For most businesses, marketing is like throwing spaghetti at the wall. They post on social media because their competition says they should. They do some Google ads to get traction when things are looking bleak. They may send an email newsletter when someone bothers to remember once every few months.
But that’s not marketing. That’s noise.
And you know which companies are growing right now? They’re doing the opposite. They’re realizing that it’s not about doing everything, but creating a system where each part works like a cog in a machine.
Strategies Instead of Tactics
The first error is getting right to execution. Someone hears that TikTok is a hot channel, and they start producing videos. Someone hears that podcasts are the next wave, and they’re suddenly at Target buying microphones.
None of that matters if one doesn’t know who they’re talking to and what you want them to do about it.
Growing businesses figure out who their audiences are first. Not just “women aged 25-45,” but who are they? What keeps them up at night? What are they already Googling? What social media channels do they frequent?
Then they assess the funnel. A person who has never heard of your business needs different content than a person who’s been following along for months on social. Yet most businesses create one piece of content and expect it to serve everyone. That’s like having a hammer and expecting it to be good for every job.
Assets that Actually Build
The best approach to marketing investment is assets that appreciate over time. A blog post you write today can bring in customers five years from now. A solid SEO foundation works while you’re sleeping.
Your alternative is most paid advertising – stop running it, stop getting business from it – and while there’s a place for paid ads (we’ll touch upon that in a moment), building your entire marketing strategy on rented attention is costly and anxiety provoking.
Good content marketing appreciates over time. You’re not creating for the sake of filling a content calendar; instead, you’re answering the questions that people already have. When someone Googles their problems and your resultant article comes up? That’s so much more valuable than an ad that they’re just trying to scroll away from.
Yet this takes time to do well. Someone must know search intent; they must care enough to create genuinely helpful content and structure it so that search engines catch it. This is where many growing companies find purpose with digital marketing services which create content that otherwise would sit stagnant to content that transforms into new customers.
Making Their Website Work
The second most valuable asset is probably your website, but most business websites merely sit like a painting and do not convert to customers.
Why are you spending money (or time, which is money) getting people onto your website, then what? Do they know what to do with themselves? Do they understand how you’re going to solve their problems? Can they take actions without trying to figure out your convoluted website at the same time?
Great websites direct people through a pipeline; they speak to their specific pain points; they make it easy to take the next step, be it booking a call, signing up for something or purchasing.
And arguably, it needs to work! Loading times, mobile-friendly versions, SSL certificates – these matter for public consumption as well as search engine rankings. A pretty website that loads too slowly or looks busted on phones is an expensive business card.
Making Paid Advertising Work for You
Paid advertising is where people waste their money the most. They boost a Facebook post, run some Google ads, maybe run an ad on LinkedIn if it’s B2B, and then throw their hands up in frustration when it doesn’t work.
Paid advertising works when it’s part of a larger system. You’re not just paying for attention. You’re paying for attention at the right time, for the right people, with the right messaging and sending them to something that’s geared toward conversion.
The best companies always test – different audiences, different messaging, different offers – and track everything – not just clicks but conversions and customer value. They know what it’s costing them to acquire a customer and if that makes sense for them.
The best ones also retarget – if someone visited your site once but didn’t convert, it doesn’t mean goodbye forever – retargeting allows them to stay in front of your business instead of constantly searching for cold traffic.
Email Marketing That Counts
Email isn’t dead; boring email is dead. Those businesses winning at email learn how to make their list an asset instead of an effective dumping ground for all things promotional.
They segment their audience; someone who just signed up gets different email traction than someone who’s been a customer for three years. They send relevant content based upon behavior and interest – not just throwing mud at the wall and hoping something sticks for everyone, because that approach turns people off real fast.
And they provide value; yes, at some point you’re going to sell something – but if every single email that you sent out was “buy our stuff,” people would disengage real quick. Intersperse helpful information, insights into others’ behaviors, get a personality across – give them real reason to open your emails aside from the sales pitches.
However, you need to figure out how frequently you should go about this and make it consistent – but not annoying; weekly, bi-weekly – with whatever rhythm works best for your audience but be sure to stick with it.
Measuring What Matters Most
This is how many companies fool themselves; they fail to look at vanity metrics – likes, follows, impressions – but what drives the business forward instead?
Revenue is the name of the game; everything else is leading indicators which may or may not matter. Are you getting more customers? Are they spending more money? Are they coming back?
Smart businesses track these things from day one – they’re capable of tracing back which marketing channel gets which customers and at what cost; they’ve got an overview from the first touch to purchase that enables them to replicate the good and kill what doesn’t serve them.
It also means being honest with expectations; SEO takes months; content builds over time – some things perform quickly while others take a more long-term approach; why get frustrated by this if no one’s been upfront in the first place?
Bringing It All Together
Businesses don’t grow sustainably by doing one or two things well; they establish interconnected systems where everything collaborates; their content bolsters SEO systems; their ads help guide people through optimization; their emails foster relationships over time; their websites transform traffic into customers.
It’s not about having big budgets; it’s about effectively utilizing resources through time. Build out what compounds first; add paid strategies later when it’s time to grow further – then keep what works, adjust what doesn’t and always test!
That’s how modern marketing supports growth – not through random strategies but instead builds systems that work together and compound over time.
