Marketing has become much easier than in the past. A lot of marketing campaigns can be automated once initially set up. Yes, this will cost money and time. But don’t look at it as a cost, more of an investment.

There are 2 types of online marketing: – Interruption marketing and attraction marketing.

Interruption for example is a Facebook ad targeted to you while you are browsing the newsfeeds. Whilst attraction marketing for example is Google pay per click where the customer is actively looking to buy/research your product or service.

If you’re not marketing your business, then you’re losing out on a huge number of potential customers. In this article I want to talk into 2 different avenues of marketing. Marketing for new customers and Marketing for recruiting.

Marketing for new customers: When a typical business owner thinks of marketing, his limiting belief system says to him, “oh no, this means I have to spend money”, which is true, but we have to change our belief and mind set.  A mind set of investment. We’re in the business of buying customers.

Not only do we have to spend money, but also give away information for free to help educate and build the trust to develop a relationship with a potential customer. We can target our potential customers by both online and offline marketing. Yes, we live in a world where the internet is a very powerful and easy way to target your audience, but there’s also an audience waiting off line.

While everyone else is focused on online marketing there’s a large proportion of customers waiting to have something delivered through the door. This is where the lumpy mail comes in. People still love getting things in the post that they can touch and feel. But like with any marketing we need to test and measure to see what the results are telling us.

How many marketing strategies do you currently have in place? Any business, should have at least 8 different forms of marketing.

Here are just a few:

Pay per click

Direct response marketing

Social media marketing

Telephone marketing

Direct lumpy mail marketing through the post

TV & Radio advertising

The aim, is to get started. Test everything and see what gives you the best returns. However, marketing is changing at a fast speed. So be open minded for new and different ways to market to your potential customers.

For me, Google pay per click is by far the most effective for the wet leisure industry. However, we should always test and measure to see what works and what doesn’t.

Along the way to finding out what works, we have spent a lot of time and money, but this hasn’t been in vain as we now know our best ways to reach our customers. Google pay per click works brilliantly for my ecommerce business, however, many others use the power of Facebook marketing which can also produce extraordinary results. Do some research within your industry and model what others are doing well and decide what strategy will work best for your business.

It’s very important to get the marketing right but we also need to make sure that our website is mobile responsive? 60% of internet usage is now done via mobile/tablet rather than desk tops and it’s on the rise. Your website needs to be easily readable via a mobile without having to zoom in and out. Remember the 8 second rule. Customers will stay on your website for 8 seconds unless they are engaged.

Marketing for recruiting: Not only is it important to market for new customers, but also to market for new potential employees. In my companies we are constantly marketing for new talent.

In my last article I spoke about how important employees are for growth. Be strategic and anticipate who and when you’ll require new people to drive your business forward. Marketing for future employees can put you one step ahead of not only yourself, but also your competitors. You’ll already have a pool of talent to choose from when positions become available in your company.

Being one step ahead in business is essential if you want to reduce making wrong decisions. A wrong decision can cost you a lot of time and money. I’ve seen this first hand when businesses have to put bums on seats and square pegs in round holes because they’re ill prepared for either growth or departures. And it just doesn’t work, not if you want to be the best. And when you are the best, you attract the best.

To attract the best people, they need to know that you’re recruiting. One advert might just catch someone’s attention and give them something to think about. Our best recruits have come from platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed.

You can choose to advertise on these platforms both organically with a post or pay per click with sponsored ads.

The good thing about pay per click is that you’re in control. You can target specific people and also control your spending.

You can control your spending by setting a daily/weekly budget and can stop a campaign at any time. We get approached by agencies pretty much every day.  Personally, I’m not a fan. The fees they charge can be extortionate to say the least and who’s to say they won’t come back for your employee in the future when another company is looking to fill a similar position. Hence my scepticism with recruitment agencies. Be very choosey where you market for your future employees, especially if you want to attract the best.

The whole marketing game can be a mine field, but don’t let this put you off.  It’s all about thinking and planning a strategy and then getting started and executing it.

As the marketing world evolves, so will your business, if you’re actively participating.

There are a lot of ways to market so be mindful that it’s impossible to do them all at once. Like everything in business, it’s a process.

Personally, if you’re not doing Google pay per click, you’re missing out on a huge number of customers actively looking to spend money on your products or service.

Marketing experts are calling this the gold rush era. Similar to when Google Ads was first launched nearly 15 years ago when a lot of smart businesses got cash rich.

Marketing is a smart and fast way to financial freedom.

If you do anything today in your business, make sure marketing is the number one priority and don’t be afraid to invest some of that hard-earned money.

To be continued……