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5 Questions Your Marketing Must Address To Succeed In 2016

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The economy hasn’t been this good since 2007. The stock market is as high as it has ever been. If you are reading this, you have most likely made more money this year than ever before. It’s time to get serious about growing your business… not just maintaining your business.

 

  1. Is every consumer touch-point turning into information for you to re-market to the consumer?

Analysis: Getting Ms. Jones to buy today is really hard. However, according to collective analytics of 13 R&A clients, website traffic is actually up almost 5% versus last year. Is your website turning every impression into a possible opportunity for remarketing? The more information you collect on Ms. Jones the more likely you are to get her to come in when she is ready.

Solution: Get an email pop up on your website. R&A clients’ have experienced a 2% opt in rate from website visitors to email subscribers. Want to get really creative? Put up dedicated pop ups throughout the site based on visit length or category viewing.

 

  1. Have you accepted that social media is no longer purely an earned media but also a viable paid media?

Analysis: Facebook’s advertising revenue in Q3 of 2015 was 4.5 billion dollars (up from 2.106 billion in Q3 2013). Just this year, R&A clients have experienced an increase of 500% in Facebook advertising expense verses this time last year. Advertising at its core is about interrupting what a consumer is absorbing to create a message that sticks. When 65% of Facebook’s users are daily active users (meaning they access the site as least once every 24 hours), it proves that this is now a mega force in traditional advertising tactics.

Solution: For every 4 posts you make on Facebook, one should be promoted to a select audience. Read over this presentation for info on how to effectively take advantage of Facebook promoted posts given by CEO Kevin Doran at the Brand Source national convention in March of 2015.

  1. Is your online selling environment reflective of the online selling environment you crave as a consumer?

Analysis: I am sure you have bought something online in the last 12 months. When you bought online, what struck you about the selling environment? What pulled you in to be able to pull the trigger on that specific site? We are all consumers and have reasons why we buy online. Have you tried to browse on your site lately? Have you tried to see how it matches up with your expectations as a consumer? In most cases (at least 73% of them), your website is the consumer’s first impression of you. Is it truly the impression you want to deliver?

Solution: Buy furniture online. See how the process works. See how it compares to your buying experience at the brick and mortar level, then how it matches up with your current website. Decide for yourself, as a consumer, if you are satisfying Mrs. Jones. Really want to dig deep? Do it on a mobile device and see what the experience is like.

 

  1. Do you know whom your ideal customer is besides the “anyone who is willing to buy” one?

Analysis: 2008-2012 really sucked in furniture retail. However, it is no longer that four-year period, and just getting anyone to buy is not good enough. As much as we like to believe we carry influence in how we attract the consumer, more than likely our best advertiser is the consumers who have already bought from us. Studying their habits, lifestyles and current life-stage is going to give us clues as to how to get more of that same person. You have been doing something right to get the customers you have now. Your job is to find more of them.

Solution: Don’t look at the demographics of your consumer. Hook up with companies that focus on looking at the psychographics of your current consumer. What jobs does she have? How educated is she? What TV show is she most likely to watch verses national averages? Where is she most likely to go out to dinner and how often? Diving into this data allows you to craft messaging and targeting to bring in a customer you already know how to sell—the one you currently have.

 

  1. Have you figured out how you’re going to grow 5 years from now?

Analysis: Survive and advance was the calling card of the last 7+ years. However, market share is now the key phrase. The only way to grow market share is to spend to get it. Sticking with your same advertising budget and strategy that has navigated through the last 7 years is not going to help you grow 5 years from now. It is going to help you stay where you are right now assuming no change in market conditions (when has that ever happened?).

Solution: Join a performance/peer group or hire a consultant. Begin the dialogue of how you can grow your business in the next five years and begin aligning yourselves with the correct partners to make that happen. All great advertising stems from great advertisers who know who they are and where they are going. Establishing that set of objectives will align your organization and make any marketing goals easier to accomplish.

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