In today’s digital age, business owners and marketers are presented with diverse platforms and channels in rolling out their digital marketing strategies. However, even with these tools, companies still struggle on how to effectively market their products or services. One common pitfall is the consistency of the implementation of their marketing strategy.
For instance, business owners have a habit of pursuing their marketing efforts if and only if the sales are down. But as soon as the profits start pouring in, they put to a halt all of their marketing activities. This type of business strategy is called helicopter marketing.
Why Helicopter Marketing is Bad for Your Business
Helicopter marketing is characterised by a chronic “stop and go” mentality. One may think that the amateurs are the only guilty party here. Truth be told, even established organisations commit this rookie mistake.
The problem with helicopter marketing is that it forestalls the momentum that is supposed to be gained by the business each time a marketing strategy is implemented. Come to think of it: It takes copious amounts of fuel before a helicopter takes off. But once it’s mid-air and has gained momentum, the fuel efficiency of the helicopter is at its optimum. The same thing goes for your business. Each time you start your marketing effort, a lot of resources are being used. It would be unwise to spend all these resources only to suspend your marketing activities half way. In addition, maintaining the momentum of your digital marketing strategy is far more cost efficient than initiating a new course of action.
Helicopter marketing also happens when you do things hastily. The adage “Go big or go home” does not work at all times in digital marketing. More often than not, businesses tend to throw their money around even before they’ve actually gained foothold on the market. You may have a flawless strategy, but because of lousy management and poor oversight, you’ve exhausted all of your resources.
Our Solution: Proactive Marketing
Proactive marketing is all about employing a data-driven marketing approach to ensure positive development on your business. Unlike helicopter marketing which is focused on seizing momentary opportunities, proactive marketing looks at the bigger picture and long-term business growth. This includes taking into consideration future roadblocks, needs, and possible adjustments.
We’ve witnessed the shift of digital marketing into a field that is metrics focused and in real-time. Through proactive marketing, business owners can favorably adapt to this change using various tools, techniques, and platforms.
Proactive marketing can also give you insights on how to drive your marketing activities towards success, rather than focusing on why your campaign was a miss.
How to Be a Proactive Marketer
The bottom line of proactive marketing is to win your market, expand your business, and outdo the competition. The following steps will help you become a proactive marketer.
Proactive marketing boils down to staying ahead of the competition. In doing so, you should have at least mapped out your strategy for the entire year. Remember that the nature of your business and the time of the year are crucial when preparing the marketing arsenal. For instance, your marketing approach on January should be different from your concept come November.
Planning in advance also entails ensuring that you have access to all tools and materials needed in promoting your business. Make sure that all of these are readily available.
Create a budget and stick to it
Since marketing requires a lot of resources, you need to create a budget. More often than not, you will encounter a lot of sales pitch on how to market your product or service. In deciding which will best represent your brand, always ask yourself if the proposal is within your budget. If it does not, move on to the next pitch.
You also have to consider the return on investment (ROI) for the strategy that you choose to implement. Will it have a positive impact to your market? Is the approach worth every penny the business will spend?
Do A/B Test
If you want to be proactive, email is a good platform in responding with ease to current trends. Having said that, it is crucial to be three steps ahead of your market. By making a data-driven decision, you can predict with accuracy the next big thing that your market will revel in using an A/B testing.
You can try A/B testing the content of your email with a variety of texts, pictures, videos, sending time, and subject lines to determine which has better appeal and impact on your customers.
Always personalise
Preparing for what your customer needs is one of the hallmarks of proactive marketing. In doing so, you can personalise your approach based on your customers’ online behavior – what they read, when do they do it, and how often they do it. This will give you a good understanding on what engages your customers at a certain time and day, and on what kind of stimuli your market responds best. Segmenting your audience can also lead to a well-targeted marketing campaign.
Market using multiple channels
Multi-channel marketing is paramount in proactive marketing. It allows your business to relate and establish rapport with different groups of customers with personalised content and messages.
When creating such content, make sure that the message is clear and resonates across all your marketing channels. The customers should be able to see and perceive the same content regardless of the media platform they are using.
Monitor your results
Probably the most important part in proactive marketing is to keep track of your results. Identify areas or elements that can be tested or re-tested, and incorporate them in your marketing strategy. Since you can’t always win on your first try, you should easily adapt to new ideas or changes on your campaign.
How We Can Help You!
Visual Marketing Australia can assist you with your proactive marketing. We cover all online multi-channel marketing strategies and deliver real-time results. Our data-driven marketing approach is proven to give businesses a better picture of what the customers anticipate. Contact us today for a FREE 30 min consultation to know more about the VMA advantage we can offer your business.
With over 39 years’ experience in Print Media, Sales and Marketing, Online Services & Marketing plus Financial Service industries. John brings a wealth of knowledge to Visual Marketing Australia. As a Certified Google Partner, his Digital Marketing knowledge includes: Web Design & Development, SEO, Mobile App. Development, Online Marketing, Online Video Marketing and Email Marketing Solutions. With 12 years experience in using Zoho CRM it is a natural progression to become and Authorised Consulting Partner so we can now add Sales and Marketing Automation to the list.
