating guides that help your audience solve their problems is one of the best marketing hacks. Not only are you offering your followers something for free, but you are also positioning your brand as an industry expert. You can also use it as a means for lead generation – if the content requires a download, for example, you can make the visitor sign up to your list before they can download it.
You may choose to publish handy guides on your blog or create video content to give your audience the answers they need. Don’t forget to repurpose this content on social media!
Sign up to HARO as an Expert Source
You could hire an expensive public relations company to get your business name out there. However if you don’t have the cash to splash, here’s another marketing hack for you.
Fancy getting your business name in the press? Sign up on Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and become an expert source. You will be joining more than 800,000 experts in this innovative approach to marketing.
When you have filled in your online profile, you can start responding to source requests as they come flying into your inbox. You will then be able to respond to journalists and offer your expertise for free. Should they choose to collaborate with you, you will have to give your expert opinion on whatever the subject may be. The journalist will then cite you in the article and reference your company.
Easily Improve Your Online Presence
Your brand’s online presence is a shop window – customers look at it to see what you have on offer and decide whether they want to go inside. Most companies have a website simply because they think that they need one, but that’s just the baseline.
If you’re willing to put in some extra work, you can build upon that baseline and get some quick gains with these marketing hacks.
Defeat Competitors by Using Schema for SEO
If you’re looking for a way to beat your competitors without having to rank in the #1 spot, Schema may be the answer. The structured data vocabulary helps search engines to understand the content on your website; essentially it allows you to structure your page’s content in the most Google-friendly way.
If you want to get started with it, you can use the Structured Data Markup Helper. Simply choose what type of content you have created, e.g. “Articles”, and input the existing URL.
The tool will then give you a list of data items you need to fill in. You can also tag different parts of the content in the body of the text. When you have completed this step, click “Create HTML” and you will get an HTML file that you can upload to your CMS. If you want a fast way to optimise your content, using this tool is a great starting point.
Repurpose Existing Content on your Website
Want to expand your website content but don’t know where to start? As a company, you may create a myriad of content. Do you have downloadable resources on your website? You may have PDF files, podcasts, white papers, and so on. (While we’re on the topic – if you prefer listening to content, I release a weekly podcast as well as my marketing blog.)
As it stands, you might have no idea which is performing the best. Luckily, there’s a swift way that you can find out – just use Monsterinsights to see which files get the most downloads.
When you know which pieces of content are piquing your audience’s interest, it’s time to repurpose it. One of the easiest ways to do this is to create blog posts out of the information that you already have.
You don’t have to include all of the finer details though – a blog post can be an overview of the document — touching on the highlights. Give readers the broad brush strokes here. You may want to cover the main points of the topic and integrate the corresponding keywords, for example. Should the reader want to take a deep dive, they can always refer back to the original downloadable content.
Update Your Existing Content
Content pruning is a great way to boost your SEO results. Content pruning is the act of removing outdated or duplicated content, or editing content that is still helpful but needs updating in parts.
Updates might involve replacing statistics that have since been proven wrong, replacing broken links, and removing references to products that have become obsolete. You might also want to remove pages that are getting low levels of traffic, as this can be a red flag for Google.
Not only does this improve the user experience, but it’s a simple way to improve your rankings without investing more resources on creating new content.
Wrapping Up
There you have it – some simple marketing hacks you can start using right now. Employing the above strategies will help you better reach your target audience online.
In the long run, you want to develop a complete marketing and growth strategy, but these tactics can be effective in the short term. Think of them as “quick wins” that can help you capitalise on your existing activities.
If you’re looking for support from a Marketing Consultant, feel free to get in touch – my team and I will be happy to help.
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