Someone recently asked me what the secret to marketing success really is. 1st I would say actually doing it is the place to start. Many entrepreneurs that I meet are not actively marketing. They are posting something on social media every once in a while or sending out an email randomly but they do not have a focused approach to marketing. Today I’m sharing 5 tactics and strategies that need your attention if you want to be successful with your marketing.

#1 Get Clear

First, you need to be clear about two very important things before you can focus on effective marketing tactics.

Know what you do!
Know who you do it for!

Do yourself a favor and just choose. Stop trying to figure it out. Choose an audience that you want to work with and that is already wanting to spend money on what you do.

Second, once you know the answers to these questions, you can begin to craft a marketing strategy. Are you trying to decide which marketing strategies to implement? Think about these questions.

Will this marketing strategy provide exposure to my ideal clients?

For example, your ideal client may not be on Twitter, maybe they’re on LinkedIn. That’s okay. You just need to know your market, your niche and then market to it.

Will this marketing strategy help me achieve my marketing goals?

What are your marketing goals? What conversion do you want to see take place? There are many types of conversions, not just sales conversions. A conversion is just a response to a call-to-action. Maybe your goal is to have 5,000 email subscribers, start a newsletter, or join a new social media platform. As you’re sifting through different options continually ask yourself, will this help me achieve my goal and do I have a clear call-to-action for each conversion I want to see made.

Is it worth the dollars I am investing?

This is where simple math comes in. If you find that you are not making a profit from a particular marketing strategy; ditch it, or fix it.

#2 The Number One Success Metric

Welcome to the Age of the Consumer! You are marketing to the savviest, most confident and informed, consumers of all time. We live in the information age and customers have done their homework…and extra credit too. Old marketing tactics won’t work; the landscape has changed. Marketing today is about building and sustaining customer relationships. Customer satisfaction is your number one marketing metric!

#3 Customer Engagement

Make customer engagement your top priority. Marketing today is less about making a sale and more about building a relationship. So how do you do that?

Be accessible.

Business hours aren’t going to cut it anymore. Building a relationship requires time and accessibility, but this doesn’t have to be difficult and time-consuming. Here are some ways to engage in a reciprocal relationship.

Social media
Blogging
Webinars/Teleseminars
Live Events
Mobile-friendly website
Client care team
Live Chat
Email
Phone calls
Texting

#4 Email Is a Top Focus

Building your email list and community should be a top focus and it’s vital to your business success.

Simple ways to build your list:

Use an opt-in box on your website
Create free content that people will want to opt-in in order to get it
Blogging
Content upgrades
Giveaways
Contests
Sponsoring an event

#5 Get Mobile

Did you know most people are accessing the web via mobile devices? If you don’t have a user-friendly mobile version of your website you are missing out on a huge population of consumers. Mobile devices are smallish (I’ve seen some BIG ones), make sure your mobile version has fewer words, images, and ads that clutter up an already tiny screen.

Now What?

Now that you have made some decisions you probably have a lot more questions? What should I blog about? What do I do on social media? When do I post? How often should I send emails to my list?
Most entrepreneurs never make it past those questions. When they can’t easily find the answers they simply don’t market at all. Don’t be the best kept secret in town. On September 29, 30 & October 1st I am going to work with a small group of entrepreneurs to completely design their marketing plan. Are you one of them? Click here to find out more about Decide, Act, Profit. Oh and during the event I an going to give you the marketing templates that we use at Decisive Minds. I paid over $2,000 for those to be designed.