The always-on marketing era has arrived. It is no longer enough to just post on social media sporadically or send an email blast every couple of months. Brands must be present and accounted for 24/7, 365 days a year if they want to have any hope of success in the marketplace. In this guide, you will learn all about how to execute an always-on marketing strategy that generates results for your business!
What is always on-marketing?
As the name suggests, always-on marketing, also referred to as continuous marketing, is the idea that marketing activities should continue for as long as the company exists. The idea focuses on trickling marketing campaigns continuously instead of using burst marketing practices. Always-on marketing is an evolution of the concept that it’s not enough to engage your customer just once.
How do you implement always-on marketing?
While there are many strategies, tools, and tactics available for brands who want to execute or improve their continuous marketing efforts, they all focus on three main goals:
Building relationships with existing customers:
This primarily focuses on building long-term relationships with customers, so they become repeat users. It includes:
-Develop a consistent cadence of messages tailored to the audience you are trying to reach.
-Create helpful content that your followers will want to share with their networks, which helps create brand awareness.
Creating brand awareness:
This deals with helping more people find your brand. It includes:
-Build an authoritative online presence through media relations and social media promotions.
-Increase customer engagement by providing unique experiences or incentives for users who engage with your business on various channels.
-Gather contact information from prospective customers so that you can communicate relevant messages at later dates via email marketing campaigns.
Engaging new prospects:
The idea behind always-on marketing hinges on the fact that a business dies if it does not search for new customers.
-Identify potential leads by analyzing what topics interest them most in specific verticals.
-Monitor hashtags related to conversations around the brand and search for potential entryways into new markets.
Does this strategy work?
Yes! Companies like Amazon have been successfully using continuous marketing techniques for years now. Additionally, newer brands such as Netflix are also seeing massive profits from implementing a never-ending approach to marketing.
What do I need to get started?
While there are many tools available for marketers who wish to implement an always-on approach, here is a list of the top three that can help you get on your way:
Hootsuite: Manage social media profiles and schedule posts across various networks simultaneously. It also lets users monitor relevant hashtags in real-time, so they don’t miss any opportunities while engaging with their audience.
BufferApp: This tool works by allowing its users to manage all their content, including articles, blog posts, images, etc., which are then published automatically throughout the day at optimal times based on user data gathered through analytics.
Mailchimp: Create email campaigns and newsletters and gather contact information from prospective customers so you can continue to market your products or services to them.
Why do some brands find always-on marketing challenging?
If always-on marketing was as easy as some online tutorials make it seem, every brand would be successful by now. In an attempt to get on the hype train, many brands fail to recognize the pitfalls of always-on marketing. Here are some things that you should keep in mind before getting started with always-on marketing:
Lack of data will hurt your marketing practices:
Data is the backbone for any marketing campaign. Think about the volume of data that you require to execute a certain marketing campaign. Now, multiply the data by ten. That’s how much data you are going to need to start always-on marketing. From there on, it will be a constant process of gathering data, analyzing them to draw workable solutions, and implementing the said solutions to constantly improve your marketing practices. Companies that fail to recognize this drop out early on in the game.
Lack of content:
In the quest to create more content, many marketers forget that not all audiences are interested in every topic. This results in weak content that neither solves a problem nor adds value. While some brands have been able to get away with this by catering to niche markets, small businesses cannot deal with such a risk. And when it comes to always-on marketing, you cannot afford to slack with content. You are going to need content for as long as the business exists. So, if you don’t have content prepared, you better get those brains churning.
Lack of proper infrastructure:
As mentioned before, always-on marketing is a marathon and not a sprint. It requires adequate infrastructure to be in place since it will take some time for results to start showing up.
What can you do to be successful?
While there are early hardships in the path to always-on marketing, things will get easier down the road. Here are some tips to help you get some early success:
Start small:
Building a brand from scratch can be challenging, and that includes always-on marketing. Start small by focusing on the core market first. Once you’ve built some initial traction for your business, expand to other markets, such as secondary or tertiary demographics, with less competition but more potential customers.
Gather the data:
Always-on marketing demands a lot of information at every stage because it’s going to help refine campaigns to make them more effective over time. Other than gathering general social media statistics like the number of followers etc., think about what data would be relevant for improving specific aspects of an individual campaign. For example – if you’re selling running shoes online, then location-based analytics will be valuable for you.
Take action:
It’s easy to plan out what needs to be done, but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to do the things laid down in the plans. The easiest way is not always the best way, so don’t shy away from stepping outside your comfort zone every once in a while because sometimes that will lead to better results than expected.
Plan for long-term success:
Always-on marketing is not something you can get right once and then sit back on your laurels. It requires constant maintenance, tweaking, and updating in accordance with the latest data for continued success.
Always-on marketing might seem like an impossible task at first glance, but execution can become much easier with proper planning. If you’re still struggling with getting started, then take some time off and come back refreshed – always-on marketing isn’t something that can be rushed into without putting serious thought into it!
