How to Choose the Best Marketing Platforms for Your Business

How to Choose the Best Marketing Platforms for Your Business

Alright, business-savvy peeps— you have your awesome business plan in your hands, and now it’s time to sort out the marketing. As you get busy running your business, it can be challenging to spend time mastering all the different marketing avenues available. Narrowing it down to a few select platforms will allow you to focus your efforts and get the best return on your time investment. 

So, how do you choose the right social media platforms for your business?

Market research is a key part of developing your marketing strategy. It allows you to collect information and gain insight into your customers’ location, demographics, rationale, and buying patterns. Thorough market research will also allow you to craft an initial sales forecast and keep an eye on what your competition is doing. 

Here are three tips to help you get started.

1. Identify your audience

There is an unlimited number of potential customers, and trying to advertise to everyone can be expensive and ineffective. For the purpose of market segmentation, you must choose your most viable option and move your product forward from there. Grouping or segmenting your potential customers based on certain characteristics will help to focus your marketing efforts. Consider the more obvious factors, such as:

• Geography – location;
• Demographic – age, gender, education level, income, occupation.

But also underlying motivators, including:

• Behavior – loyalty, attitude, engagement, readiness to buy;
• Psychographic – lifestyle, habits, social status, personality, personal values.

2. Set goals that make sense for your business

Marketing goals will help you to define what you want to achieve through your marketing activities. Your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. You will also need to allocate a budget to your marketing activities. Your marketing budget should consider:

• website development and maintenance
• search engine optimization (SEO) strategy
• brand design
• creation of promotional material (online adverts, business cards, brochures, signage, etc.)
• sponsorships
• employing staff to undertake marketing activities.

3. Choose your marketing avenues

Options include a business website, blogging, brochure and flyers, networking events, print advertising, word of mouth, cold calling and letter drops, and of course, social media marketing. 

Social media is a great way to interact with your market segment. It allows you to connect with your customers easily and address questions and concerns quickly. This makes them happy and bolsters your reputation. More than 3 billion people report using social media regularly; many of those people don’t just connect with their friends and family — they use social media as a way to follow and learn about different brands and companies. In a recent survey of 250 business executives, 85% report that social data will be a central source of data collection for their company moving forward into 2021 and beyond. 

When it comes to social media marketing, your best bet is to research which platform best fits your brand. This includes evaluating the different platforms to see if your customer base is there, whether or not they’re engaging with brands, and if the platform jives with your brand’s personality. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.; each platform offers its own advantages and potential drawbacks. Social media allows you to develop your brand and voice and monitor and improve your search engine rankings. The global market has moved online, and it may benefit your business to follow suit.

Conclusion

Right marketing platform can be a powerful tool. It can turn your website into a lead generation machine and build your brand. But, you have to make sure you choose the right platform. Only then will you see the benefits unfold. Looking for a strategic marketing plan? My marketing plans focus on digital strategies to help grow your brand and bring in leads. The plan will give you the necessary resources and strategies to grow your business. Please message meany questions you have about marketing plans. I can’t wait to start working with you!