Becoming a successful marketer doesn’t mean you’re instantly going to stand out from a crowd. This industry is one of subtlety. One little change can make the world of difference. There’s a thin line between the newbie marketers and the expert marketers.
We’re going to show you a number of things successful marketers can do in their sleep.
- Snoop on Your Competitors
Any good marketer is well aware you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to get real results. Following what the rest of the industry is doing, with some slight variations, can yield a real return on your investment.
There are so many ways to snoop on your competitors, including using Google Alerts to get an alert whenever a specific company receives a new mention. Here’s a list of 25 online tools you can use to quickly gather information on your competitors.
- Build an Email List
Read any guide on marketing and you’ll see someone rave about how social media is set to take over the world and alter everything. Older and more conventional marketing methods are set to go out of the window. The successful marketer isn’t losing any sleep over this because they know it’s only half true.
Dave Chaffey at Smart Insights published a study that states most marketers consider their email list to be their best tool for getting across to people.
It’s no surprise because your email account is the one part of the Internet that’s unique to you. Social media is about going broad and pulling in as many people as possible. It’s not viable to personalize a post for absolutely everyone.
Therefore, despite the growth of social media, marketers realize their only guarantee going forward is that list of emails they have.
- They Have a Plan
It sounds like an incredibly patronizing point, but it’s not. Let’s go back to Dave Chaffey’s study. He revealed that 45% of companies don’t have a clear marketing plan in place. That’s right, they’re throwing money at a problem and hoping the marketers will sort it out.
It’s ludicrous when looked at through the eyes of a bystander. These companies tend to flit between the latest bright shiny objects. Newbie marketers will often have the skills to pull off a marketing campaign, but they won’t have the expertise to drive a strategy in a defined direction towards a specific point.
This is where expert marketers really stand out. It’s often a case where they do exactly the same things as a newbie marketer, but they get the better results because they’re working towards a goal. Effective goals are specific, defined, are measurable, and have a set timeframe in which they have to be accomplished.
- The SEO Basics
Old SEO isn’t dead. Keywords and search engines still hold a position of immense importance. If we look at the statistics, we find that 71% of all link clicks come from conventional search engine-based SEO. The newbie marketer doesn’t know about this. They’ve already danced away to social media, whilst forsaking the most basic rules of SEO.
So what are the basic rules of SEO?
- Proper keyword research, based on your niche
- Adding keywords to the titles of posts and in the tags section
- A scattering of keywords inserted naturally within your content.
- Links to reputable websites when appropriate
These points are what newbie digital marketers used to learn before anything else. Unfortunately, the Google Panda and Google Penguin algorithm changes created a false reality. They implied, along with the heavy growth of social media, that the world was transforming for good and we all needed to move on.
What the professionals understood is that these changes were made to fight off the black hatters of the world. People doing things by the book had no problems adjusting whatsoever, and they still don’t today.
We’re not saying you can get away with ignoring social media and more modern marketing techniques, but you can combine them with conventional SEO to make content accessible and visible. The British term don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater applies here.
- Targeting via Social Media
The early days of social media were full of spam. You couldn’t move for garbage all over the place. It was extremely difficult to target. Your customers usually had to find you by accident or through your website. There were few ways of viably targeting a niche audience.
Today, this is simple. The marketing expert Brandon Gaille revealed how a Tweet with a hashtag is now 86% more likely to be shared. In addition, as any good marketer knows, a single share can turn into an avalanche.
With so much organic noise, it’s unlikely your content will be found organically. This is where you have to rely on hashtags. People searching for these hashtags will come across this content without having to fight their way through all the irrelevance surrounding it.
Choosing hashtags is an art form in itself. There are thousands of variations in every niche. Luckily, it’s easier than ever to discover them these days.
Sometimes they’re blatantly obvious. Authors are liable to use the #amwriting and #writerslife hashtags. They’re popular, but they’re not too popular that it’s impossible to find anything. If they’re not obvious, or you’re working in a niche for the first time, you can choose from literally hundreds of hashtags analytics tools through a quick Google search.
- Selective Content Publishers
Marketing is a fast-paced industry where everyone wishes they had 25 hours in a day. However, that doesn’t mean the act of choosing content should be rushed. Expert marketers are more than willing to spend hours sourcing perfect content. Of course, it’s not a case of browsing through the Internet for funny pictures and informative links.
Selective content choosing is about reacting to your target audience and reviewing the reactions of the past. The best marketers begin with a scatter group of content. These different directions are not designed for definition at this point. The content garnering the greatest reactions will go forward to the next stage of testing.
Only when a marketer feels they have a pool of content will they start to hone in on it. This is what selective content publishing is all about.
- Accountability and the Business
A marketer is not like a normal employee. They’re directly responsible for how a significant part of company funds is spent. If it goes wrong, it’s their fault. It’s often difficult for newbie marketers to grasp this fast. Expert marketers accept responsibility without thinking about it. Yes, they’ll take the glory when it comes, but they’ll also accept responsibility for failure when needed.
Everything within a company revolves around the dreaded ROI prism. Every dollar spent is measured for the return on that investment.
Why is it such an important aspect for a marketer, though?
To put it simply, a good marketer is not just someone who can deliver actual results. Good marketers are able to fit into a team and work with everyone above and below them. This is a team industry. If you’re not well-liked, forget inspiring your team.
- Swallow a Frog
Marketers are people who deal with challenges every day. Let’s use an example to set the scene. You’re the director in a marketing department. Your boss calls you into his office and says your budget is being cut by 50%. That means you have to adjust in terms of manpower and activity. In addition, as the director you’re responsible for deciding where these cuts to your department will fall.
A bad marketer avoids the problem until 24 hours before the deadline. Naturally, they come up with a plan that has been cobbled together on the back of a box of matches. A great marketer does the job at the earliest available opportunity. We call this swallowing the frog.
Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
What it means is that if you deal with the hardest challenges now nothing worse is going to happen today. In other words, confront the big issues now and get them out of the way.
You and Marketing
As you can see, being a great marketer is so much more than the things you do in the field. It’s about you as a person. You can have someone who yields results, yet nobody wants to work with them because they’re an absolute nightmare. That doesn’t make them a good marketer. It makes them good at one aspect.
Remember, this is a people industry. Just because marketing has gone digital, it doesn’t mean you aren’t dealing with real people on your team and as part of the general public.
Bear in mind that this is also a constant process. If you keep showing a desire to improve in all areas, you’ll find yourself rising up the ranks and doing better for both your employer and your clients.