If you’re selling a great product or business opportunity and nobody knows about it, how successful can you be? It’s like that old adage about a tree falling in the woods: if no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?
That’s where marketing comes in. Marketing takes whatever you’re selling and makes it visible and available to the people who might be most interested in buying it. Let’s talk a little more about marketing and what it can do to make your business visible and start earning you some ROI.
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With the rise of digital communication and social media, we are now able to reach a much larger audience. At the same time, through automation tools, we have more power than ever to target our messages, making them specific and compelling to those we hope to reach.
Other companies in your space are using marketing and marketing technology to move their business forward, connect with potential customers, build awareness of their offerings, and strengthen relationships, all driving toward a sale.
With this in mind, if you are not utilizing marketing tools and resources to keep your business up-to-date, you will more than likely fall behind. If people can’t see you, they can’t choose you.
Developing a marketing strategy that works is not as complicated as it might sound. It does require time and strategic thought to ensure it’s successful.
Take some time to consider the people you most want to reach. Many marketers develop customer personas that focus on key traits and needs of an imagined customer, so they can figure out where they need to market and what they might say. To start building out your strategy, ask these questions:
Once you’ve identified who your prospects are, you’ll be able to start talking with them and sharing information that compels them.
Social media is a great place to get started with your marketing efforts. It has a low barrier to entry as far as cost and effort; you can create a profile and start posting as soon as you’ve identified the platforms that might be a good fit with your desired clients.
And with social media, you have access to a wealth of data about how people see and interact with your brand. Each platform provides its own set of metrics on everything from page views to demographic details about the people engaging with your posts.
As you begin communicating, remember that you want to primarily share value before pushing sales pitches. At Saint Investment Group, for example, we create expert-level content around real estate investing that serves to educate first, sell second.
The reasoning is two-fold. First, it lets readers know we actually know what we’re doing. We’ve been in the business a long time and have cultivated the knowledge and experience we want to share. Secondly, creating useful content positions us as a trusted resource, someone people can come to with questions or for advice.
As you manage and monitor your accounts, be flexible, make changes, and experiment. Look at your data and see where you might need to adjust or where something’s working really well for you.
One last thing to remember is this: certain types of content can get great engagement, but you need to make sure that engagement is coming from the right people. If you’re holding a giveaway of a tablet, for example, you might get hundreds of people interacting with your page. But are those the people who like your brand and want to form a relationship, or are they just the people who want an iPad?
Some people think companies need to have large marketing/advertising budgets to be successful. And, yes, more money and flexibility can be really useful to speed up your efforts.
However, the wonderful thing about today’s digital environment is that you don’t have to be a big spender to get returns.
With the rise and continued growth of social and digital media, you can receive the return you want with a fraction of the spend. Instead of allocating thousands to printing, mailing, and analyzing one brochure, you can connect and get the exact same information in front of people via online channels.
Marketing takes a little patience, a little creativity, and a lot of planning. If you’re up to the challenge, though, you can create and implement marketing efforts that build an audience and earn you loyal, long-term relationships.
A master in Investment, Marketing, and Capital Raising.
Nic has honed his focus on the Real Estate and debt markets with Saint Investment Group and pursues large-scale Distressed Asset purchases with his partners and syndications.
