Marketing is expensive, but necessary. Without marketing, your customers won’t be able to find your business. It can also feel like it’s difficult to get just right. If your marketing efforts aren’t effective, it can feel like you’re throwing money down the drain. Successful marketing, however, pays for itself. 

So what’s the trick, or, more accurately, what are the tricks? How do you get the most from your marketing? We have a few tips that we’ll break down for you today.

Get Inspired

Feeling a little dried up when it comes to creating new, fresh marketing ideas? You may need to take some time to refill the creative well. Of course, for marketers, time is money so you can’t take a month off for self-care and reflection. What you can do, however, is take some time to search for inspiration.

Seek out some of your favorite brands, the ones that seem to have the marketing success that you want for your brand. Take notes on the ads they create, the way they handle their social media accounts, and what works about their website. Can you implement anything similar into your own marketing?

Another way to seek out inspiration is to take a field trip. Let’s say your marketing has a particular theme. For instance, maybe you want to highlight the eco-friendliness of the brand or the way they partner with companies that work to plant trees and combat deforestation. If you’re feeling stuck sitting behind a computer, it may be because you’ve lost sight of the benefits of those eco-friendly features. Take a walk in a park or visit an arboretum to get some fresh air and fresh perspective.

Boost Word of Mouth By Incentivizing Your Customers

Constant marketing can feel exhausting, especially if you’re going it alone. But you can take some of that pressure off by encouraging your customers to market for you. Even in 2023, word of mouth marketing hasn’t found its match, resulting in five times more sales than paid ads. This is because people are still more likely to trust their friends and neighbors to give them an unbiased opinion than a paid ad.

You can help turn your customers into a street team by offering a referral program or great first-time customer discounts that they would be likely to recommend to their friends. And, of course, making sure the customer experience is the best it can be is essential.

Use Data To Back Up Your Marketing

By collecting lead data, you can send leads more personalized ads that prove the most relevant to them. Offer them a custom discount or show them a line of products that they might be interested in based on their previous interactions with your brand. 

Data can also be used to lend more authority to your marketing efforts. Instead of making blanket claims, make specific claims about your industry or your brand that you can back up with official data and statistics. Customers expect brands to tell them whatever they think they want to hear. Data is a great way to show them that you’re not just saying things.

Hone In On Content Marketing

Content marketing is effective, with brands that have blogs generating 67% more leads than brands without blogs. It’s also relatively inexpensive compared to things like paid ads. So if you want to get the most out of your marketing, go for optimized, highly informative and engaging content marketing.

Blogs are a popular form of content marketing, but not the only form. You can also create infographics, YouTube videos, podcasts, newsletters, or PDFs. The key is to make sure your content is entertaining to engage with and provides helpful information that is relevant to your customer base. When you can do that, you show that your brand knows what you’re talking about and that you have relevance to your customers, as well.

Build a Community

We’ve talked in the past about the benefits of building a community. Connection is one of the most valuable elements of the human experience. Create a Facebook group, start conversations, answer questions and ask questions of your customers. If you have a lot of video content marketing, consider hosting live chats or Instagram Q&As. 

All of these aspects give your brand a sense of community instead of just a brand hurling ads and promotions at customers. Customers may make connections with each other and may feel more of a kinship with your brand overall. When your brand becomes a part of their story or their social connections, they’re more likely to come back to you.