Marketing

Creating a Smarter Marketing Strategy

By | February 9, 2016

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The fundamental insight that your smarter marketing strategy must take into account about the current state of marketing is that there has been a seismic shift in the past 5 years. Marketing has moved from stick to carrot. “Marketing” used to mean buying ads, buying clicks, buying visits and, while those things are still useful, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. Instead of buying peoples attention we focus on earning it: the industry term is “Inbound Marketing.” Companies should focus on providing valuable content for their prospective clientele.

The good news is that business owners know their business. You don’t need to figure which ad will perform better but just start sharing your knowledge with others.

How to Execute Your Business’s Marketing Plan

While this is certainly good news, the key is getting your content to the places where your target clientele are already congregating.

Too often companies will churn out content for their blog hoping that the SEO value will skyrocket their business to greatness when their daily traffic is downwards of 20–30 unique visits. While there is value to investing in your own web property, attention should not be directed at reinventing the wheel. In every industry there are already web locations where the majority of your clientele already frequent. Andinvesting time there will render a exponential return compared to working in ones own sphere.

Step 1 — Write a relevant article

The differentiator from simple blog composition is “relevancy.” You can determine what is relevant by reviewing the topics in the major newspapers in their business and finance sections. Even better, go to Buzzsumo, filter by the past month, and search for your industry.

Buzzsumo will give you the most shared content on any topic. From my search on November 19th, I gathered this data for financial planners:

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From here we can we can generate complementary article ideas. Here are 5 ideas generated from a non-financial person…me:

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Step 2 — Amplification

This is the step that is often ignored but it is critical to marketing success. Simply posting the article to your website and promoting it in your social channels is of marginal value.

When you gather content from other articles and bloggers, reach out to those authors, and let them know who you are and explain that a previous article they wrote provided impetus for the article you wrote. Every blogger wants their articles to be shared and used, and by building relationships with other bloggers it opens up opportunities for you and your blog.

Be patient. Reach out to multiple people. If they don’t respond, contact them on Twitter and Facebook. Implementing this marketing plan is both efficient and lean because it focuses your attention where your potential clients are.

And There’s More

If you’re interested in more ways to optimize your financial planning marketing plan, check out our free eBook:
Download SEO Guide here

Jeffery James
Jeffery James
Jeffery is the Creative Director and Principal of Spire2. He brings marketing expertise from a variety of industries. He excels at understanding clients' corporate objectives, translating them into brand positioning and executing marketing materials that exceed expectations.