The term tactic refers to a carefully planned strategy or action that aims to achieve a specific end. In other words, a systematically planned way of doing something. Hence marketing tactics are the actual strategic actions that are taken to direct product research and development, pricing, distribution, promotion, etc to achieve specific marketing goals. They are high-level concepts that direct content creation.
- These are the top 10 marketing tactics that work
- Paid Digital Advertising
- Pay Per Click (PPC)
- Sponsorship as an Influencer Marketing Strategy
- Endorsement through an Influencer
- Testimonial Marketing Strategy
- Co-Branding and Collaboration
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Blogging
- Guesting, as an Influencer Marketing Strategy
- Live Streaming as a Marketing Strategy
These are the top 10 marketing tactics that work
By using the following list of strategic actions, one can direct content creation efforts to achieve desired marketing goals. The following list of strategies will give brands an option in choosing tools of marketing strategies to make goals a reality.
Paid Digital Advertising
A paid digital advertising strategy is not just for getting the ads of brands on the front pages of search engines., but also advertising on social media and across many websites, platforms, and mediums including podcasts. Brands looking to grow and implement an effective digital marketing strategy.
This method requires companies to pay a publisher (like a search engine or website owner) each time someone clicks or views their ads in a search result on a website, social media, or on a miscellaneous digital platform. With this approach, you can essentially buy attention, rather than the (often long-term) approach of earning it organically. Eg. Ads on Facebook, YouTube, etc.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Another common, yet effective strategy used by marketers is Pay Per Click (PPC). PPC is another strategy for digital advertising, commonly used by marketers, where the advertiser is asked to pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Initially, the brand is paying for targeted visits to its website (or landing page or app).
PPC when correctly works, the fee is trivial because the click is worth more than what you pay for it. For example, if a brand pays Rs. 3 per click, but the click results in a 300 sale, then the marketing agency has made a hefty profit.
PPC ads come in different forms, sizes (literally), and shapes. They can be made up of text, images, videos, or a combination. The look of the PPC ads differs from platform to platform, but in general, the process they all follow is:
1. First, they choose the campaign type based on the brand objective.
2. They then refine the settings and targeting (audiences, devices, locations, schedule, etc.).
3. They then provide the brand’s budget and bidding strategy.
4. They then input the company’s destination URL (landing page).
5. Lastly, they build your ad.
A newly created campaign needs to be managed regularly to remain effective. Regular account activity is one of the best predictors of account success, thus brands and agencies alike must continuously analyze the performance and make adjustments to optimize their campaigns by continuously adding PPC keywords, adding negative keywords to improve campaign relevancy, and reducing wasted spending, reviewing costly PPC keywords and shutting them off if they are under-performing, modifying the content and CTAs to align the landing pages with individual search queries to boost conversion rates. To increase click-through rate (CTR) and Quality Score, splitting up ad groups into smaller, more relevant ad groups, helps brands create more targeted ad text and landing pages.
Sponsorship as an Influencer Marketing Strategy
This is another paid marketing tactic that provides brands money in exchange for the brand’s representation at events, etc. A general rule in sponsorship marketing is when two brands decide to work together professionally. Basically, it means that a brand will sponsor the other in some form of resources, funding, or services.
There are 3 kinds of sponsorships-
A. Financial Sponsorship which is referred to as a cash sponsor. It is the most popular and common type of sponsorship.
B. In-Kind Sponsorship is a unique type of sponsorship in which the sponsor will agree to offer products or services in place of cash. Media event sponsorship involves the promotion of an event or activity of another entity, organization, or individual and is a form of in-kind sponsorship. The common ways the promotion occurs is through social media postings, YouTube videos, blog post publishing, and information sharing by way of broadcasting over the local television network.
C. Promotional Partners sponsorships involve the promotion of an event, brand, product, or service, usually by a well-known individual, such as a social media influencer or blogger. it occurs across various platforms and in a variety of ways. These promoters, themselves receive something in return, such as a speaking spot in an upcoming event.
Endorsement through an Influencer
when a celebrity or someone famous publicly provides positive reviews of a brand, product, or service on his or her social media handle. The use of social media influencers has become a massive part of marketing strategies, allowing brands to tap into a smaller but more loyal pool of potential customers.
Brands pay people with an established audience to endorse their products. The followers of an influencer believe implicitly or explicitly, and the audience believes that the endorsements come from a more well-researched and sincere source. Usually, there is a formal agreement between the influencers and the brands; influencers are usually more selective about their affiliation, choosing whom to partner with based on their own unique personal brands so as not to alienate their followers.
Influencers have worked hard to build their following, so they should not risk endorsing a product that doesn’t fit their brand or appeal to their followers. Celebrity product endorsements are more about attaching a person’s name recognition to a particular brand, regardless of how wide the audience is.
Testimonial Marketing Strategy
Testimonials are a form of endorsement where customers provide positive reviews of a brand, product, or service that is not yet known in the market. Testimonial ads work for such brands because people trust other people.
In one survey conducted, approximately 76% of consumers said they trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family. This serves as social proof when consumers are attempting to make a decision by looking at previous decisions made by peers. When consumers are unsure about something, they assume that someone else with more knowledge on the topic knows more than they do.
Hence, a product description crafted by the copy team might be excellent, but a product description that details how consumers use the product in their own words is way better, as it provides social proof to online shoppers.
Co-Branding and Collaboration
When brands collaborate with other businesses to create content that will attract a mutually beneficial target audience, it is called “co-branding.” It uses multiple brand names on a good or service as part of a strategic alliance. It is also known as “brand partnership,” “co-branding, or cobranding, encompassing several different types of branding collaborations, and typically involving the brands of at least two companies. Each brand in a strategic alliance contributes to its own identity to create a melded brand with the help of unique logos, brand identifiers, and colour schemes, e.g., Masaba and Nykaa cosmetics.
Co-branding combines the strength, recognition, and cachet of two or more brands to persuade consumers to pay more for them, making the product less susceptible to private-label imitations.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
In simple terms, it is a process of improving a website by increasing its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in Google, Bing, and other such search engines. SEO fundamentally is a part of digital marketing strategy, the reason being users conduct trillions of searches every year, with commercial intent to find information about products and services.
Search is often the fundamental source of digital traffic for brands and complements other marketing channels. With greater visibility and higher ranking in such search results than your competitors, the brand can have a material impact on its bottom line. SEO is considered to be the foundation of a holistic marketing ecosystem.
When brands/ companies understand what the users want, they can then implement that knowledge across their campaigns (paid and organic), website, social media properties, and other channels.
Blogging
Blog Marketing refers to a World Wide Web evolution of business successes. Blogging content has proven to engage viewers psychologically. As a marketing strategy, it was derived with the purpose of original webloggers. The term “weblog” became “weblog” which became today’s “blog”.
Blog marketing is a content marketing strategy. As a marketing strategy, blogs use addressing potential customers directly and individually. It thus helps in achieving customer loyalty for their own brand. This kind of marketing uses viral marketing methods in which an interest group is built based on a blog.
Pros of blogging:
1. Blogs are inexpensive to start and run. The only costs one has to bear are for a domain name and web hosting, and you can have a customized blog marketing setup.
2. Most blogging platforms are simple to use. One can copy, paste, type, drag and drop, and upload options, making it easy for you to have a professional-looking blog.
3. Blogs build website traffic by Offering tips, updates, and other new content giving people a reason to come back to your business website, which gives them the opportunity to buy.
4. Blogs improve Search Engine Ranking, particularly on SEO like Google, which likes to find and rank new content. For this sole reason, many brands and companies use blogging specifically for search engine optimization (SEO).
5. Blogs allow users to gain trust and credibility. People prefer to be aware of whom they’re doing business with. Hence, blogs give companies and brands insights, proving they are experts and helping consumers feel good about spending money on their products or service.
6. Blogs keep the brand’s market engaged. Most businesses use Twitter and other social media platforms more than blogs for engagement, blogs can allow them to have a conversation with their market, giving them the opportunity to build trust and rapport, as well as get feedback and provide customer service.
7. Blogs help in Creating opportunities for Revenue. One can accept advertising, promote affiliate products, and get sponsors, adding additional sources of revenue to their business.
Guesting, as an Influencer Marketing Strategy
When marketers appear as guests on shows, webinars, blogs, etc, is called guesting, and the most prevalent method of guesting is podcast guesting.
In podcast guesting, the marketer appears as a guest on someone else’s podcast. He spends anywhere from 15 to 50 minutes sharing his perspectives on a topic in discussion, a story of value, or his marketing experiences with the podcast’s audience. In return for guesting, the marketer will have an opportunity to reach out to a large audience, generating more influence, income, or followers for himself or the brand.
Also, Read Our Blog On – Top 19 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2023
Live Streaming as a Marketing Strategy
Live streaming is an event marketing tactic in which you record and share your meeting in real time as it unfolds. This strategy has changed the way retailers and marketers speak to online audiences. In the past, e-commerce stores relied on static images and boring text descriptions to engage potential customers. This trend was uprooted by pre-recorded video content which still proves as a powerful tool on many social platforms. Even though technology might be constantly evolving.
Brands can create engaging content via live-stream videos, which can be marketed to a vast audience – all in real-time. It brings huge positive results through more engagement, to more sales, leading to more successful product launches. Streaming of live footage has created a connection between the brands/influencers and many customers at once. The goal of live streaming as a strategic tool is to reach more potential customers.
This strategy has exceeded many formats in the marketing area because video allows a more personal connection between the host and their audience.
Pros of Live streaming:
Live streams are a versatile content format
In live stream, viewers aren’t expecting a polished, television-like production, but they’re expecting real people to speak to them directly. Hence live streaming has a level of versatility that other video content lacks.
Some of the cons of a live-streaming strategy include:
Individual customers are neglected in live streaming. It often features a chat window next to the video stream – but not all users will get a look in from the host or presenter. In reality, it’s almost impossible to host a live stream and take note of all the comments pouring in.
Live streaming can provide mixed results. As with any other kind of digital marketing technology, there’s a lot of buzz surrounding live streaming – particularly from those who’ve achieved success with the format. However, not every business will experience the same results with live-stream videos. Almost no businesses will receive the same audience share as the most popular influencers.
Streaming live is time-consuming. Live streaming might be growing in popularity, it cannot be considered the most time-effective format for brands who want to maximize their marketing efforts. The reason is live streamers make a consistent and continued effort to keep producing content over a long period.