Wondering how to up your marketing game in 2018? Ranch House Founder & CEO offers these 5 tips!
By Rachel Cutrer
It’s a new year, which means now is a great time to revive your marketing efforts! So, is your marketing where you want it to be? Here are five tips I recommend implementing in 2018:
1. Your website must be mobile friendly (i.e WordPress). When websites first came about, people had flip phones. Today, everyone accesses the internet from their smartphone. A website designed three or more years ago is most likely in html format, and thus not mobile responsive. If you don’t have a mobile responsive website, you’re missing out on every possible customer that uses an iPhone or Android. And, that’s like, everyone.
2. Time to add another social media outlet besides Facebook. Anyone noticing how Facebook is changing a lot lately? You post a cute picture and it gets 5 likes, but you posted that exact same photo last year it got 500 likes? Something’s up, right? While Facebook is still the #1 social media outlet, it’s time to branch out into another outlet, and the one we’re recommending this year is Instagram.
3. Tell your story. The days of being super-private and mysterious to generate intrigue are over. Customers want to get to know the real people behind their favorite businesses. Let your personality and your story shine! Try Facebook Live, or better yet, have a professional video made. There’s no better salesman or representative of your company than you, in your sincerest and realest form.
4. Print advertising: the new status symbol. Three years ago, I cut all print advertising from our ranch’s ad budget because we had such a strong digital presence. While digital is still our #1 focus, we’ll be investing more dollars into print advertising in 2018 than ever before. Advertise in your breed publication, or magazines like the Ranch House Journal. Print a nice brochure on really cool paper. Publish a sale catalog, even if you’re having an online sale. In the digital age where your message can be lost in a quick swipe, printed pieces are timeless. Businesses who invest in print advertising will also be timeless.
5. Start your own mailing list. You’ll need two mailing lists: digital and printed. Your digital list contains email addresses of those who have voluntarily signed up to get emails from you. How do you get voluntary sign ups? Through your website and Facebook. Step 1: Have a catalog request page on your website. Step 2: Post a link to your catalog request page on Facebook, where you can also use paid advertising to put this in front of a targeted audience. It’s that easy. Once you start building a list, it’s a good idea to send interesting content at least once a month, to keep your list fresh and weed out any bad email addresses.
Even the best companies take a good look at their marketing each year and determine areas they can improve. If you need help implementing any of these ideas, we’d love to help you take your ideas into action.