16 Apr Modern day marketing: a view from an agency!
Inbound marketing has become the latest craze in marketing. People are using it to become “amazing marketers”, which is a fantastic occasion as it sorts the spoofers from the practitioners. Like with any discipline, you have good practitioners and bad practitioners. The bad ones are doing an awful job of not waiting long enough or waiting too long and not making the sale. Why do so many people suck at it? There are a few main ways to become an amazing marketer and here are some observations I have made in the last 2 or 3 years that have really started to blow up recently.
Be a real person
Did your parents never tell you to treat people how you would like to be treated? Imagine, someone you didn’t know came up to you and started trying to sell you something you didn’t want only because you glanced in their direction. This is what bad marketers are doing online.
Some call it social media optimisation others call it growth hacking but I call it being simply being relevant. The more relevant you are in people’s life, the cheaper and easier things are going to be for you. Google has had it as a ranking factor for years, Facebook is built on it, Instagram is moving there (thank you Facebook) and Twitter is stumbling in that direction. The world is a stupidly noisy place and we need
to be relevant of die trying.
Look at some of the biggest traffic sites in Ireland alone. They produce content that is relevant to their market on an hourly basis. LovinDublin for food lovers, College times for college attendees, but mostof all Sportsjoe for the sports fan. This is the best example of becoming relevant I have seen in a long time. The guys in maximum media recognised through their data that the Joe.ie sports section was dominating traffic. So they, therefore, took a whole new site entierly so that they could be that bit more relevant to their audience. We use this the whole time in my job in Leading social. We spot trends in the data to produce better content for the masses and
We use this tactic the whole time in my job in Leading social. We spot trends in the data to produce better content for the masses and therefore we are growing social media profiles. We are thinking far more macro than how many likes one post got. The content we create is relevant not because we say it is but because the followers say it is through their actions. And that is the key. 
The market, is the market, is the market!
We use this the whole time in my job in Leading social. We spot trends in the data to produce better content for the masses and therefore we are thinking far more macro than how many likes one post got. The content we create is relevant not because we say it is but because the followers say it is through their actions.
Give Value x3 then ask
The chances are, there are folks looking for a company or individual with your skill set to meet their needs. But at the moment, you can’t afford to put ads up everywhere. How can you, as a new business owner, get more clients? When done right, Inbound marketing is the method of putting your information out in places (typically for free, or greatly reduced price) where people are already searching. This, in turn, will give you the opportunity to give value to a customer through knowledge without expecting anything in return (value 1). When this customer then comes back to you as a reliable source, you can then help them in some way, maybe it’s a recommendation, or a quick tip (value 2). You then hear about someone who needs their services and you make a recommendation to them (value 3). At this stage, you have provided 3 specific bits of value to this person/business and will have built up a rapport in the meantime. Say now you happen to be running an event that you needed to promote. How much more likely are they to offer their help to you now that you provided value to them. A lot more, that’s how much.Compare that to the guy walking up and selling you something you don’t want!
Just look at Gary Vaynerchuk. He provides value every week by answering questions, doing his vlog etc. He does this for 3/4 years until he launches a book and then he goes for the ask. This is where he cashes in his hard earned gratitude. So don’t pull the 19-year-old guy move and try and close in the first meeting! It rarely ever works! Except in Coppers!
Be Data Driven, it’s a numbers game after all!
And its that man Gary Vee who says. The market is the market is the market! What this means is, if your product is shite, they will tell you through their actions and not consume it. The best marketers let the numbers decide. This may be my agency background speaking but if I see a product or a service that is failing after being pushed immensely and in the correct way, I can almost predict them not working out before we even begin working with them. You need to look at the numbers that are being produced and decide is your product or service something people want/need. If not, you need to a)give up or b) create a demand for it. The answer to this question may not be so apparent.
The main issue with being numbers only is that you are dealing with humans when marketing. This can be an issue as we all know they are not rational beings in the slightest. This being said, you can follow trends and from there make educated guesses. Afterall, that is what being an amazing marketer in 2016 is all about.
I hope you enjoyed, interested in your views! Now it’s so easy to follow my rants on SC
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