Every business or company loves to grow. No one can argue against that. But companies make a serious mistake when they don’t adapt to the new trends. A proper marketing strategy for a business is very essential to ensure continuous growth. Every businesses has a marketing strategy one way or another. But, only a small number of businesses follow proper strategic marketing.

Today, in order to make a business scalable, you must learn to adapt to the current marketing trends, focus on building an authentic brand value & set goals for the long-term. Many companies still think that they are doing good with the processes they are running the business with and they don’t need to try new things. Since the dawn of civilization, people have been marketing their goods & services and the way of marketing has evolved a lot throughout history. So, if you are not trying something new or adapting with the current trends, you are definitely living in the past.

Now, as you are reading this article, that means you’re researching to grow your business or trying to find new ideas to implement for your clients’ websites. In this article, we will discuss   what approach you should take to obtain long-term success & a better reputation through your marketing campaigns.

Let’s divide a marketing funnel into two parts,

• Offline Marketing
• Online Marketing  

Businesses or Companies that focus on both strategies, Offline and Online Marketing, as their promotion strategy are more likely to be successful and continue to grow than companies that are focused on a single platform.

Common forms of offline marketing are billboards, live demonstrations, posters, television ads, newspapers or magazine ads etc. Offline marketing channels are very effective when it comes to building a brand when combined with Online marketing channels.

Online Marketing channels include search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, influencermarketing, affiliate marketing and reputation management.

With the combination of both these platforms, you can achieve a better online reputation and establish your brand with a higher rate of customer retention & steady growth. I am no expert in offline marketing. So, let’s talk about why and what businesses should focus on to achieve a better brand value through online marketing.

Top 10 Tips to Build Local Small Businesses/Companies Brand Online

1. Adaptability to the new trends
2. Understanding the risks and benefits
3. Build Your Audience
4. Research your Competitors
5. Stand Out From The Crowd
6. Raise the Priority of your customers
7. Build an Authentic Baseline
8. Focus on long term goals
9. Don’t hesitate to test new ideas
10. Never give up

Adaptability

Magna published a study where they forecasted US ad revenue in 2018 and 2019. Here are the two major Key Points-

• 4.7% of total offline marketing share will be decreased in 2019
• 11.8% of total online marketing share will be increased in 2019

I guess you already understood why you must adapt to any new marketing trends. Digital Marketing is the key to building a scalable brand now and in the days to come.

Good online presence not only helps with growing the revenue but also helps to build the brand’s authenticity and trustworthiness.

Why Must You Adapt With a Digital Marketing Strategy to Your Marketing Plan?

• Low costs
• You can target specific people
• Easy to measure the effectiveness of the campaigns
• High ROI
• Helps to make the brand authoritative and trusted
• Easy to manage the reputation of the brand

Understanding the Risks and Benefits

A lot of businesses/companies still don’t want to take risks. There are always some risks involved when you launch a new business. But you can always work on lowering the risks by understanding and researching-

• The Market
• The Competition &
• The Opportunity

The core idea for any business is to earn money. Therefore, you must have a general idea about the probable benefits against the risks involved to be successful in the first place.

Build Your Audience

Build your target audience. The more specific the better. You don’t want to waste your money and effort on someone who doesn’t need your products or services or doesn’t live in the vicinity of your service area. Do thorough research to build a correct demographic of your audiences and plan your marketing strategy around it.

Research your Competitors

Research your competitors and other businesses in your niche who have been successful & have  an established brand value. It will not only help you with your marketing plan but also give you insight on how you can do better in some fields.

Stand Out From The Crowd

This is slightly related to your competitor research. Upon researching your competitors, you can decide on what that they lack & offer a better solution, add a new feature or showcase how your products or services are better suited for specific needs.

Customer Priority

A satisfied customer is a great part of branding. Engage with your customers, answer their queries and last but not least provide them with good products or quality services. A personal reference can increase the potential of any brand tenfold. Besides, customer satisfaction is the base of long-term success for any brand.

Build an Authentic Baseline

This consists of two parts: creating an attractive mission statement & staying true to it. An attractive tagline will help you draw customers to your brand. When your products or services are consistent with your mission statement, you are more likely to retain most of your customers. Besides, these satisfied customers can take your brand to  new heights through personal references, reviews or other means.

Think Big and Focus on Long-Terms Success

An organized online and offline marketing plan is badly connected to building a successful brand that will grow continuously. A good branding strategy includes both an online & offline marketing strategy which focuses on long-term goals (have 5 years, 2 years, 3 years, 1 year, 6 months, 3 months, and 6 weeks marketing plan).

Check out my other article where I explained the minimum 4 checkpoints in a one year digital marketing campaign.

• Checkpoint 1: After the first month
• Checkpoint 2: After three months
• Checkpoint 3: After six months
• Checkpoint 4: After one year

Always Test New Ideas

Online Marketing is continuously evolving. Successful branding strategy should include testing whether it’s for SEO, SEM, SMM, Email Marketing or any other online marketing platform.

Even now you can go from idea, wire frame, or technical specs to working applications if you have to. As long as you are honest in your approach, implementation of new ideas, methods or tricks can give you advantages over your competitors. But, don’t try to trick the search engines which can backfire.

Never Give Up

I have been doing online marketing for the last 9 years and from my experience it is very important for you to understand that you shouldn’t expect too much soon after the start.

Many business owners still think that it’s enough to work on a 3 or 6 months online marketing plan. But, there isn’t any limit on time-frame. Set up goals based on the checkpoints at least for a year. You must not forget to review the progress on each check-point.

Overall, if you have the resources, have an ability to invest, and of course by knowing the risks and opportunities, do not focus on  quick revenue or ranking keywords. Only focus on a proper branding with a minimum one year plan and review your progress on different checkpoints.

Everything is connected! From small to mid-sized local businesses, and multinational companies should focus on building an effective strategy including the maximum number of online marketing methods.

Successful Online Branding= SEO + SMM + SEM + Content Marketing + Reputation Management + Influencer Marketing and so on.

Promoting a business online isn’t rocket science but it is important to have some experience.

Increase your online visibility with an effective branding strategy and enter the league of successful business owners.

Online Marketing is becoming more and more technical. It’s time to dive deeper and avoid traditional ways of thinking. It’s time to take your business to new heights for 2019 and beyond.

Have any question and feedback’s? Just shoot in the comment below. I am a human being and I can make mistakes.

Jubayer Hossain

Jubayer Hossain is The Founder at SEO With Clarity, an SEO consultant and entrepreneur. He has proven himself as a successful online marketer since 2010 and founded Ninja Creative Marketing in 2017. He can be reached at jubayer@ninjacreativemarketing.com.