Every business should create a marketing strategy for every quarter, six-month period or year. Only with a carefully considered marketing plan will you get the most from your investment, and just as importantly, you’ll identify ways to be more effective with your budget next time. We discuss the trials and tribulations of choosing marketing strategies here.

Alternatively, pick up the phone or send us an email to discuss WEBPRO’s marketing planning service and other marketing services.

What are the most common marketing methods?

The most common marketing methods typically used are:

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) 
2. Google Ads/Shopping 
3. Social media marketing 
4. Email marketing

SEO is the only marketing method which is considered an organic strategy. It involves making improvements to your website so your website pages feature higher on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) for relevant searches. For example, if you’re a mortgage adviser you want to be seen when someone searches for mortgage advice in your location. All the other marketing methods are classified as non-organic or paid-for marketing – even though SEO services still require investment!

Due to the breadth of options, it can be difficult to know which marketing strategies to invest in and which ones you don’t need to be focusing on right now. So, how do you choose the right marketing method?

How to choose a marketing strategy

Most small and medium-sized businesses don’t have the marketing budget to invest in all marketing strategies and do them right for maximum returns. So, you have to strategically select the right methods for your business at any given time.

The standard advice is to strike a healthy balance between SEO and multiple paid-for marketing methods. SEO should be non-negotiable, but businesses can be put off because SEO offers a slow burn of stable long-term returns rather than the often fast and lucrative returns offered by paid marketing. To choose the right paid marketing strategies you need to do research and consider your goals, budget and the marketplace.

Consider the marketplace

Your target market should be an important consideration when choosing marketing strategies. And you might have different target markets for different products or services.

For example, your target market might be more likely to use Google than use social media, which would mean Google Ads could be more beneficial than social media marketing. However, social media is adopted by people of all demographics nowadays, and it’s the right social media channel that may be the more important decision to make (e.g., Facebook marketing vs TikTok marketing).

You may need to complete in-depth research into the demographics of your target markets and compare these to the demographics of Google users, social media users, people with an email account, etc. Expert marketers do this research for you to help you choose wisely.

Consider your goals

Your marketing objectives and business goals will also need to be considered when selecting a strategy. Your goal might be to increase market share by 10%, which requires you to acquire brand-new leads. This could be done effectively with Google Ads. On the other hand, your goal might be to build brand loyalty and increase the number of repeat buyers or clients. This goal might be better suited to email marketing to your subscriber list or investing in social media management to engage existing followers.

Consider your budget

Last but certainly not least, your budget will play a decisive role in what marketing strategies you can adopt. On top of SEO services, you should allocate enough of a budget to engage in paid-for marketing strategies. However, it’s always better to do something rather than nothing and if the budget really is tight, it is best spent doing one strategy right than to try and do multiple strategies without an adequate budget.

Recap…

Every business should create a marketing plan which clearly defines marketing goals and how they will be achieved. To do this, you’ll need to choose the best marketing strategies for your business. You’ll need to consider your target market and how it relates to each possible strategy. You’ll also need to consider how your goals relate to the different options, and last but not least, you need to consider your available marketing budget.

WEBPRO Knows

Around 1 in 200 people click the second page of Google results, which highlights the importance of investing in SEO to get on the first page.