3 tactics you must add to your marketing in 2018

When it comes to marketing, there are probably hundreds of thousands of tactics out there – those that work and those that don’t, and even those that stopped working (e.g. keyword stuffing).

Unfortunately however, those tactics that really work and get you your desired results are far fewer than those that will have no quantifiable impact on your business. This is one of the reasons it’s ideal to find what works for you and stick with it, instead of chasing after every next shiny object.

However, there are several tactics that would definitely work for any business at any time, and should therefore be added to your marketing arsenal this coming year. Here are three of them:

1. Smart content

We’ve always known that content is king. But in an era where one new technology keeps disrupting the other, content isn’t just king now; it has gone smart too.

Smart content is simply content that is personalized to meet your customers’ needs. Whether a prospect is in the middle of making a buying decision or just realizing your brand for the first time, smart content helps you deliver content tailored specifically to prospects at whatever stage they are with your brand.

If you’ve not been creating custom content for your audience, it’s time to add that to your marketing arsenal and stop shouting into the dark. Tools like Hubspot will help you achieve this easily and seamlessly.

Yes, it would require some investment, but that’s just what it is: investing – which should normally lead to profit and business growth. If money is an issue, have you heard of p2p lending?

2. Retargeting/remarketing

What’s more interesting (and profitable) than getting tons of traffic to your site? It’s getting to visit your site again the over 70% of those who leave your site and would otherwise never have come back. Well, that’s the summary of what retargeting (aka remarketing) is.

Certain platforms, like Google and Facebook, allow you to plant in your website a cookie that captures the identities of those who visit your website over a certain period of time, all of whom you can advertise exclusively to again and again whenever you wish.

Take a minute to imagine what that would do to your business, especially when an audience that has shown interest (by visiting your site) is easier to convert than an entirely new (or cold) audience.

Bottom line is: if you’ve not been retargeting your website visitors by now, it’s time to add that to your marketing arsenal in 2018.

3. Influencer marketing

It’s a well-known fact: people take action more when the recommendation is from someone they know, like and trust. That’s why friends and family, celebrities, and those now tagged “influencers” in the social world can influence people’s decisions in a powerful way.

Why don’t you make that work in your favor?

Influencer marketing is on the rise and it’s for a good reason: people are taking action based on recommendations by the new age influencers on social media. They follow them, love them, and trust them, and therefore take whatever they say as the gospel truth.

All you have to do – same way even Fortune 500 companies are doing it – is walk up (digitally) to someone that has built a huge, loyal and highly-engaged audience and make them talk about your product or service to their tens or hundreds of thousands of fans.

This will make your brand look “cool” to these fans and therefore influence them to check you out. Those who like what they see would stick around and probably do business with you down the line.

Of course, the “shout-out” or recommendation you’d get from the influencer will be for a fee.

Add these three tactics to your marketing arsenal in 2018, then sit back and watch the profits roll in.