The targeted distribution of marketing materials is an essential part of all business practice, but do you know how to go about it. Don’t worry if you don’t. Here are five ways in which modern companies get their messages heard and seen by the audiences that they have deemed worthy of targeting.
Try them out for yourself.
Bulk SMS
Text messaging was first used as a marketing tool in around 2005, when the sports giant Nike began using two-way SMS services to distribute marketing materials. Today, companies such as Boomerang Messaging offer businesses software that can automate SMS marketing campaigns—sending messages to thousands of consenting consumers extremely efficiently. SMS messaging is still one of the easiest ways for a company to reach into the pockets of their target audience.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is by no means a new apparition. The first influencer marketing campaign was conducted by the Wedgewood Pottery in the 18th century. They made mass produced copies of Chinese pottery designs that were of a relatively low grade. By acquiring the royal seal—and therefore royal endorsement—the Wedgewood company made it seem like their products were fit for royalty and became one of the most successful potteries in the world.
The rise of the social media influencer has created a far more complex influencer marketing environment. Social media influencers often speak to incredibly specific audiences. This means that endorsements from influencers speak directly to certain profiles of person. Companies who have conducted good market research can pick influencers to work with in order to channel their marketing messages to the exact kind of person that might buy their products or services.
Brand Partnerships
Brand partnerships—usually known as sponsorships—can broadcast a marketing message extremely effectively. As with all marketing, the right sponsorship deals only come about after a great deal of market research. Sporting and entertainment sponsorships are immensely valuable to brand leaders.
Social Media Campaigns
Social media use is near ubiquitous among 15–40-year-old people, and social media penetration is expected to reach a whopping 97.5 percent of the entire UK population by 2025, as just an example of the impact it has in a first world country. This makes social media campaigns an absolute must when trying to get a marketing message out there.
SEO Campaigns
Search engine optimization—or SEO for short—is a proven way of ensuring that marketing materials hosted online receive the traffic that they deserve. An absolutely vast quantity of internet traffic is routed through search engines. The most popular search engine, Google, processes billions of searches every single day. In order to be seen, online marketing materials need to rank well on search engines such as Google. Search engine algorithms take a great many factors into account when ranking pages, and SEO is the practice of tailoring content around the web so that a landing page ranks highly. Behind every good SEO campaign there is a great deal of market research. Understanding what target audiences might search for enables a company to tailor content for those searches. Metadata editing, content creation, mobile optimization, and backlinking are all used to improve a website’s search engine performance.
