It’s tough to grow a business. First, you must get creative to make the most of every opportunity. Worse yet, there’s no guarantee of success with any campaign. Sometimes you must tweak your approach or message to see a return on investment, which means more time and money spent. Growing your business can be challenging, but balanced marketing can help.
Balanced marketing uses digital, print, broadcast, and in-person marketing tactics to reach your target market. Your audiences are out there, but they’re likely not all in the same places. A broader marketing approach allows you to reach all the nooks and crannies where your audiences hang out.
A balanced strategy gives you more ways and broader reach than one type of marketing. However, each type of marketing has its benefits and drawbacks. We’ve run through each so you can make an informed decision.
Digital Marketing
Most business owners are well-aware of digital marketing today; it is one of the most effective ways to reach your target market. It’s fast, cheap, and easy to track results. Since about 263 million Americans shop online today, digital marketing is essential to your advertising campaigns.
Digital marketing is versatile; you can use it for everything from email campaigns to social media ads. However, it’s sometimes difficult to stand out online with so much noise from the competition and others vying for the spotlight.
Digital marketing also requires a lot of time and effort to produce quality content — the kind of content that speaks directly to your audience in your brand’s voice and without all the spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors that come with lower-quality content.
Digital marketing has a broad reach and many tactics encompassing six approaches. Let’s go over them.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization aims to improve your website’s ranking on search engines by optimizing your website content with search terms your audience is already using. SEO also includes internal links, when appropriate, to other pages on your website or blog, like your contact page or a product page.
Internal links aren’t the only focus of SEO; it also uses backlinks — external links to other authoritative websites such as a government or trade organization website. In addition, SEO works organically to improve your website’s visibility to help it appear within the top results for relevant search queries.
One disadvantage to SEO is that it takes time. Sometimes it can take six months or longer to see results. Yet, when done right and with consistency, you’ll gain lasting results.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Pay-per-click is like SEO, but with a few differences; it uses third-party platforms such as Semrush, Google Analytics, and Serpstat to display ads to your target market.
Paid marketing can effectively reach people who may not be reached through organic search engine optimization. Additionally, you can highly target your intended audience’s demographics to reach the people most interested in your offer.
Paid marketing can also be expensive, so set a budget and track results to know what’s working and where you need to adjust things. Unlike SEO, paid marketing produces faster results, but those results are often shorter, so you need both SEO and PPC as part of a balanced marketing plan.
Content Marketing
Content marketing takes a strategic approach. Instead of backlinks and ads, content marketing focuses on creating value for your readers with relevant, high-quality content.
According to research by SEMrush, 91% of businesses promote their brand, products, and services using content marketing. Content marketing is successful because it provides value to the reader instead of relying on them, and businesses consider it a cost-effective marketing solution.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is one of the most popular and effective forms of digital marketing. Over 270 million Americans use social media, and 3.96 billion people are active on social media worldwide; this makes social media marketing a great essential way to connect with your audience and build relationships.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is another form of digital marketing. It’s one of the most effective digital marketing tools available, with a reported return on investment of $44 for every dollar spent. Additionally, email marketing has a projected growth rate of 33% from 2020 to 2023, according to Statista. That makes email marketing an essential part of any balanced marketing plan.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing has seen rapid growth in recent years. Though it’s often not the first thing, businesses choose when considering a digital marketing plan, it’s effective, convenient, cost-effective, and versatile.
Mobile marketing allows your business to connect with customers through different platforms, such as text messages, social media, and apps. As a result, customers can access information about businesses and their products and services.
Print Advertisement
Print marketing has been around for centuries, and it’s not going anywhere soon. Print is tangible, allowing readers to hold on to it and refer to it later. It also doesn’t require an internet connection, so you can reach those who might not be online as often. However, print marketing can be expensive, so consider your target audience and objectives before investing.
Broadcast Advertisement
Broadcast marketing effectively reaches a large audience quickly, but it can be expensive, and results are often short-lived. Nevertheless, television advertising is still considered the top tier of broadcast advertisement, allowing you to reach a range of viewers at local, regional, and national levels. And research suggests television advertisements help brands reach about 78% of U.S. households. However, don’t overlook radio broadcasting.
Radio broadcasting is more cost-effective than television broadcasting and relies on repetition; its lower cost often allows you to place multiple ads rather than one. As a result, radio advertising offers an essential way to fill in any gaps left that T.V leaves.
In-person marketing is word-of-mouth marketing, but with a physical presence. Some examples might include someone giving a product or service testimony at a luncheon, vendors at a trade show, or representatives at other events and conventions. Content Marketing Institute considers in-person marketing the most effective aspect of its marketing strategy.
The Final Word
Balanced Marketing is the key to growing your small business with a mix of digital, print, broadcast, and in-person marketing. With a balanced strategy, you’ll reach your target audience differently. And when done well, balanced marketing can be an essential tool for any business’ success.
Author bio: Zeeva Usman is a senior writer at Peter and Petra. She is leading the remote working training program at Human right Warrior and is a content marketing specialist at Church Marketing Agency. When not working, she loves to play with her two dogs, Palm and Oreo.
