Whether you’re a total newbie or a marketing professional, there is always room for improvement. Our tips for becoming a better marketer will help you strive for better and boost your productivity.

Get to grips with the basics

Even if you’ve been working in marketing for years, sometimes it’s good to go back to basics. Remind yourself of how and why marketing works. Look at human psychology, basic marketing principles and best practice. As a comparison, think about ballet dancers – they perform the most intricate and complex steps on stage, but they still take a basic class every day!

Once you’re sure that you are clear on the foundations of marketing, you can move onto SEO, PPC, content creation and email marketing.

Conquer your sales techniques

Yes, sales and marketing are different jobs, but they are related. And marketers are ultimately trying to sell a product. This doesn’t mean adopting the persona of a used-car salesperson, its simply means that you know your product and why people would want to buy it. But you also know when to walk away and when your product is not right for that customer. Read books, listen to podcasts, and find out how you can be a better salesperson and a more effective marketer.

People in a shop

Solve a problem

Whether you’re selling cat toys, sky diving, or desks, show how your product solves a problem. Whenever you see a product advertised, you should be able to see a problem that it solves and why people would want to buy it. If your product could make someone’s life easier or better, then shout it from the rooftops! Don’t let your potential customers pass you by.

Be enthusiastic

You love what you’re selling, so show it! Customers will struggle to connect with you if you seem to be doubting your own product. Be excited to show what you have and make everybody feel your excitement with you. And once you’ve built that interest, give an enthused call to action such as ‘buy now!’ or ‘contact us today!’ Don’t let that enthusiasm fade – once you’ve got a customer’s attention, encourage them to take action!

Improve user experience

This could relate to your website, purchasing or contact. Try to see how you could make your customer’s life easier when they interact with you. Make sure that customers can see what they need when they click onto your website, ensure that your contact details are clearly visible, and make sure that purchasing is easy.

How to improve user experience can be determined by customer feedback or through analytics in your digital marketing. Look at what customers are saying, either verbally or through their online journey with you. Are people clicking away the moment they get to your site? Are they ditching a basket at the checkout? All of these can give you indications of how to improve.

Create better content

Content on screens

Content creation has been increasing over the last few years. But, unfortunately, so has bad content creation. This is because many marketers are blindly producing work without considering their audience or content platform.

To create better content, you need to identify who your audience is, where you can reach them, and what they want. Do you customers use Instagram or Facebook? Do they read magazines or blogs? Once you know this information, you can tailor your content and make sure that it’s seen.

You also need to consider what content you are capable of producing. While there are many free online tools to help you create content, you may consider hiring someone with creative know-how. In conclusion, know your strengths regarding content, play to them, and know when to hand over to someone else.

Delegate

You are only one person. Sometimes, you need to get others to help, focus on your strengths. It may seem great to be a jack of all trades but what’s the result? You’re the master of none.

By sharing tasks with a team, they will feel included and your marketing will be more productive and of a higher quality.

Look to the future

Don’t let your campaigns stand still. Move with the times, embrace new technologies and communications tools and search for new ways to be relevant. Check out marketing blogs and industry news and look out for innovation in the field (and read our article on the future of marketing). Marketing mag is a great information source for marketers in a variety of industries.

Upsell (but do it well)

Upselling can be an incredibly profitable exercise when done well. This is because the prospect of selling to an existing customer is far greater than selling to someone new.

However, marketers must ensure they offer valuable extras to customers. For example, if you’re selling something that could be sold in multiples, give discounts for bulk purchases. Or, you could offer free shipping for purchases made now. Or, you could offer product protection.

Don’t be pushy. Upselling should benefit your customer and create loyalty rather than annoy them and turn them away.

Use micro-influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has proven very successful for many companies. However, having a celebrity endorse your product is expensive. Micro-influencing is the next best (and cheaper) thing!

Micro-influencers have between one thousand to ten of thousand followers on social media. Despite their lower follower numbers, they tend to have better engagement. This is because they create more specialised content and their audience have found them through shared interests.

Micro-influencer marketing is also more affordable. Whereas a celebrity could charge thousands of dollars to promote a product, the lesser-known faces of social media charge as little as a few hundred dollars. If you have a niche product, then this kind of marketing could help you find your perfect customers.

Tell better stories

Or if you’re not telling stories – start! Telling a story about your product or service can seriously boost your engagement and sales. Figure out what your message to your customer is and find a way to tell that in a story.

There a few ways to tell a story:

  1. Drive action – tell your story in a way that motivates people to do something. For example, you could highlight how you donate a percentage of profits to charity. Therefore, if people buy your product then they are contributing to something good – and they can do so today.
  2. Tell people about you – how you developed your product, why you developed it, and what you’re doing with it now. If people know you, then they can relate to you and they will be more likely to follow you. Humanise your business and invite people to join you on your journey.
  3. Educate and inform – place yourself in a knowledgeable position. Show people that you know what you’re talking about and that, by following you, they can gain some of that knowledge.

Top tips:

Firstly, create characters that people want to hear about and make them relatable and interesting. Secondly, create conflict. Nobody wants to hear how great everything has been all of the time. That’s boring. Share issues that have come up and how they were overcome. Finally, have a resolution or happy ending. Don’t let your story ramble – make sure that it has a great ending.

Books

Get a marketing qualification

It’s never too late to learn! If you want to improve your marketing techniques, then gaining a qualification could be just what you need. At Central Australian College, we offer flexible marketing courses that can fit around your busy work life and help you with your marketing strategies.