What Are The Main Marketing Strategies?

What are the Main Marketing Strategies? - Shopify Edition 📈

We guess that you’ve clicked on this guide to discover the answer to the most apparent question - what are the main marketing strategies?

If we're right, you should know that successfully implementing a marketing strategy into an online business is both an art form and a science. This is mostly due to the necessity of tailoring each marketing method to the business and its needs.

While the tried and tested concepts of online marketing may remain the same, we believe that there is room for improvement so, why not get creative with an effective approach to online marketing in 2022?

What Is A Marketing strategy? 🤔

A marketing strategy is a long-term plan with a quantifiable goal that includes actionable steps toward raising awareness for a brand’s reputation and its products.

A successfully implemented marketing strategy will work well to secure a competitive edge by appealing to the consumers who frequently browse or make a purchase from a business.

Put it this way, an online marketing strategy is like a how-to guide for setting profitable marketing techniques into action.

So, if you’re wondering what to consider when it comes to selecting the best marketing strategy for your online store, you will first need to discover what types of marketing strategies there are and what route would work best according to the nature of your business.

N0.1: Target Market Demographics

The most crucial aspect of any marketing plan is its intended audience. After all, it is the consumer's attention that a growing business should be aiming to capture.

Online stores should obtain a clear understanding of the core audience demographics about the; age group(s), gender(s), average income, interests, relationships and stages of life that should ideally be targeted for their brand to thrive.

Then, merchants will need to consider everything from basic data to the type of social media pages and personalities that users are likely to engage with, for instance; where the target audience is spending time online and what their shopping habits are.

By obtaining and understanding this key information, online stores will be able to visualise the audience's journey as a whole, making the prospect of getting a product or service in front of the right consumers easier with tailored marketing strategies.

N0.2: Pricing and Budget 💸

Do you know what they say? Money makes the world go round and pricing determines marketing recommendations. So, what are the two types of financials that merchants should consider using?

This would be the customer price point and the budget for marketing/ ad spend of course.

Take it from us, merchants should strive to create a pricing structure that covers profit margins whilst remaining attractive to the store’s customers.

Furthermore, online stores should spend some time focusing on determining their marketing budget. For instance, what can you afford where marketing and advertising are concerned?

To discover the appropriate boundaries for pricing and budgeting, store owners must first determine their CAC (customer acquisition cost) in addition to any fixed marketing costs, so that a monthly advertising budget can be set up whilst protecting the existing business margins.

N0.3: Long-Term Goals

Long-term goals are something that each business will need to consider when reviewing the types of marketing strategies that should be executed.

If you’re a business owner, ask yourself this - what exactly do you want out of a marketing method? The best strategy for building brand awareness would not be the same as the strategy for increasing web traffic. See what we're saying?

It will also differ for the campaigns that are geared toward purchase conversion. So, to avoid any confusion or setbacks, make sure that you’ve got a clear goal in mind when it comes to your company's marketing strategy.

Types of Marketing Strategies 🖥️

If you’re wondering - what are the main marketing strategies? We here at Karmoon have compiled a list of five strategies that are sure to give every small to medium-sized business a boost:

N0.1: SEO

As we’re sure you’ve heard, SEO (search engine optimisation) is a one-way ticket for increasing website traffic and brand recognition online. We always say a successfully implemented SEO strategy is just like befriending the algorithm.

If there’s one thing that you should know, it would be that a lot of fine-tuning and research is involved when it comes to implementing search engine optimisation into a marketing approach.

However, the end goal is always to increase awareness of the brand at hand, thereby increasing website traffic and sales for the store.

Search engines, such as Google, prioritise organic and natural results, so improving a website’s SEO will go a long way when it comes to increasing a store's online reach.

In short, the more merchants strive to improve their site’s organic SEO, the better their ad campaigns will work.

Think of it like this - SEO works in tandem with organic search, inbound marketing and paid advertising so, it’ll prove useful to focus on particular keywords to incorporate them into your website content.

Last but not least, be sure to refresh the content regularly, so that your site registers as active with search engines such as Google.

This is most easily accomplished by updating a blog regularly, as; backlinks, headers and alt image descriptions work together to elongate the customer journey and communicate with the search engine AI.

N0.2: Influencer Marketing

There’s no denying that influencers are the tastemakers of the present and future so, partnering with a few influential social media personalities is a smart way to expand a brand’s awareness.

Influencer collaborations often increase brand visibility and raise the trust and reputability level of the business at hand.

Furthermore, working with influencers can also increase the number of followers that a business accumulates.

Why? Well, as followers already trust the recommendations of the personalities that they follow and interact with, it’s an easy way for online stores to earn the trust of their ideal target audience through an influencer’s social media network.

N0.3: PR and Affiliate Marketing

If you didn’t already know, media mentions are a brand's best friend. Essentially, good press is free advertising, so the more you can get out there, the more your brand awareness will grow.

Free media can come in various forms such as; press mentions and reviews, social media testimonials, product roundup lists, blog features and more.

N0.4: Email Marketing

As we’ve mentioned here in the journal previously, email marketing is not only highly effective but can be relatively low-stress thanks to marketing automation.

Email marketing is also a method that allows for constant contact which lands in a customer’s inbox. This strategy is also an inoffensive yet persistent way to nurture and warm leads and promotions - handy right?

We recommend creating customer contact lists and funnels based on attributes or triggered functions so that you can send out tweaked and targeted emails to each position along the pipeline.

With this technique, businesses will then be able to streamline their branded messaging on a more granular level to appeal to various decision-making points.

Additionally, email marketing also allows businesses to keep track of success in regards to; open rates, click-through data and unsubscribe rates. Furthermore, split testing can also be used to further hone in on effective messaging and subjects.

N0.5: Social Media Marketing

Social media is the big one and is only going to keep increasing as more brands turned to the likes of online marketing during the start of the pandemic in 2020 to grow their business.

Building an online following on appropriate social channels such as; Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube will cultivate an engaged community and loyal clients, opening up a large arena for pushing sales, promotions and new releases.

Successful Marketing for 2022

The most successful marketing strategies will always vary, not only between businesses but as marketing trends and innovations change too.

There are many strategies and channels that merchants can implement into their marketing approach, but the biggest chances of success will be found if you remain agile.

You heard it here first so, don’t be afraid to test various waters until you find what works best for your business.

We hope you have found our guide to these key types of marketing strategies useful. If you’re actively looking to work with a Shopify agency designer or developer to assist you with your business, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch to get started!