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Running a business is no simple task. It is like cooking a perfect dish, all the right ingredients have to be laid out in the right order. A good product or service has to be at your disposal, a good address (physical or virtual) where you operate from, well laid out logistics, payment methodologies have to be in place, etc.

 

But what about your marketing mix? How do get the right people to your doorstep? I remember a particular scene from one of my favorite movies ‘Field of Dreams’ in which Kevin Costner hears a voice say to him “if you build it, he will come”.

 

Building up your basics:

 

Imagine the ‘he' to be your customer. Now building a good product, getting it to market, and in the reach of your customer should be enough, right? It isn’t, you see if you don’t get your marketing mix right and reach your target audiences when they are most susceptible to that information, they won’t come.

 

Getting your message out there is absolutely critical to your success, if you don’t understand, that in this age of information, content is king then you are headed toward failure.

 

 

Be in the business of content:

 

When we talk about the biggest content company out there you would imagine that to be Netflix right? The company has revolutionized the streaming content industry and evolved how we consume entertainment.

 

Netflix is in the business of content and as such, they are doing amazing work. But there isn’t the only model that relies on content, any brand nowadays can’t do well if it doesn’t have the right content mix at its disposal 

 

So, the point here is you need to write your story right. I’ve had the pleasure of working with firms that have launched region-first tech. We would always make sure that the best-in-breed technology we launched was matched by an even greater pitch. Something that would grab the attention of consumers and businesses, in the business of being the best we always banked on a story that could help us sell and make partnerships and inroads that mattered.

 

 

Now a good story is only as good as the medium it employs to get the message across. Times have changed now digital rules the roost when it comes to quickly connecting with customers. But conventional media is still big business for a lot of firms.

 

 

Cut the clutter:

 

Sometimes it's important to understand that not everyone has to be part of the rat race. There are businesses that have been unconventional and have still made an impact. I recently read up on a company called ‘The 5TH’, they have this unorthodox selling strategy. On the 5th of every month, VIP subscribers get exclusive access to limited edition (LTD) things.

 

This isn’t a sales pitch for them - it’s a very interesting spin on a conventional sales pitch. Why shop now when you can wait for a month?

 

Look to cut the clutter when you have to engage with your audiences. Sometimes conventional practices carry you, but it doesn’t carry you far. In the race to be the best, you can’t look to rely on the safest option possible. To be the best you have to trust your instincts and every so often take the bull by the horns.

 

Creating a direct line to the customer

 

We have a plethora of tools and avenues that we use to reach customers, be it social media, search engine marketing, sponsored content, or digital ads. Each one, of these mediums, offers its own specific benefit that helps marketers achieve their business goals.

 

Reach, being one of the most important goals when it comes to marketing, is highly stressed whenever discussing any medium but it doesn’t end there. Your communications shouldn’t just be a one-way street of product videos, funny ads, and sale banners. The mix of channels that you utilize to reach your audience has to create interactions that keep you top of your mind and customers engaged.

 

 

One medium that is, more often than not, overlooked is SMS marketing. Now, we’ve all heard that SMS marketing is old or doesn’t work anymore but it has the potential to really make a difference in reaching your audience.

 

Here are 4 reasons why SMS marketing can leverage your marketing campaigns and boost results across the board:

 

1. There are over 5 billion people in the world with access to a cell phone, which is a huge amount of people to whom you can have a direct line.
2. SMS has an open rate of 99%, compare with email which at 20-3-% is considered great. In this regard, SMS blows everything else out of the water.
3. 90% of these SMS are read within 5 seconds on average, just consider how much time that is.
4. SMS also boasts a 45% response rate, which is significantly higher than email at 8%.

 

SMS marketing presents a very effective opportunity to connect with your audience, make sure you’ve communicated your story properly, and engage the audience to reinforce your message.

 

With SMS marketing, brands can boost other channels like:

• Website: a simple shortened link in an sms can increase your page visits and with modern tracking techniques you can track how effective your sms campaign ends up as.
• In-store: stores/retailers can really get the word out and attract additional footfall utilizing SMS marketing.
• E-mail: a simple sms campaign to remind consumers about your promotional newsletters can yield higher open rates and conversions for your email campaigns.
• Direct Marketing: 1 in 5 email campaigns from commercial email addresses ends up in the junk folder, if not then it is often overlooked but SMS marketing offers the effectiveness required to engage customers directly (if utilized properly).

 

Summing up:

 

 

To conclude, businesses that create a clear and relatable story around their brands, craft the necessary content to convey and utilize the proper channel mix to get it to their customers cement their place at the top of the pile.

 

The ecosystem that you create for your brand needs to have strong foundations built on synergies created by a relatable identity and effective channels of communication.

 

In the end business is understanding the gaps that exist between demand and supply - craft a communication strategy that lets people see the relevancy your brand holds in their lives. Happy selling!