Company XYZ has been around for years. They built a reputation in the local market for providing quality goods and services in a timely manner and at a cost that has remained competitive. In the past, advertising in local papers and on the radio was enough to keep the company busy. As the written word has lost readers, however, Company XYZ has seen a slow decline in business. Radio has continued to bring a small return on new clients, but this is not enough to sustain the company’s continuance.
At the advice of a friend, the owner of the company has put in a call to a social marketing agency. The outcome of the meeting? It’s time for Company XYZ to embrace social marketing; it’s time for aggressive online marketing.
Militant social marketing doesn’t mean what you may think. Forget the images you may have of pitchforks and torches or of Molotov cocktails. The sort of aggressive online marketing we’re talking about involves the process of using all effective online platforms and resources to promote the company and its products and/or services. It involves using the latest social services and technology in order to strongly develop and promote the brand. Doing so will allow potential clients or customers to gain a clear feel for what the company has to offer.
While this sort of approach may sound haphazard, in truth it is a highly targeted approach. It takes crafting a social media strategy that will detail the tools to be used, the method in which they will be utilized, and how they can be analyzed in order to determine efficacy. Those pieces that are underperforming can then be tweaked or replaced with better options.
For Company XYZ the course was rather clear. An email marketing campaign that was tied to an opt-in form found on their newly search-engine-optimized, mobile-friendly website was the first step. This was followed up by identifying social media channels that would offer increased visibility in the community. Here’s the thing to keep in mind – what worked for Company XYZ may or may not work for your company. This is where aggressive online marketing comes into play. Your marketing plan is completely your own, tailored to YOUR brand.
Maybe you sell widgets and your customer base is very active on Facebook, but rarely hits your website. Your plan should take this into account and should include steps to not only increase interactions on Facebook but to help start driving more traffic FROM Facebook back to the site. Retargeting in this manner, when done properly, can help to increase sales. Maybe it takes an incentive, so on Facebook, you offer fans a free collectible widget guide if they click through to your site and enter their contact info.
Maybe you also include an opt-out option. If they come for the free collectible widget guide and don’t opt out, then they are added to an email list and can receive monthly newsletters, offers, or more.
When talking about online marketing in the context of aggression, it most assuredly doesn’t mean getting in your customers or clients’ faces and being mean. It does, however, mean that you are taking a proactive stance in growing your company’s online presence by interacting with your customer base in the places where they are most active. It also means you are consistently looking for ways to improve this strategy and making positive changes by getting rid of or altering those steps that prove ineffective.
So, how about it? Are you ready to get out there and get aggressive with your social marketing plan? Get in touch with us today to see how we can help!