Our list brings you 11 advertising tips to reach new customers in 2022, straight from the advertising experts themselves.
Staying on top of your marketing strategy can be tricky. The pandemic has changed the rules of everything, and now that businesses have settled into new ways of doing things, it is time to look at one specific marketing tactic—advertising. In this article, we will look at 11 different ideas to refresh your advertising strategy so that you are on top of what’s working right now. We have reached out to several experts in their field, and they have provided fresh ideas that will help take your advertising strategy to the next level.
Keep your message clear
With any message you send to your audience, whether it is related to service updates or regulatory, you need to keep your messaging clear, concise and to the point. However, when your creating messaging for advertising, in addition to clarity, you need to be sure that you are speaking with the voice of the customer:
“New customers may not know you exist…the problem is they probably don’t care when you try to tell them you do. Make your messaging about the pain you solve in your potential new customers…tell them about the frustrations they have today that would be gone if they bought from you. Some people think “if you build it, they will come” this is not true…in business, it’s “when you build it, no one cares”. You have to make them care.” —Zed Williamson, CEO, TrackableMed
Why should your target audience care about your service or product or whatever your advertisement communicates? Remember, it is about your audience and not you, as a business owner.
Quality content
Content marketing strategy runs the gambit between blogging, videos, social posts, etc. Regardless of the format or medium, the content you produce needs to be quality.
With blogging, you are given an opportunity to write something in long-form that allows you to tell a fuller story of your product or service, using success stories, impact metrics, or reviews to share why a potential customer should work with you.
“Content marketing is a powerful form of marketing yet utilized correctly by only a handful of businesses. My advice is to create original, authentic content; relevant to your audience and time, validated by research and references. Produce long form of content ~ 2000 words or so to be impactful.” —Mandeep Kumar, Director of Arete Soft Labs Inc.
Video creation is becoming increasingly important. Whether it is the modern reduced attention span or because people watch videos at work when they need to be SFW (safe for work), videos need to be short and to the point. You can certainly create a longer-form video used in blogs but know that a shorter form must be used for advertising purposes. There are options out there like, Biteable, that make it easy and cheap to create these videos.
Social media is a great platform to share longer stories via blogs or video, but they are providing a space for short-form content—like a photo with text (Instagram) or a 30-second video that expresses a story quickly.
Get your name out there
The depth of the internet is endless. There is always an opportunity to get your startup’s name out into a new space. These include lists, online directories, and review sites. Easy and free tools include claiming your business name in listings within your industry or location. Take a look at the obvious sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Angie’s List to ensure your local business is represented. Then take a deeper dive into less known sites that can still support your business.
Equally important is to ensure that your Google business page is accurate and up to date. You do not want another business to get confused with yours, resulting in possible negative reviews that factor into a lower SEO score or poor reputation. It may seem basic, but ensuring that the contact information (address, phone number, and hours of operation) is accurate is important. Having inaccurate information like this can set off a negative review.
Review your social channels
Perhaps you are a rockstar at the social channels that you are currently using—congratulations! However, entrepreneurs never stay stagnant in their strategy. There is always an opportunity to find potential customers, using search engine optimization (SEO) and re-evaluating your unused channels: social media posts.
“Utilizing social media platforms your business doesn’t currently use is a great way to reach new customers, this may require some brainstorming, however, platforms like LinkedIn and Pinterest are greatly over-looked, LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for generating B2B leads and growing your business network, whereas Pinterest has the potential to land your product on the first page of Google while generating thousands of keen eyes. Listing websites are also a great way to drum up new business; most of these listing sites are either free to list your business or they offer low-cost options for placements on their website. Local listings are typically the best place to look as you know your local area the best.” —Ben Precious, CEO, Pace Social Media
Using your social channels and the social posts that you share; you can increase your potential customer base immensely.
Hear From Industry Experts
Read the latest tips, research, best practices, and insights from our community of expert B2B service providers.
Pay-per-click
While not a “new” concept for 2022, Pay-per-click advertising is certainly more important than ever. In 2019, there were 160 billion+ monthly Google searches. And with Google making the bulk of its revenue through Google Ads, it is a booming business.
Pay-per-click advertising is when you only pay for the clicks that a customer does on an ad. It can also be known as cost-per-click (CPD). PPCs are used primarily within social sites like Meta and search engines, like Google.
For small businesses or start-ups, PPCs are extremely popular. You only have to pay for what is clicked on and you can create a maximum so that you do not exceed your budget. It is quite easy to become an expert at the PPC so that you can test different markets to see what fits your target customers. This is what one expert had to say:
“You can reach a large amount of customers at a low cost with Google Display Ads. $2 per day is enough to get you started, less if you have a small area target. Put together a great graphic or 2, and your logo. Add a few headlines and descriptions, and select a few audiences to target, relevant to your business. Before you know it you’ll be getting thousands of appearances online, and maybe some inquiries/sales!” —Ray Cheselka, CMO, webFEAT Complete
Meta (including Facebook and Instagram) and Google are the monoliths of the PPC model. They are machines in what they do which is great because there are a lot of training opportunities for a small business to better understand how to use this advertising model for your benefit. The flip side is that they often make changes to the way they do things, which means that you feel like you often need to catch up.
Organic reach
In addition to the pay-per-click option, organic web traffic is a tried-and-true method to get your audience to your site and convert a lead into a sale. However, unlike PPC, organic reach comes from visitors who land on your website from unpaid sources.
The better your website, your content, and social channels are functioning and are updated, the higher your organic traffic will be. If all your channels are answering relevant questions, sharing compelling stories, ensuring all links (including backlinks) work, and are branded uniquely, then there is no option other than for potential customers to start using word-of-mouth referrals, driving more clients to your page. Other examples of organic reach that do not cost money but are effective are coupons, incentives, and giveaways. This all leads to high search engine optimization (SEO) and success for your site.
The trick with using this marketing tactic is that it takes a lot of elbow grease. It isn’t an automated process and as a result, it will take time and effort on your part. And change does not happen overnight, but if you stay on top of your channels, you will eventually see a significant increase in organic traffic and conversions.
Find speaking events and enter awards
As a small business owner or start-up, you are an expert on your service or product. In advertising, the idea is to get your company’s name out there so your target customers find you and purchase your product or service. What better way to leverage your expertise and need as a business than to be a speaker at an event or webinar? For example, if you own a business that provides a service to recruit new hires, then you could speak at an event for HR professionals. By getting your name and company’s profile out there, and in front of the target audience, you are advertising your services.
As an expert in your field, it is likely that you are excelling within the industry. By applying for awards in your industry, you will gain recognition and can also use your winning award to share credibility with your target customers.
Influencer Marketing
Leveraging social media partnerships and the need for compelling/honest stories, influencer marketing has become a trendy advertising model.
Influencers are people who have built a large follower base (usually over 10K). Advertisers tap into these influencers to share their new products or services with a dedicated follower base. For example, if you have an eCommerce beauty product that appeals to women 45 and over, you may ask an influencer or celebrity like Nicole Kidman to share her personal experience on her social channels.
Influencers do not have to be traditional celebrities, nor do they have to be someone you even know. Again, the key is to figure out who your target market is and who they follow on social media. From here you can research relevant influencers. According to SproutSocial, the average price for an influencer with 10,000 or fewer followers is $271 per post, $763 for influencers with 100,000 or more.
Partnerships
Everyone that is in your industry is not necessarily a competitor. They may be offering a service that you do not provide or a product that supports other companies. By creating partnerships with one of these companies, you can leverage similar marketing efforts so that you are not doing double the work. Examples of joint ventures may be creating a blog post featured on another business’s page.
Use your data
Having a great idea, seemingly useful content and the perfect influencer means nothing unless you make decisions based on data.
When you are creating your content on social or a video for your site, have you researched the messaging that your target audience needs and wants to hear? If not, stop what you are doing and go back to the demographic data. This will inform the messaging you create so that your communication works for you.
When looking for an influencer, have you looked at who their audience is and what type of new products they already use? If their audience isn’t within your demographic target audience or if they are not someone who would use your product then do not use them for your advertising.
As a small business, every dollar you spend or time you use diminishes the budget and affects your bottom line for other important things for your business. Be strategic and use the data that you have available. If you do not have that data, create a system so you can start compiling and analyzing it.
Test, test, test
Once you have your data and have enacted your strategy, it is time to test and analyze your results. Testing depends on the type of advertising strategy you focus on.
If you decide to focus on PPC—then you would test the picture and copy of the ad itself along with the target audience on the backend that would see the ad. You may find that the “obvious” target audience is not the right one for this particular ad.
If you decide to focus on organic reach, this will take longer to compile the data. However, once you have tested different types of blogs or backlinks on your site, you should start seeing where the successes are. Once you see an increase or decrease, analyze those results, adjust, and test again.
Ready to reach your audience in 2022?
Advertising is one of the most traditional marketing tactics out there. But just because it has been around, doesn’t mean that you need to do the same old, same old. By staying up to date on your company’s information, leveraging partnerships and social media platforms, and using quality content, you are prepared for a successful advertising strategy.