Marketing is a very challenging job. Follow these footsteps of experts to become a great and successful marketer.
Whether it’s a startup or a well-known brand, marketing is just like the icing on the cake. Most people get confused over two things here.
One is lead generation, and the second is just marketing. These two do fall under each other, but again, the difference is beyond what we can expect as a result.
Every single marketer has his or her own way of P.R. campaigns and ads. It can either be SEO, SMM or even email marketing. But what I’ve seen so far is that every marketer out there is confused.
Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but that’s the truth. Let Me Tell You the whys and hows in this blog post.
However, my personal observation has confirmed that the general rule of thumb is not so general after all to become a great marketer.
1. Scores Are Astonishing
To state this, I’ve collected certain scores through question-answer surveys. So, my findings are based on the logic of the responses I received.
My conclusions are quite surprising after certain surveys I did via the Typeform application. These surveys have helped me to gather certain useful conclusions.
I used this to prove certain effects of different marketing procedures. And the answers will surprise you too. I used personalization as my testing question and how marketers relate it to their procedures. About 32% of the said experts were “confused” about the process.
Then, a total of 40% were not so sure about how to “personalize” with their customers. Further, I got a mixed response from “we care” to “use social media platforms” for personalization. Now, why “us”, the experts are, confused with marketing in general? I’ll come to that in a bit.
2. Measure Your Brands Loyalty To Win Customers
A marketer must be focused on developing a better approach to finding customers' loyalty. Happy customers are your longtime revenue. It keeps growing only if you keep focusing. So, talk with your customers. Ask questions. Determine your failures based on the results.
Like, I tried the NPS survey about a certain brand - and will the millennials on my Facebook page recommend it? It is a simple method: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend the brand to a friend or colleague?" was the survey question.
And, depending on the results, I could understand how likely the product will be famous. Similarly, you'll find how many of your customers promote your brand. And how many of them are passive or critics.
Thus, you’ve to be focused on your findings and invest energy in more actionable projects.
3. ASK – If It Makes No Sense
Yes, please do ask. I know there are a lot of challenges when it comes to the ROI of your business. But marketing is a great way to increase what you’re doing to how you’re doing it.
Things vary with each step. Lead generation is the second part of a great marketing method. And it doesn’t matter how you reach your customers.
But, yes, it does matter when you personalize your approach. So, calm down with the confusion in your sales funnel, as that’s directly hitting your marketing approach.
You can lose your potential and loyal customers with one small mistake. So, stop there, and let me tell you how not to do that.
4. What Is Your Challenge?
A step-by-step growth is better if you follow what your predecessors were doing. But, in a digitally fast marketing phase, this will not work. The out-of-the-box thinking and forecasting will work here unless, of course, you do have a magic wand.
Your customers determine the success and failure of your brand, services or products. And one unhappy customer might look like a big failure to you, but they are my lessons for me.
I learn with every failure and grow with every positive feedback. This isn’t about being famous, and it’s all based on my ideology of success.
Whenever it was confusing for me during my college days, I used to determine what the team lead was doing. Or how someone else scored better grades than me.
The same happens when you’re confused about what you’re doing with your marketing strategy. Either you can copy an idea or borrow it. But there may be some concerns here, like plagiarism, copyright issues, or even stealing.
Yes, you did read the stealing part right over there. But these things can cause issues like:
Legal action
Spam website content
Plagiarism detection
Google Penalties
Shady or questionable brand repute
So, all of these teach you what? That to be an original mimicker is better than being a stealer. Or is the great marketer mindset based on stealing only? A tough choice by far, but great marketers do the smart stealing, and I’ll come to that next.
6. Steal Or Copy?
Another million-dollar question. So, here is my tip. Don’t just copy and get penalized. Instead, steal the idea that is working, and make changes by giving due credit.
Yeah, but be careful how you pitch my idea of stealing to your brain. The trick is to research your niche carefully. Do a bit-by-bit analysis of popular branding ideas.
Use the same approach in your marketing, and fix some different styles.
P.S. Don’t just steal modestly. Be inventive with your own scheming and set up things straight.
Your version of copying is quite comparable to my version of stealing. Because if something is working for your competitors, then the chances will be bright for you too.
7. Is Creative Marketing Great?
Of course, greatness comes with time and experience. But, a great marketer comes with intelligence. If you’re a good marketer, chances are you’re still confused.
But, on the other hand, if you’re a great marketer, then by now, you’ve already read this post. And will be writing your next article based on my theory.
Surely, you’ll mention what I am discussing here and will pay the due credits if it’s a republished work. However, you’ll also be using your own words in my idea. And that, my friend, is your answer.
Steal with the ingenious outcome!
8. Confused Consumer Issue?
I've also concluded something important for you with my online survey and a little help from Harvard Business School stats. Most of the time, it’s a confused consumer causing difficulty. Let me tell you how that’s affecting your marketing next.
Nevertheless, a confused consumer is there because of certain branding after-effects. A consumer only gets confused if the service or product is available with different features.
For example, buy one get one free offer or subscribe today and win a gift voucher.
Now, even if I get both of these offers from two different brands and with different services, I’ll get confused too.
Now, the customer gets confused and expects similar services or quality levels from other brands.
Which, as a result, makes the sale difficult. And thus, a confused customer goes beyond the norms of special marketing. Avoiding this situation is possible. You’ll need to add more quality to your customer service or product.
Building trust is the next ingredient to a loyal customer recipe. You can use it with awesome content as content marketing is making progress daily and is the easiest personalization tool.
9. Great Content – Big Results – Better Marketing?
Makes sense. All three of them deliver what you’re looking for. Your answers are here. Social media marketing, search engine optimization, ads etc., all are based on great content, big results and better market reach.
Within a few years, content marketing results have skyrocketed and will continue to do so. Google ranks your websites based on awesome content. Rewrites or copied work is identified immediately based on effective content strategy.
So, stealing overcomes copying with more of an action plan method. A great marketer knows this and is using it to its best potential.
Almost everything is better than what it was in previous years. Now people buy need-based and are more focused on the “value” of the services or products.
More and more increase has been seen in smartphone sales, mobile data, 3G – 4G, and social media platforms. Your customers are better equipped than the GEN-X customers. I’m talking about the age group of the 70s and 80s here.
These were just some day-to-day important things that you need to remember. Now, your consumer has already seen your reviews and ratings. GEN-Y consumers do everything smartly.
Don’t go any further. Look at Nokia. One of the best brands of the 1990s and 2010. But, they failed to create a different product with a smart-touch ideology.
This, in return, dropped their sales, and Apple got its initial break to thousands of customers. So, the need-based marketing tactic survived the era of smart touch with Apple. And, we rarely see any drop in the company’s sales.
Now smart technology is the call of tomorrow.
11. Is There A Better Method To Do It?
Of course, there is. Never underestimate the power of your brain while being a marketer.
You already know many things about marketing. So, here is how you become a great marketer by stealing others ideas and copying them into yours.
Now, let us talk about making you a one-big-smart marketer. Here is the “HOW” part, which you need to learn and use:
A great marketer will use the “free” resource approach to generate better leads. Make something different in your niche free and eye-catching, like free consultations or free eBooks or something similar.
This, as a result, will get you immediate leads along with word-of-mouth leads as well.
You’ve to be exceptionally crafty with this idea. Invest as little as you can but do add quality in the “free” part.
You can also use countless online tools and webinars to generate leads and mimic your competitor’s idea of “free” resources to do it better. You’re lucky, as Google helps simplify things for you. For example, you’re a growth hacking specialist.
There will be more within your city, area, and country. So, naturally, you have many competitors, and I bet each of them must be exceptionally great.
Now type “Growth Hacking Specialist” on Google. You’ll immediately see your rival results, and you can explore their websites and mimic their resources to build your own similarly.
TIP! This will get you, subscribed-and-free users, as well.
13. Enhanced Email Subjects Matter More
Email marketing has proved to be result-oriented for many years now. If you’re not trying it, you’re losing a major chunk of your business.
So, be creative with your email subjects. You’re investing in one of the top marketing strategies and are bound to get results with “creativity.”
This will get people actually to open and read your emails. Don't drag something generic or monotonous. Give an opening to initiate a conversation. See and learn about your customers.
Is it a coffee break that makes sense to them or a healthy lifestyle? Pitch them on their likes, and make it sound need-based. Start your email with a personalized opening. Add a few drops of empathy.
Let your customer know that you CARE, and show them how you care.
Tip! Subscribe to emails and newsletters from your competitors. And save the ones with awesome headlines to get inspired in your time of need.
This will help you plan your next email if your brain is not ringing any bell.
14. Blogs, Viral Social Media Posts & Great Content Marketing – All Help
Now start drafting great blogs with an awesome and classy headlines. Use hashtags and viral them on social feeds through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.
Create hype about your product and services. Mimic the strategy of your competitors to generate great content ideas. This will, in return, get you strong leads.
Use their idea of connecting with your customers in a unique method. As I said above, if things work for your rivals, they will work for you too. Give credits wherever they’re due.
And, with this, you’ll become a great marketer instead of just being good. But, once again, do the smart stealing, the smart way.
Tell me, what idea of your competitors did you mimic to generate effective leads?
Rafi Chowdhury is the founder of Chowdhury’s Digital and co-founder of myCampusHacks. He helps companies like Vapetek, Shapes Brow Bar, Win Hyundai, Wound Care Surgeons, and Easley Transportation grow their revenue. Examiner.com calls him the go-to guy for traffic generation, SplashOPM says he is one of the top Growth Hacking gurus on the web, Start-up Dhaka says he is one of the youngest and most successful marketers ever to come from Bangladesh, and Northeast Today Magazine calls him a web analytics Expert.
