As the new world economy gets up and running again, there may be certain marketing strategies that may not be as effective as they once were. While your SEO strategies will always remain strong, there just may be a new direction or two that you may want to focus on going forward. The Florida based marketing research and statistics firm, Fractl, has recently released findings that may cause you to step back and re-assess. The following is taken directly from their recent report:
- It’s critical to analyze the attitudes and behaviors of your current and potential clients/customers in order to best communicate with them in the methods they prefer. We surveyed 500+ Americans, asking them their thoughts on a variety of inbound and outbound marketing tactics.
- SEO should always be a primary objective of your marketing team. If you’re in a competitive space and finding it difficult to rank for your target keywords, focus on the long-tail for queries that are directly relevant to your business. That way, you’re building authority with people who are already close to becoming customers/clients.
- The marketing industry experiences a constant ebb and flow. A tactic like email marketing becomes popular, everyone does it, the space becomes diluted, and then other tactics start to gain traction as people seek out “quieter” channels.
- The prime example of this revealed in this survey is that when asked what people think is the best way to attract their business, they picked snail mail (53.31%) over email (38.37%).
- Unsurprisingly, people don’t like to feel like they’re being oddly approached or “followed” online (or anywhere). That probably explains why our survey found that of the 78% of people who said they notice re-targeted ads, 56% have negative feelings toward them. That’s a pretty large amount of negativity for a tactic. In a separate question, 53% said they have ad blockers, choosing to bypass ads altogether.
- When utilizing outbound strategies, make sure the recipients understand why they’re receiving the information and ensure what you’re providing speaks to a want or need of theirs. Make the value you’re providing immediately clear.
- Using search engines to find answers is essentially an inherent online experience; nearly everyone does it, and if you’re not showing up in the SERPs, you can be missing out on massive opportunities to increase your brand awareness, connect with potential clients/customers, and build authority in your space. I’d say authority is a huge piece of why search is so important to people. When you rank highly, it’s almost like the online equivalent of being published — “people” (other sites and Google) — vouch for you.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
