Top Spring Marketing Campaign Ideas

Spring is here, and with that comes the demand for creating marketing plans and strategies for the new season.

But this is no ordinary spring, especially for small businesses and web design companies. But Salt Rank is here to help.

We’re all in this together as the coronavirus ravages the global economy. Now more than ever is the time to start planning long term for your business. We have to begin working smarter to survive the challenges ahead.

How Your Business Can Survive the Coronavirus Outbreak

Businesses are now examining their marketing budgets more carefully, trying to figure out if they’re getting the most out of every dollar that they spend, as well as looking at cost-effective strategies for delivering products and services.

Cutting the marketing budget may seem like an obvious choice at this point, but it’s just a short term solution that will have negative after-effects. After all, without having a visible presence in your target market, your long term profitability will sink.

And while everyone will be watching their money more closely, they have no choice but to spend it. While people do have the option to spend less, our job is to determine what they’re still purchasing. They don’t want to be wasteful in a time like this; people want to purchase what they need from businesses that they are able to trust.

1) Make Yourself Prominent and Visible During This Crisis

Remember that old saying “out of sight and out of mind?” Well, we need to remember that now more than ever before. If you can’t maintain the line of communication with your customers, then you risk losing them. Also, it’s always less expensive to keep your current customers than it is to find new ones.

And as other businesses make the wrong decision and begin to pull the plug on creating visibility, that creates a vacuum for your business to fill.

You should be putting more effort into marketing now because as the recession worsens, many people who get laid off will try and start a business. These new businesses will be competing with yours for visibility, and do you want to risk losing that battle? 

So, to build up your brand awareness, you must increase visibility. To enhance visibility, you must drive more people to your site where you can make more sales. And the easiest way to get discovered by potential customers or clients is during the buying process when they’re searching for what you sell.

There are a few essential principles to understand when it comes to visibility:

• What others say about you has more of an impact than what you say about yourself. An inexpensive way of getting your name out is by leveraging the influence and authority of other experts in your niche.

• Evergreen content needs to be updated. Just because it’s evergreen doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t water (update) it every now and again. Your main objective is for this eternally useful content to rank high in the search engines. So when you give it an update, that should be your goal.

• You’ve no doubt heard of the mere exposure effect. This effect happens when a person is so frequently exposed to something (such as an advertisement) that they begin to form a preference for it merely because it’s familiar. So if you can find an inexpensive way to keep your brand in front of potential customers as much as possible, you’ll be setting yourself up for success. Setting aside a dedicated budget for this principle alone is worth it.

2) Optimize for Conversions ASAP

One high impact low-cost digital marketing method that you should get familiar with quickly is conversion rate optimization. This means making small adjustments to the buyer’s journey to convert as many website visitors into clients or customers as possible. Here are a few examples of conversion rate optimization strategies:

• Understand the basics of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The latest developments in these two fields will give you the competitive edge you need to find the right customers at the right times. By utilizing this, you’ll be able to lower your cost per lead and get the right message out to the right prospect at the right time.

• Providing a good experience for customers is crucial. Spend the money needed to make your website fast and personalized for visitors. And when it comes to keeping costs done, keep in mind that small adjustments to your site will have a disproportionately large impact on the end results.

• Utilize social proofing techniques for your business. Use your case studies, reviews, and recommendations at every touchpoint of your marketing. Also, make sure that this content is included in different places on your website. And finally, remember to share it all on social media.

3) KPIs are Critical

If you don’t measure your results, then you won’t be able to manage your marketing effectively, and you may just be throwing your money away.

You want to hold yourself accountable for your marketing expenses. You can do this by measuring your results vs. the criteria you have for success. These criteria might be upselling, referrals, or the number of leads you generate. Now more than ever is when KPIs (key performance indicators) matter.

Here’s how you can configure your KPIs if you haven’t already:

• Determine your ROI from social media. When budgets are tight, social media can appear to be a sensible option for cutting. After all, it can be a time-consuming activity. However, before you cut the cord, make sure that you understand how social media is producing results for your business. How much profitability, engagement, and visibility does it bring to your company?

• Use Google Analytics to its full potential. Make sure that you’re using all of the available data to improve your marketing efficiency. Some questions you should ask are: Did we set up goals properly? Is the Search Console connected? Did we define what we’re measuring? And finally, are we utilizing all of the free data available from Google Analytics in our marketing strategy?

When marketing budgets are tight, you can fall back on your KPIs to help guide you through the storm. By knowing your KPIs, you’ll be able to answer the question, “what kind of spending really matters for my business?”