Businesses across the globe have had to find new ways to become relevant during this global economic crisis. Finding new ways to stay relevant amongst your competition is difficult on your best day, so it’s even more important to stick out during times of uncertainty. Below, we have four ways that your company can stay relevant during a crisis.

You might feel as if implementing a marketing strategy is more of a guideline than a rule, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. You wouldn’t play chess without a strategy, so you shouldn’t market your company without one. Sure, budgets may be tight, and it could be hard to justify implementing a strategy that would require time and, especially if it’s outsourced, money. But the truth is, you can’t afford not to have a marketing strategy. A marketing strategy is instrumental to the success of your company. Your company may barely survive without one, but it will never thrive. You can’t afford to not have a marketing strategy because without your marketing efforts will be much weaker. A company’s strength comes from its very best plans. Why wouldn’t you want to put your company’s very best foot forward on the path to success?

Whether you are selling a product or a service, it’s intended for a specific group of customers or a target market. But do you understand anything about that group of people? This where a target audience comes, which defines that group of people. A target audience is a group of consumers characterized by behaviors and specific demographics, and knowing your target audience can help to influence decision making for a marketing strategy. Finding your target audience takes a lot of work and research so that you can figure out who exactly you want to reach. Below, we have some tips on how to find your target audience.

Marketers tend to pour massive amounts of time and effort into specific content strategies, but they don’t always work out the way they are intended. Content is created to educate customers, move them through the customer journey, and relay the industry-specific information they need. But what happens if your content marketing strategy isn’t working? Below, we discuss three ways that your content strategy isn’t working and how you can address those problems.

LinkedIn might be the first impression that people have of your company, and a great LinkedIn page makes an excellent impression with any potential leads that might be looking for your information. Consider LinkedIn as an extension of your website, making sure all the information is clean, up to date, and understandable. Below, we have four elements that will your company’s LinkedIn page look professional and inviting to prospective leads.

If you want to capture the attention of your audience, you need to create the right materials to help them become familiar with what your company offers. Marketing collateral pieces are a great way to showcase that you know exactly what you are talking about, giving you a competitive edge in your field. With the right collateral pieces, you can further educate prospects with what your company has to offer.  

There’s a point in the sales funnel where the prospect is handed off to the next team member. Specifically, this is the point of the funnel where the marketing hands off prospects to sales and sales pass prospects to an account executive. The middle of the funnel is like a valve. At this point, you can expand lead quality definitions to pass a higher volume of leads to your sales team, or even tighten the definitions to give them a more specific segment of qualified leads. In the middle of the funnel, marketing facilitates the hand-off to sales. For this hand-off, content is created to engage and educate leads to identify who is interested in making a purchase. This part of the funnel has the most significant potential for marketing and sales to not completely align, so it requires the most attention. Below, we have some tips for how to prevent leads from going cold in the middle of the funnel.

Aligning the efforts of your marketing and sales departments can be a long, difficult journey to get everyone on the same page. While each department is working towards the same goal (generating revenue, growing the business), they are often using very different strategies and tactics to achieve the results. When you can combine the efforts of marketing and sales, you create an environment where two departments are using the strengths of the other to finalize sales and generate revenue for your business. But how can businesses align marketing and sales effectively and efficiently? Digital transformation.

Consumer marketing requires a different way of think for marketers who are generally operating in the B2B space. While B2B marketing focuses on the logical process-driven purchasing decisions for businesses, B2C marketing focuses on driving consumer purchasing decisions with emotion. Finding the right approach means tapping into the interests and habits of your customers, using the analytics at your disposal to make the right strategic choice to move forward.

Startups understand the need for marketing initiatives, but they are also working on building a product. With all of the challenges that startups and small businesses face daily, the marketing strategy is not typically high on the priority list. Outsourced marketing is a very lucrative option for startups that are looking to elevate and support their marketing efforts and grow their businesses quickly. How can startups finish 2020 successfully while preparing for 2021? By finding a marketing partner that can elevate and support their marketing efforts.