According to Statista, a total of 4.59 billion people use social media. Users tend to spend 2 hours and 25 minutes daily (on average) on social media platforms.

If you own a business and want to quickly scale your business by reaching out to your potential customers, you must definitely turn your attention to social media advertising. For those who are not aware, social media advertising enables businesses to run paid advertisements on social networks. It is a digital marketing strategy involving spending money to promote content on social media platforms to reach people interested in your business and get them to explore it.

One of the significant benefits of a paid advertising campaign on social media is that it gives your exposure in front of a much larger audience as compared to the people who are currently following you.

We understand it may seem daunting when you decide to opt for social media advertising. Therefore, in this blog, you will get to know the different types of social media ads and how to use them in the most optimum way to attain results that pay off for your business, all while maximizing the amount you spend.

But first, let's understand which social media network to choose to place your ads on.

Which Social Media is Best for Advertising?

Every major social network provides advertising options. But you don't necessarily have to use each one of them. To choose the right social networks to place your ads on, check where your target audience hangs out the most and where they are the most engaged, concentrated, and accessible. Also, see which social media platforms perform well organically for your business. All of this information will help you determine your choice for your social ad campaigns.

Now that you know which social media platform will be the best for your business, it’s time to know the ad types of various social media networks as the first part of our social media advertising 101.

I. Facebook Ads

Facebook ads help you attain the following campaign objectives:

• Awareness: Expand reach or develop brand awareness.

• Consideration: Increase engagement, send traffic to your website, encourage video views or app installs, motivate individuals to communicate with you on Facebook Messenger, or generate leads.

• Conversion: Increase leads or purchases through your app or site or send foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar store.

According to the latest statistics, 1.9 billion daily users access Facebook. From teens to their parents to seniors, all actively use this popular social media platform. Given the precise targeting options offered for such a massive pool of users, Facebook is an apt platform for social media advertising. You can use different types of Facebook ads, such as:

1. Image Ads

Creating an image ad is an effortless process with just a few clicks. All you need to do is boost an existing post featuring an image from your Facebook Page, and you are all set!

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2. Video Ads

Video ads can run in Stories and the News Feed. They also appear as in-stream ads in Facebook videos of a longer length.

Tip: Use these types of ads to showcase a product in action.

3. Poll Ads

A poll ad is a mobile-only Facebook ad format that incorporates a two-option poll to a video or image ad. You can embed different links for the two poll choices.

4. Carousel Ads

A Facebook carousel ad allows you to put up to 10 videos or images to advertise your service or product.

5. Slideshow Ads

A slideshow ad is an ad that generates a compelling video from still images, video clips, and text. In case you are not ready to give video ads a try but want to move beyond static images, you can consider opting for slideshow ads. You can easily create slideshow ads in minutes using AI slideshow maker.

6. Messenger Ads

Messenger ads are the ads you find in the Messenger app (in the chats tab in between conversations).

7. AR Ads

These ads use features such as animation and filters to let individuals interact with your business.

8. Stories Ads

Ā Facebook stories ads are full-screen vertical video format (mobile-only).

9. Dynamic Ads

Here's an example to understand this type of Facebook ad. Suppose a person visited a product page or added a product to their shopping cart on your website. However, they didn't complete the purchase. This is where dynamic ads can prove to be highly useful. You can use dynamic ads to create retargeting ads specific to the product and show it in that person's Facebook feed.

10. Lead Ads

Lead ads are mobile-only ads that make it easy for Facebook users to provide you with their contact information without typing a lot.

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11. Instant Experience Ads

Instant Experience ads are full-screen ad formats that load 15 times faster than compared to a mobile site outside of Facebook.

12. Collection Ads

Applicable only to mobile devices, collection ads let you showcase five videos or images customers can click to purchase a service or a product.

Listen Up: Own a small business? Learn more about Facebook advertising for small businesses.

II. Instagram Ads

Owned by Facebook, Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users.

67% of individuals aged between 18 and 29 use Instagram.

When you talk about Instagram ads, they support the same categories of campaign objectives we discussed about Facebook ads, i.e., Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.

Let's take a closer look at the different types of Instagram ads:

1. Photo Ads

Photo ads feature a photo, description, and a call-to-action.

2. Video Ads

Video ads help provide a closer look at your offerings in a much more engaging way. You can create long or short format videos as per your requirement.

3. Carousel Ads

This ad possesses a series of videos or images users can easily swipe through. Use these ads to display a collection of related products.

4. Collection Ads

Collection ads look the same as a traditional Instagram post. The only difference is a little shopping bag at the bottom-left corner, which, when clicked, redirects you to the products showcased in the post.

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5. Shopping Ads

These ads are somewhat similar to collection ads. When you tap on the image displayed in it, a link shows up, which takes you to the page where you can purchase the item.

6. Explore Ads

These ads appear in the Explore tab, an area of Instagram where users can access fresh content and discover new accounts, all tailored according to their Instagram usage habits. These ads can be both videos and images.

7. Story Ads

A story ad is a full-screen-sized video or image that you choose. It also has a swipe-up call-to-action directing the user to your website or profile.‍

Tip: Get a good professional photo editing app for amazing photos to build an awesome social media presence or to promote your business through social media.

8. IGTV Ads

IGTV ads are video ads that play when people watch an IGTV video from their feed.

9. Reels Ads

These are the ads shown in between Instagram Reels and can be up to 30 seconds.

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Tip: Use Lightroom Instagram Presets to get the desired effect on your shots, that too, in a minimum amount of time.

III. LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is a platform that is far more business-oriented as compared to the other social networks discussed in this post. It provides targeting options based on job title, seniority, and other professional qualifications.

Let's understand the LinkedIn ad types in detail:

1. Sponsored Content

Also called Native ads, these show up on your audience's feed (both on desktop and mobile). When you advertise with Sponsored Content, you can opt for single image ads, carousel ads, or video ads.

2. Sponsored Messaging

Previously called Sponsored InMail, it allows you to advertise to users directly in their inbox.

3. Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads are the types of LinkedIn ads that are automatically personalized for each of your prospects. Here's an example of a dynamic ad:

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4. Text Ads

Text ads show up along the right-hand side or the top of a user's LinkedIn feed (on desktops only).

IV. YouTube Ads

YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world. The latest statistics share some interesting insights on YouTube users to help you make an informed decision whether to use it to place your ads or not:

• 81% of individuals aged 15-25 use it
• 71% of individuals aged 26-35 use it
• 67% of individuals aged 36-45 use it
• 66% of individuals aged 46-55 use it
• 58% of people above 56 years of age use it

Over half of YouTube’s users are female.

YouTube ads can help you reach various business goals, such as:

• Get more website traffic
• Increase brand and product consideration
• Develop brand awareness
• Collect leads

The types of YouTube ads include:

1. Skippable In-Stream Ads

These play before or during a video, and the viewer can opt to skip them after the first 5 seconds.

2. Non-skippable YouTube Ads

These are brief ads appearing either at the start, end, or middle of a video. The maximum length of these ads is 15 seconds, and they can't be skipped.

3. Video Discovery Ads

Video discovery YouTube ads appear on the YouTube search results pages, homepage, and as related videos on YouTube video watch pages.

4. Outstream Ads

These ads aren't available on YouTube. These mobile-only ads appear on apps and websites that run on Google video partners. Outstream ads might run within apps or in-feed content, or in web banners.

5. Bumper Ads

Bumper ads are regarded as the subspecies of non-skippable in-stream ads. You can expect bumper ads to be less than 6 seconds.

6. Masthead Ads

This ad type works great for publicizing a new service or a product. Take a look at this image, and you will understand the positioning of masthead ads and the impact they can make:

Learn more about how to use YouTube Ads to grow your business.

V. TikTok Ads

TikTok is a social networking service that focuses on video. 18% of international internet users aged between 16 and 64 use TikTok (GlobalWebIndex).

TikTok ads enable you to achieve different business goals, such as:

• Increase engagement with creative content and interactivity.
• Connect with a variety of audiences worldwide.
• Encourage sales and app installs.

Now let’s talk about the types of TikTok ads.

In-feed ads are ads you create yourself. Types of in-feed ads are video ads (similar to a commercial), image ads (similar to a billboard), and spark ads (boosting your existing content to reach more users).

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There are also carousel ads (these run only in TikTok’s News Feed apps) and pangle ads (placed via TikTok’s Audience Network).

Ads formats for managed brands (those who work with a TikTok sales representative) include:

• TopView ads: Video ads that run on full-screen for 5-60 seconds upon opening the app.
• Branded Hashtag Challenge: It is a 3- to 6-day ad campaign format for engagement.
• Branded Effects: Branded filters, stickers, and special effects to get app users to interact with your brand.

VI. Twitter Ads

Twitter is a popular social network on which users post and interact with tweets (messages). The largest age demographic on this platform is 25 to 34-year-olds. Twitter ads can help you reach three objectives: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.

Let’s dive straight into the types of Twitter ads:

1. Promoted Accounts

The suggested accounts that show up beneath the “What’s happening” section and under the “Who to follow” section are promoted accounts. Based on the user interest, your profile gets suggested to the right users.

2. Promoted Trends

Sponsored by advertisers, promoted trends show up in a section called “Trends for you.” Brands can promote a trend for one day with promoted trends.

3. Promoted Tweets

Promoted tweets is an option you can consider for making a crucial status update stand out on the feed of your potential customers.

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VII. Pinterest Ads

Pinterest is a social site where you can collect as well as share images of anything that intrigues you. As per the latest statistics, six out of 10 Pinterest users are females.

When you talk of Pinterest ads, they help you with various business goals, such as building brand awareness, driving app installs, and driving traffic to your website.

Here’s what you should know about types of Pinterest ads:

1. Promoted Pin

Promoted Pins show up in users’ feeds the same way as a regular Pin would. The only difference between the two is a “promoted” tag.

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When you run these types of ads, you enhance the exposure of your pin and get discovered by people who may want to purchase from you.

2. Promoted Video Pins

The sole difference between promoted video pins and the other ad options is that the multimedia used is a video. These ads are used to grab the attention of your audience more effectively.

3. Promoted Carousel

Promoted Carousel is one of the Pinterest ad types where you can have more than a single photo (2-5 images).

4. Buyable Pins

Buyable pins allow individuals to shop straight from the pins you post. All the user needs to do is click on the white dots and visit your product listing page.

5. Promoted App Pins

You can use Promoted app pins to promote your business app.

VIII. Snapchat Ads

Snapchat is a sought-after multimedia instant messaging app and service. A lot of young adults are known to use it. When you talk of the different ad types of this platform, they can help you attain several marketing objectives, such as increasing your brand awareness and driving catalog sales or website conversions.

Here's what you should know about the different Snapchat ad types:

1. Single Image or Video

These are full-screen ads where you add an attachment (such as a link to your site) and users swipe up to take action.

2. Story Ads

Story ads help you get in front of your potential customers with a branded title in the Discover feed. Snapchat users can visit your ad and check out a complete collection of snaps (ranging from 3 to 20). With story ads, you can showcase any product launches or a new fashion collection. Users can also swipe up to complete your goal, such as purchasing something on your site.

3. Collection Ads

These ads contain four tappable tiles that allow users to browse and purchase your products.

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4. Lenses

Snapchat allows you to run interactive, memorable AR ads in its Ads Manager. With the help of Lens Web Builder, you can choose from a variety of animations, 3D objects, and effects to create your personal branded AR lens. After you are done, you can launch it in the form of an ad for Snapchat users to play with as well as share with their pals.

5. Filters

Filters let brands participate in millions of snaps sent between friends every day. When Snapchat users take a snap in the location you select beforehand, they are able to view your filter and use it to tell when, why, and where they took the snap.

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6. Commercials

Commercials are the ads that Snapchat users cannot skip for 6 seconds and can be up to 3 minutes long.

Social Media Advertising Tips

Some social media advertising tips can always come in handy when you are trying to get the most out of your ad budget. Let's begin:

1. Know the Goals You Want to Achieve

Start by reviewing the business objectives a social media ad can help you achieve. You can't attain your goals when you don't even know what they are in the first place. Precisely knowing your business objectives ensures you are selecting the correct social media platform to advertise on. It also helps you choose the suitable advertising solution in the social media platform you choose.

2. Know Your Target Audience

Before you decide to advertise on social media, ensure you have thoroughly understood and learned about your target audience. In this blog, we have discussed the different types of audiences that hang out on popular social media networks. Keeping this information in mind, you can develop audience personas to know which audience segments to concentrate on.

3. Design Your Ads Keeping Mobile in Mind

As per the latest statistics, about 99% of social media users access apps or websites via mobile. So, we can say that social media ads reach a lot of eyeballs on mobile.

Do you know what this means? You must put those images in your ads which your potential customers can easily view on a pocket-size device (except when you want to go for desktop placement).

4. Test Your Ads to Know What Works Best

Do you know the advantage of using social ads? You get feedback in an instant!

You can know how effective a sponsored post is performing and that too in minutes. You are even presented with an advanced analytics report.

Test multiple ads with tiny audiences and use the best one in your primary campaign.

5. Measure Results and Report on Them

Measuring results holds critical importance because it will let you know what worked out and what didn't. You can then make the improvements accordingly if any. The social media giants, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, provide analytics to let you measure and analyze the results of ads.

Social Media Advertising Cost

Now, you may wonder how much do paid social media advertisements cost? The answer is: It varies based on your business and your ads.

When you talk of social media advertising, a lot of networks require a minimum daily budget. This rate differs from platform to platform, with some basing their required budget on the bid type, such as clicks, impressions, views, or likes.

Here's the lowest possible ad spend spread across famous social media networks:

A. Average CPC for Social Media Ads

With social media advertising, your business can use different bidding options, such as CPV (cost-per-view) and CPL (cost-per-like). A universal bidding option you should also know of is CPC (cost-per-click).

See the table below to know about the average CPC for the social media networks in your ad campaign:

B. Average CPM for Social Media

Leading social media networks also offer CPM or cost-per-thousand impressions as a bidding option.

Here's a breakdown of the social media advertising costs by CPM:

Conclusion

Now that you know what social media advertising is, the different types of social media ads, social media advertising tips, and how much do social media ads cost, you are more informed to get the most out of your ad budget.

Hope this social media advertising 101 helps you achieve real business results when you use different types of social media ads.

When sales and marketing get in sync, magic happens. The combination is an elixir for organizations willing to perform better. But how do sales and marketing find a more cohesive path to deliver the business results you want? And, how to forge a stronger partnership between sales and marketing teams?

Businesses have been asking this question for many years now.

Aligned teams can dramatically improve your sales and revenue. Working in sync drives growth increases sales, and allows different teams to work better, together.

Still, teams struggle to work in harmony. Do you know the reason?

The bottlenecks often include office politics and distributed workforces. So, here we will discuss how to forge a better sales and marketing alignment for the best business results.

Why Do You Need Sales and Marketing Alignment?

With endless choices in front of them, the modern customer is already struggling with information overload. Brands also push personal services and numerous product lines to meet people's needs. But, it actually overwhelms a customer.

Together, all these things make a purchase decision much more difficult. Trust factors also play a significant role here as customers can't trust every other brand brandishing the USPs of their products. According to a study, 81% of customers admitted that numerous options and too much information make a purchase decision difficult.

One significant benefit of working with aligned teams is that they help consumers navigate the complex emotional process of making purchase decisions. The marketing department shares these inputs with the sales teams so that they can refine their communication accordingly.

Now, let's discuss their roles.

The Role of a Sales Team

The sales team is directly responsible for converting leads into customers. They build and manage relationships and also work on retention. If the need arises, they also resolve customer issues. Since sales is a multi-stage activity, the salespeople must keep an eye on the entire customer journey and adapt their communication accordingly. That's the reason sales is so crucial for businesses. They are the lifeline of any organization.

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However, a blind focus on sales may backfire, and you may end up ruining your prospects and clients in the long run.

The Role of a Marketing Team

Enter marketing. Marketing takes care of the parts sales often overlooks, e.g., creating awareness, educating about the product, ensuring the quality of leads, and crafting enticing messages.

The customers need to be made aware of your product, and marketing people know precisely what they need to hear. Their job is to craft thoughtful marketing messages to push the prospects down the sales funnel. Without a marketing strategy, you won't have a target audience and, ultimately, no sales.

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So, why do you need to align the two teams?

Reasons Sales and Marketing Alignment Is Crucial

According to a study, nearly 75% of leads never reach the conversion stage when the sales and marketing teams aren't aligned.

This statistic indicates how wasteful misaligned sales can be. Aligned teams achieved a 34% increase in new business revenue. So, even though the ultimate objective of both teams appears to be the same, their playing fields are entirely different.

The marketing team aggressively generates leads, and the sales team leaves no stone unturned to convert those leads. But sadly, both the teams work independently and hence fail to achieve their common objectives.

Here are five significant reasons why aligned teams are so crucial for the growth of your business.

1. Helps Create a Single Customer Journey

Aligned teams collaborate and share their insights about their customers. Otherwise, a major disconnect can happen in their degree of understanding of the customer.

Your marketing and sales teams may be on entirely different trajectories regarding their perceptions of how a customer moves between different stages in the sales funnel.

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This is one of the major reasons why leads don't turn into customers. Customers are smart. They can sense a disconnect between your marketing pitch and your sales process as soon as they interact with your brand.

The results may surprise you when teams are aligned towards a mutually understood customer journey. The collaboration should start right after a customer is first exposed to your brand, i.e., when they hear about it. And it should last till your last communication with them.

2. Helps Different Teams Agree on a Customer Persona

Again, serious disagreements often happen between marketing and sales teams about their perceptions of the target audience. It results in both the teams looking for different qualities in the same customer persona. If your idea of your target customer is unclear, it affects everything from marketing messages to sales plan.

With that said, it becomes crucial to agree on a customer persona. It will allow you to market to them as per their personality traits at each stage of their journey without any disconnect.

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3. Helps You Deal With the Shifting Nature of Markets

Your marketing team will identify people interested in your product. In contrast, the sales team filters this list and focuses on people ready to make a buying decision soon.The driving factors that make a person interested are pretty different from those that make them ready to buy.However, with the changing nature of markets, sales and marketing teams should be flexible about their buyer personas. Customers' pain points keep changing, and if you don't adapt, you won't move even an inch ahead.These dynamic changes in market trends can be overcome by the marketing and sales team collaborating and working in tandem.

4. Helps You in Customer Outreach

Even though both departments are equally valuable, marketing should take precedence. Sales have become increasingly difficult in the past decade, mainly owing to the boom in cold calling, cold emailing, and other forms of unsolicited marketing. People just don't like it.

The best marketing approach is to figure out where your customers usually hang out. This allows you to meet them at their preferred hangout place, whether online or offline. Ofcourse, we are talking about various popular online channels here. Once your marketing team figures that out, they can start a targeted campaign to attract customers.

And once a few interested customers show their hands, your sales team can easily take it from there!

5. Helps You Track Joint KPIs

Even if you hate tracking joint KPIs, the strategy tells you what you need to fix. When the teams are not aligned, they might track different KPIs. For the sales team, KPIs like overall conversion rate and new accounts created are far more critical than lead quality and quantity or advertising results.However, aligned teams can reduce this friction through weekly meetings and daily collaboration. In those meetings, sales and marketing teams can share customer pain points and their preferences and discuss how they can use this data to turn missed conversions into sales.

Final Words

Aligned teams can refine your brand message and make it look uniform, consistent, and professional. If different teams use different terminologies, it may not only sound unprofessional but will also confuse your customers. It will quickly erode customer trust.

Again, it's essential to craft your marketing messages according to your buyer personas and their stage in the customer journey. Targeted marketing also helps you plug in the various loopholes in sales. Any disconnect here will lead to the failure of your entire sales campaign. That's why sales and marketing alignment are often called innovative marketing and should be practiced by every business to succeed.

Sustainable business growth is paramount for longevity.

That growth comes as a result of implementing an effective market penetration strategy. Learning how to make more high-quality leads aware of and interested in your brand is how this becomes possible.

The optimal strategy for achieving high market penetration is known as STP marketing.

However, before we get caught up in the details, let's step back and evaluate what these ideas represent. Let's first identify what we mean by market penetration.

What is Market Penetration?

Market penetration refers to the amount of sales transactions that occur between a business and customers that belong to a specific market segment.

That market segment refers to only the customers that exhibit interest or could benefit from the products or services your brand provides.

In other words, your market is not defined by every individual in your area. It only applies to the potential persons that would be in the market for your offerings.

Importance of Market Penetration

Understanding and regularly measuring market penetration is a direct indicator of both your marketing and sales performance.

When more of the market is aware of your brand, the more likely they are to use your company for their needs. If your brand is at a high level of market penetration, they're likely to dominate the mindshare, making other options seem less desirable.

Here are some indicators and benefits of achieving high market penetration:

• Your brand is well-known among your target audience
• You achieve high sales with regularity and are trending toward growth
• You’re capable of opening multiple locations in an area and sustaining each
• Influencers and industry leaders reference your products or services

All of these are the desired goals for any growing brand. However, using market penetration strategies incorrectly can also create undue pressures and strains on your existing operation.

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Now that we better understand market penetration, let's explore how your brand can take action.

You'll learn how to calculate your current level of market penetration and learn about specific STP marketing strategies that can get you better results.

How to Calculate Market Penetration?

We know that market penetration is the relationship of your product's sales in conjunction with all related products a potential customer could buy. Therefore, the equation looks something like this:

Market Penetration = Number of Existing Customers & Sales / Total Possible Customers in the Market x 100

The total possible customers refer to those that specifically qualify for your product. It's important to discern the difference between low-quality leads and high-quality leads for this reason. The resulting percentage indicates how high your penetration rate is.

Juggernaut companies like Amazon boast market penetration rates as high as nearly 60%.

For smaller, local businesses, an average market penetration rate is anywhere between 2% and 6%. Achieving a number higher than this indicates that your brand is already faring better than most across the nation.

However, it also demonstrates just how stiff the competition is for small business owners. It's a difficult situation as resources are tighter for small brands in a scenario where it's already tough to stand out.

It can feel hopeless, if not impossible, for your new brand to succeed.

The good news is that you don't need to let these figures intimidate you. What you need is a powerful market penetration strategy using STP marketing.

In the next step, let's define what STP is so that you can leverage it in your local and digital marketing.

What is STP in Marketing?

STP is now the gold standard for digital marketing.

Rather than wasting time and resources appealing to a wide consumer base, STP marketing carefully directs efforts to highly-qualified prospects.

The acronym STP stands for:

Segmentation

Segmentation, in marketing, is the process of dividing an established audience into distinct segments.

While your entire audience shares a mutual interest in your offerings, sections of the audience can be effectively classified through different characteristics.

This information becomes valuable as it allows you to better understand why specific individuals come to your brand.

For example, a computer company can have success selling its computer products to almost any demographic. However, an 18-year college student and gamer will benefit from different selling points than a 35-year old office manager.

Targeting

By segmenting these customers into different groups, you can determine which groups are worth targeting.

This is especially important for smaller brands that may currently lack the resources to capitalize on every possible segment. Instead, you can review your existing marketing and sales data to determine which segments demonstrate a better ROI.

However, it's worth making note of other possible segments to pursue as your brand begins to scale.

Positioning

Now that you've created your segments and narrowed your targeting, it's time to position yourself for success.

Understanding your target segment allows your team to create highly-personalized ad campaigns. The better your proposition speaks to the unique needs of the prospect, the more likely you are to drive conversions.

A beautiful aspect of STP marketing is that it is proven to benefit any business regardless of size or industry. As marketing becomes increasingly competitive, bespoke advertisements will always yield better results than minimal, generalized efforts.

Effective Market Penetration Strategies (with STP Marketing)

Market penetration is a relatively safe, effective strategy for every brand. The primary reason for this is that it allows you to move in on audiences that you've already established.

This is, as compared, to diversifying your audiences and/or products, which can often have unpredictable results.

Instead, these market penetration strategies should help you connect with more qualified customers and reinforce relationships with existing ones for continued transactions.

1. Personalized Marketing Campaigns

For starters, we're leaning into the ideas discussed when introducing STP marketing.

Your ad campaigns thus far have landed your brand its current customer base. While your efforts are connecting with these individuals, they're not quite pushing audience segments to convert.

To further your market penetration, you can begin to explore those audience segments that are still on the outside looking in. We recommend utilizing marketing analytics tools like Google Analytics to study audience behaviors.

You can use tools like these to analyze your ads, landing pages, sales funnels, and more. Determine which part of your pitch is causing customers to drop off, and begin to rethink your approach.

Instead of having one campaign for a large audience, start to develop highly-personalized campaigns that speak to specific demographics. This will position you to speak better to the problems they face and explain why your brand is the solution.

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Not only will this grab their attention, but it also allows your brand to cut through the noisy competition by offering something unique and special.

2. Reconsider Your Pricing

We specifically mention pricing only as increasing OR decreasing your prices could be beneficial. Whichever action you choose to take depends upon careful research of your target audience.

The price of your products and services can communicate a great deal of information to a prospect before you even make your pitch.

A product marked above the industry average might communicate that your brand cares about maximizing profits over the consumer. However, with careful marketing, it can also communicate that your product is simply of better quality when compared to competitors. This may boost conversions with the right audience simply to gain access to superior goods.

On the other hand, intelligently lowering your prices can make your products accessible to new audience segments. Slashing prices, so long as it doesn't harm your bottom line, can instantly improve your market penetration.

Be aware that lowering prices can also create the opposite perception of raising them. If consumers see that you're comfortable with lowering the value, it can lead them to believe that your goods are of subpar quality.

3. Introduce New Products or Update Existing Ones

To sell more of your product or service, you need to satisfy all of the customer's needs.

Those needs include:

• Features
• Build quality
• Price point
• Warranty / protection

If your product fails to meet any one of these standards, you're likely to lose a potential sale. The same is also true if a competitor has a similar product that exceeds your standards of yours.

In this scenario, you have a couple of options. The first is to consider the features your products lack and consider how you can create a superior model.

A second option is to introduce a new product into your offerings.

A great example of this is Apple's iPhone - one of the most popular products in the mobile tech world.

They recently released the iPhone 13 which features all of the latest upgrades to display, memory, and camera functionality. However, it retails for $999, which is a hefty price point considering that new ones appear each year.

Understanding cost is a barrier to market penetration, they introduced another low-cost model known as the iPhone SE. This product costs only $429 in comparison. Of course, it lacks in features and build quality in comparison. This is the trade-off made to protect the bottom line.

However, having this affordable option suddenly makes iPhones more accessible to the greater market. Furthermore, consumers feel empowered by having options and the ability to choose what's best for their needs.

Finally, having different options negates the potential drawback of altering base prices. Consumers that want to pay a premium for a superior product still have that option available.

4. Introduce Referral / Loyalty Programs

A great way to boost brand awareness and market penetration is to empower your existing customers to help.

Many brands institute referral programs that provide the customer with rewards or discounts for every new customer they bring to your brand. It's an easy sell as existing customers can already speak to your brand positives, while also getting a small reward for minimal effort. Positive word of mouth from trusted sources can help push prospects to convert.

Likewise, you can further boost that engagement and loyalty by rewarding customers that shop regularly. Brands like Best Buy offer points for each dollar spent, which can then be converted into discounts.

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5. Position Your Sales Reps for Success

Your marketing team may be doing a great job of attracting new leads.

However, having more leads than your sales team can handle may cause you to lose customers permanently.

Having an effective sales management system is essential for boosting market penetration and achieving business growth. DashClicks' own Inbound software is an excellent example of this.

The Inbound tool allows you to quickly integrate all of your marketing campaigns into one dashboard. Filter all of your leads from Facebook, ClickFunnels, and CallRail, for easy access.

With all of your leads in one place, you can automatically:

• Assign leads to sales reps by campaign or round-robin style
• Track close rates by campaign/channel
• Track close rates by sales rep
• Track time to respond to new leads
• Reassign sales reps at any time

All of these features ensure that you capitalize on fresh leads by giving them immediate attention. Your analytics will demonstrate the areas in which your team requires improvement.

Furthermore, DashClicks offers the ability to automate emails and text messages within the same platform. This way, even if a rep is unable to manually communicate at a given stage, you can trigger personalized messages to go out regardless.

6. Expand Mark eting Efforts to New Channels

Finally, making the effort to reach new audiences through different means can help boost market penetration.

Paid ads on platforms like Facebook and Google are some of the more common digital marketing methods. However, not all potential prospects are interested in clicking on ads or reading landing pages.

Social media is a popular marketing channel that's often neglected by smaller businesses. An estimated 7/10 U.S. residents use at least one social media platform in 2022. Instead of working to get everyone on your website, brands should make the effort to reach the market where they spend most of their time.

Consider all of the options you aren't currently using and determine how they might help boost your market penetration. Other channels we recommend are:

• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Influencer marketing

Implement Market Penetration Strategies to Grow Sustainably

Market penetration is essential for brands that seek continued growth and longevity. It allows you to continuously pursue the individuals whom you already know to be in the market for your offerings.

Understanding and utilizing STP marketing will universally boost the effectiveness of all of your marketing efforts. Likewise, making key adjustments that are appropriate for your brand and offerings may suddenly make your products and services accessible to new audiences.

The best part is that all of these strategies are relatively low-risk and low-cost to implement. Select the right strategies, test and measure results, and continuously refine your efforts until you perfect the process.

Increasing customer lifetime value (CLV) is more vital than acquiring new customers for growing businesses.

It can cost five times more to acquire new customers than to nurture existing ones. Several factors contribute to how costly it is for a brand to acquire new customers including:

• Industry
• Marketing channels utilized
• The efficiency of your marketing strategy
• The current economic climate

Spending budget and resources to acquire new customers simply for a one-time purchase will hurt your bottom line in the long term. That's why learning how to increase your customer lifetime value is essential if you want to remain profitable.

In this article, we're going to help define customer lifetime value, how to calculate CLV, and the 12 most effective tactics you can implement to increase yours starting today.

What is Customer Lifetime Value?

Customer lifetime value is a metric that defines how much a single customer is worth to a business for the duration of their lifecycle. In other words, the more a customer spends on your brand, the higher their CLV.

You can calculate CLV in the following way:

The customer value is equal to their average purchase value times the average number of purchases in that lifespan. The lifespan simply defines the length of time since your brand acquired them as a new customer.

Therefore, the way to increase CLV is to convince customers to either make more purchases or spend more per transaction.

How do you make this happen? Let's dive into our top 12 tactics every business should use to increase the lifetime value of a customer.

Tip 1 - Make it Easy to Get Started

Whether you're selling a physical product or a service, your business must prioritize its onboarding process. The easier it is for a customer to get their foot in the door, the easier it will be to get them to convert.

According to a study, up to 67% of customer churn may be attributed to bad experiences during the onboarding process. The same study shows that more than half of buyers would be willing to pay you more just for a better experience.

The easiest way to optimize your customer experience is by interviewing clients directly. Investigate their pain points and formulate an improved process that grants consumers access to what they want faster.

You can do this by creating separate onboarding processes based on what the person is consuming. If you acquire a new prospect due to interest in a specific service, avoid wasting their time by having them fill out unnecessary paperwork that benefits you only and provides no value to them.

Businesses can also determine what information is necessary to create the initial account. That way, users can get started with the service, while you notify them at a later point to finalize the process at their convenience.

Furthermore, don't hesitate to remind consumers of why they're signing up throughout the process. Sometimes, a lengthier process may be necessary, so don't let them lose sight of the value they'll obtain at the end of the minor inconvenience.

Tip 2 - Offer a Personalized Experience

A survey shows that up to 65% of buyers are likely to switch to a different brand if the current one doesn't offer personalized communications. Similar surveys suggest that those same buyers are looking for personalization over speed, which is something to consider when reviewing the tip above.

Consider some of the most popular websites on the internet like Amazon or Facebook. Prepare your customer-facing teams with the right interview prep to ensure they align with your brand’s values and enhance customer loyalty. Both sites focus on different types of service, but both tailor the experience to the individual.

Those who log in experience recommendations specific to their interests, communications with their name, and product promotions based on previous activity. They never have to waste their time sifting through information that doesn't apply to their buyer persona.

Your brand must consider how to personalize the user experience for each individual that logs in to your website.

eCommerce sites can store browsing history and promote similar items.

Subscription service sites like DashClicks offer each account user the ability to create their client dashboard and notification settings.

That personalized experience not only makes the customer feel special but makes it easier to discover new ways to spend money. For every additional purchase they make, you successfully increase their CLV.

Tip 3 - Upsell and Cross-Sell

Offering upsells and cross-sells is a powerful way to offer that personalized experience described above.

When a new customer moves toward the checkout process, they've already decided to spend money on your brand. With that persuasion process successfully out of the way, the customer is now primed to potentially spend more if the offer is right.

However, you wouldn't offer an unrelated product or service and call it an upsell. An example of a proper upgrade would be to sell a keyboard or mouse to someone who's already buying a new computer. The consumer is already committed to spending the bulk of the value, so adding a bit more to the purchasing cost is an easier sell.

Meanwhile, those suggested products offer additional value to the customer by enhancing the benefits of the original product or service. Instead of simply trying to sell more, your brand appears helpful by understanding exactly what they'll need to be satisfied.

Upselling is not always about offering additional products but can be used to push a higher-tier subscription service. You can collect data about your users and make recommendations when you notice that they are reaching current account limits or restrictions regularly.

These types of actions can be automated, and you are once again personalizing those suggestions to that user's personal experience. They'll be grateful that you are aware of their needs and the offer reminder will inevitably convince many customers to convert and spend more.

Tip 4 - Address Payment Issues

Did you know that up to 40% of a company's customer churn can be attributed to payment failures? That makes it the premier cause of involuntary churn, which is devastating for your CLV.

Both new and existing customers can have their payment method declined at any point for the following reasons:

• Incorrect card number / CVV
• Change of address
• Insufficient funds
• Flagged activity
• Communication errors

There are dozens of additional reasons that payment can fail at any time that is not the fault of you or the customer. Nonetheless, one too many failed payments can cause a customer to abandon your brand for another where they can avoid these types of interruptions.

An easy, cost-effective way to combat this issue is to automate reminders to those who need to update their payment method. If your system notices a card is reaching its expiration date, send a gentle reminder to the user to empower them to avoid service interruptions.

Additionally, you should consider utilizing a billing system that allows for payment retries if you don't have one already. If a customer that regularly pays without incident suddenly experiences a failure, you can manually retry the payment without having to bother the customer.

Software like Retain or ChargeSentry promises to offer automated solutions for this specific problem. Avoid letting this solvable problem get in the way of your business growth.

Tip 5 - Emphasize Value & Benefits

A proven method for increasing customer retention is to regularly remind them of the value and benefits they receive through your brand.

When a customer has been paying for a service for a long period, it can be easy to take it for granted. They may face a period where they are examining their spending and considering cutting your brand from their budget.

Virtually every major online storefront from Amazon to Best Buy, to Home Depot, keeps track of customer activity throughout the year. Using this data, these companies can and do create personalized messaging that highlights metrics such as:

• Amount saved by shopping with that brand
• Amount saved through promotions & offers
• Number of additional rewards obtained through loyalty or rewards programs
• The number of exclusive discounts obtained

While these examples apply to more retail and eCommerce-oriented environments, service and software companies can also apply these principles.

For another example, we use software like Grammarly for this very content. Grammarly then sends weekly email updates demonstrating how often we use the software and how many words they check and optimize for us.

After reminding us of how often we depend on the software, they occasionally throw in mention of exclusive offers or updates to take advantage of to further enhance the value and benefits we obtain.

This type of internal messaging or email marketing is far superior to sending out the same standardized content you would send to any prospect. Remember that personalization is essential for not only getting more from customers but for keeping them onboard indefinitely.

Tip 6 - Offer Superior Customer Service

A huge advantage to bringing your brand online is the ability to provide stellar customer service.

Any time you can communicate with your audience and solve a problem, you are providing that service. With that in mind, you can utilize countless marketing channels such as your website, social media, live chat, and more to provide constant support.

Customers will measure your brand by this, as well. A Microsoft survey found that 96% of respondents feel that customer service is a determining factor in making a purchase. Likewise, a similar study found that 89% of consumers switched brands following a poor customer service experience.

In other words, your brand must make customer service a priority. However, simply being polite and offering your expertise is just the baseline of what's expected in 2022.

More customers are likely to turn to customer support options in areas other than your dedicated live chat on a website. Younger demographics, especially, are likely to search for your brand on social media before going anywhere else. If you're on social media, they want a prompt response in 60 minutes or less.

This highlights one of the many reasons that having a dedicated social media manager is essential for digital marketing. Not only will they help your brand connect and gain exposure, but they can also be on hand to address customer queries throughout the day without delay.

You can also improve your customer service response times by leveraging a chatbot to handle basic queries. To take this a step further, integrating an AI voice chatbot can offer real-time, conversational support that feels more natural and immediate than text-based interactions. Sites like ManyChat or Chatbot allow you to create customized scripts to help customers get the answers they need.

Brands can supplement automation like chatbots by linking to additional resources. Help center libraries can often help users solve basic issues without the need for an actual human response. That interaction is becoming less necessary as more people are becoming capable of using technology to overcome hurdles.

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Meanwhile, you'll still have your dedicated support team on standby to aid with support requests that cannot be solved alone.

Be quick with your responses. Be ready to provide accurate knowledge and solve the problem quickly. Finally, have company rules in place to empower your support team to keep customers happy in those tricky scenarios where there isn't a spectacular solution to the issue.

Tip 7 - Deploy a Rewards Program

Rewards programs are everywhere. You can't shop anywhere in person or online without an attendant asking you to sign up for one.

The reason for this is that a customer rewards program provides a built-in loyalty incentive. Your marketing has already done the job of persuading a person to shop with your company. You can then reward that customer simply for choosing to shop with your brand.

Those rewards can come in a variety of forms. The most common type is to offer some form of money back compensation for every dollar they spend. Consumers can then convert those points into coupons, sweepstake entries, or anything else you might be able to offer without hurting your bottom line.

Credit card companies also offer cash back incentives, while transportation companies typically offer some form of mileage incentive for each trip purchased.

Consider how your brand can create an attractive, customized rewards program that provides even more value to your customers. If a loyal customer may consider shopping elsewhere, thinking of their potential rewards can often be enough to keep them focused on you.

Tip 8 - Start a Customer Feedback Program

If you want to learn how to keep your customers loyal, ask them directly.

Something you never want to do as a business owner is to get caught in the trap of believing you always know what's best for the customer. Despite your best efforts, it can be very easy to overlook what seems like a minor issue. However, mild problems and small annoyances can be enough to cause customer churn when there's always a better option available.

This type of program does not have to be fancy. Utilize your email marketing to follow through with customers that utilize any aspect of your services.

Check-in with customers that purchase products or services and ask them to provide feedback. If they're particularly satisfied, you can use those testimonials to further your social proof online. If they share criticisms, take note. If enough customers share similar criticisms, your team can get to work on making the proper changes.

You can also gather customer feedback by making sure that your brand is listed on listing websites like Yelp or Google My Business. This grants additional exposure and provides another channel for customers to rate and review your company.

Finally, you should also ask for customer feedback when it comes to your customer service. This can help you smooth out your support process, analyze the performance of each representative, and let your customers know that their thoughts and feelings are valued.

Tip 9 - Offer Upgrades and Bonuses to Loyal Customers

Everyone loves getting something for free. Consumers love it, even more, when those gifts come unexpectedly from a brand they already use.

This provides a similar effect to a Rewards program. However, the surprising nature of it will make the consumer realize that you do think of and value them as an individual customer. Some may simply value the gesture, while others may choose to remain loyal in hopes of additional bonuses.

The key is to come up with bonuses that provide value without actually costing you additional money. If you're selling a product that directly competes with similar items, consider what bonus items you could add to the order for free. A bonus gift with purchase is a useful tactic that can tip the purchasing decision in your favor.

Other examples of this tactic can be seen in airline companies. Due to the hectic nature of the industry, your plane may be full or there may unexpectedly be empty seats. Loyal customers are always the first names picked when offering that free upgrade. The brand takes care of the consumers that take care of them.

Bonuses do not have to be limited to existing customers, however. With the right strategy, you can create a welcome package for first-time customers to make an excellent first impression.

After all, each customer is new at some point, and the extra attention and care may be just the solution to keep them coming back.

Tip 10 - Create Annual Memberships

Almost every SaaS company now provides multiple membership options to its customers.

Consumers can typically choose between monthly, bi-annual, or annual membership plans. Those brands then typically offer discounted rates for those who commit to the longer plans as opposed to going month-to-month.

The reason for this is that when a customer commits to an entire year, you automatically boost your customer's lifetime value. Meanwhile, they obtain a better value right out of the gate as the math works out to be less per month for the annual plan.

The trick to a structured tier plan is to work out the pricing in a way that's advantageous to your brand. Companies are not taking a hit when offering annual discounts.

Instead, pricing is configured in a way that allows the brand to remain profitable while incentivizing consumers to commit to the long-term. If they cannot commit to an annual membership, they'll typically end up paying more for the monthly membership.

Let's look at the popular streaming service Disney+ as an example:

• Monthly Membership - $8/Month or $96/Year
• Annual Membership - $80/Year

Both memberships offer affordable pricing, but the annual plan saves consumers nearly $20 overall.

The monthly plan stays in place for those that are not comfortable with paying the lump sum in one transaction. However, they pay almost $2 more per month for that convenience.

Regardless of what plan the customer chooses, both serve to increase your CLV. You make a greater profit from the monthly customer while rewarding those loyal customers that choose to commit for the long-term. In either case, your company makes the desired revenue.

You can structure your tiers to offer customers something that makes sense for your brand and industry. The most vital tip is to make sure that each of those tiers provides value to the customer. You still want your monthly customers to feel appreciated while providing a natural incentive for them to choose a different tier whenever possible.

Tip 11 - Start a Referral Program

Referral programs can sometimes be conflated with the rewards program we discussed previously.

Rewards programs offer bonuses to a single customer for continued purchases from your company.

Referral programs reward those customers for sharing your products and services with those in their social and professional circles.

Referral programs can boost your CLV differently by effectively giving you free advertising. That customer doesn't necessarily need to make an additional purchase to add value. If your brand obtains five new customers as a result of one person's referral, you gain more revenue for what you paid to acquire a single customer only.

Customers may naturally refer to your brand provided that you offer exceptional products, services, and customer care. However, incentivizing customers to refer to your brand doesn't hurt your cause.

In the B2B space, 78% of marketers claim that leads from referrals are of better quality than from other sources. For marketers overall, 60% stated that such programs generated a higher volume of leads.

That marriage of both quantity and quality of leads is exactly the ingredient every brand needs to boost their average CLV.

Common incentives to encourage referrals can include:

• Discounts on future purchases/subscriptions
• Actual cash rewards
• Bonus products/services relevant to the core offering

You can learn more about designing a quality referral program by checking out this handy guide courtesy of ReferralRock. They are a high-quality referral software provider that can help your program get up and running quickly.

Tip 12 - Make All of it Convenient

Last, but certainly not least, our top tip is to ensure that your brand offers convenience.

What makes digital marketing so intense is that there are thousands of companies vying for the same audience's attention 24/7. While many of these strategies may be new to you, countless business owners are already deploying their programs to cement customer loyalty.

With that said, your customer experience will be nothing if it is not as easy and intuitive as possible for consumers to navigate.

However, your brand can continuously optimize the buyer journey to be more convenient by deploying each of these previous tips listed above.

Simplify the onboarding process, make it easy to add and update payment information, and provide exceptional customer support options at every step. While you may be online, think of each customer interaction as if you were face-to-face with them. Provide swift responses, high-quality information, and let them know that you're invested in their problems.

The better you understand the consumer experience and address those pain points, the better you will become at making your process more convenient for your unique audience.

Start Increasing Your Customer Lifetime Value

You can summarize all twelve of these tips in one important lesson: value your customers.

If you treat customers as disposable, they will just as quickly find a competitor that's happy to succeed where you are failing. Anyone adept in digital marketing can bring new leads to the door, but it takes an exceptional customer experience that only you can provide to make the difference.

Even as you explore new options and finetune your programs, showing appreciation and listening to your audience will keep customers satisfied. However, by delivering a unique, personalized experience, you'll find ways to convert everyday people into customers for life.

Selling a business on the benefits of SEO sounds easy in the short term. You can climb the search rankings, get more traffic, and make more people aware of your brand. However, the patience of many business owners can run thin when they aren't able to see a direct correlation between SEO and sales.

Does a great SEO strategy lead to an increase in sales? While there may not be a clear-cut solution to answering this, here are four questions you can answer for yourself right now to determine the impact of your search engine optimization efforts.

Is Your SEO Strategy Leading to a Traffic Increase?

The primary reason that businesses implement an SEO strategy is to see an increase in their organic search rankings. As the SEO score of your website improves, search engine algorithms place a higher value on your domain, therefore, placing you closer to the top of search engine results pages.

A study by Ahrefs indicates that the first result on a search engine results page gets the most traffic just under 50% of the time. If Google relegates your domain to the second result page, there may be only a 0.78% chance that someone will click on your link. Ranking even further back makes it statistically unlikely for you to receive any web traffic from organic searches.

Comparatively, the clickthrough rate for a paid search advertisement with Google Ads is only about 3.17%. Even if it takes some time for your website to climb the rankings, the boost in web traffic as a result of SEO is undeniable.

It's the logical conclusion that if a strong SEO strategy leads to an increase in rankings, then it will also lead to an increase in sales. You can only deliver your sales pitch if a customer walks into your store in the first place. The more you improve your search rankings, the more opportunities you have to convert prospects into paying clients.

However, there is much more that goes into a sale than web traffic, which leads us to our next question:

Does Your Web Traffic Lead to Conversions?

While an increase in web traffic allows for more prospects to interact with your business, can we prove that it leads to a rise in sales? The truth is that web traffic in many ways can be seen as a vanity metric. Many inexperienced marketers have a habit of selling business owners on the promise of seeing this boost in clicks, but ultimately receive very little return on their investment.

This is because SEO efforts that lack a comprehensive marketing strategy to support them do not necessarily qualify your leads. In other words, 1,000 new visitors a month may sound great but ultimately matters very little if all or most of those clicks are from customers that aren't ready or equipped to purchase.

With this in mind, let's revisit our statistics regarding paid Google Ads. The average clickthrough rate is just 3.17%, but the average ROI is about 8:1. This is because a paid ad better matches the search intent. If a user clicks on a paid link as opposed to an organic link, there is an intent to purchase loaded within the click. In this sense, the volume of traffic does not matter nearly as much as getting traffic that is already highly qualified.

For this reason, you should be setting up multiple types of conversions on your site to monitor what your traffic is doing after you get them to visit your website. This can include clicking on promotional videos, filling out forms, or clicking on call-to-actions. These micro-conversions can give you a better understanding of how to further improve your site in a way that coincides with your SEO strategy to ultimately provide you with traffic that actually leads to sales.

How Cost-Effective is Your SEO Strategy?

Even if an SEO strategy is generating more traffic and sales, it's not worthwhile if you're spending more than you're earning.

Thankfully, SEO is one of the most affordable marketing strategies you can implement to increase your traffic and conversions. Tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console, which can detect website issues and help correct them, are free to use. A strong SEO strategy primarily will cost you the initial time investment. From there, it's a matter of upkeep and producing quality content to keep your site fresh.

With that said, no marketing strategy can be called a worthwhile investment if it's not getting you results. If your marketing team is reporting increases in vanity metrics like traffic but does not have a proportional amount of conversions to match, your current SEO strategy simply isn't cutting it.

Fortunately, the cost-effectiveness of your SEO strategy is incredibly easy to measure. First, determine what your primary goal is when implementing your SEO plan. In our case, we are focused on sales, but others may primarily be focused on traffic and brand awareness. You can then view traffic origin by channel and see exactly how many clicks come from organic searches.

You can also track which keywords were used to perform those searches. Your analytics will then provide you with the volume and average cost-per-click for each keyword used to discover your site. Understanding and utilizing these metrics appropriately will allow you to customize your SEO strategy in a way that better helps you to achieve your unique business goals.

Are You Seeing an Increase in Sales?

After asking all of the previous questions, you are now left to ask whether or not your business is seeing more sales as a result of your SEO strategy. The truth is, there is no way to decisively attribute new sales to actions taken by an SEO specialist.

However, this is not unlike offline sales. While your advertising may get consumers in the door, it is ultimately up to your sales personnel to implement a sales strategy that drives your audience to become customers. Likewise, improving your SEO can get more qualified visitors to your website, but you still need to implement a solid strategy that will reliably convert those leads into sales.

The best way to approach SEO is to understand that it is a long-term investment. By planting and nurturing those seeds now, it provides the potential to bear fruit reliably over time. Business owners often make the mistake of passing over SEO in favor of strategies such as paid ads as PPC campaigns can give an immediate boost in numbers that feel more rewarding at the moment. However, paid ads will cost more and will stop providing you with sales as soon as you stop paying.

An SEO-optimized website will always be there to provide benefits for your business as long as you maintain it. Google will continue to rank your website highly for years to come so long as it's fast, mobile-friendly, and complete with content that is relevant to those using the search engine. It's a low-cost marketing strategy that requires a minuscule investment that can ultimately pay dividends down the line when implemented in a way that aligns with your business goals.

With that in mind, don't make the mistake of dismissing SEO if you don't immediately find your website at rank one on Google with a boost in sales to back it up. Remember that your competitors are also implementing their own SEO strategies to achieve the same goals that you are. If, over time, you are still not satisfied with the ROI on your SEO plan, take a close look at your website analytics to see how you can improve and tailor your strategy to drive the types of conversions you need to see.

Conclusion - Your SEO Plan Can Make You Money with the Right Approach!

By asking the right questions, you should be able to get a better idea of whether or not your existing SEO strategy is making you money. More importantly, you can determine what types of results your plan is earning you, while also identifying the areas where you need to improve.

Search engine optimization can have both a direct and indirect impact on your level of website traffic and sales. If it wasn't effective, then website and business owners wouldn't put forth the amount of time and effort they do into ensuring that their website is sleek, fast, and loaded with engaging content. However, getting there is not something that will happen overnight, and you will need to account for how long it will take to connect your content to the relevant audience.

In the meantime, ensure that your strategy accounts for the basic elements of any great SEO strategy. Use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights to locate areas where you can improve. You can also rapidly detect errors on your site with the help of Google Analytics and Google Search Console. The latter can also help you crawl and index your website faster so that the latest optimized version of your site is always active in SERPs.

Next, always remember that content is the king of marketing. Whether we're discussing organic or paid marketing, compelling content is the key to reeling in clicks and driving them to convert. Uploading fresh, educational content can also drive more organic search clicks to your website, while also giving you material to share on social media for additional impressions.

Finally, be sure to do extensive keyword research and ensure that your SEO strategy is focusing on the ones that make the most sense for your goals. While aiming to rank for the sexiest relevant keywords might seem appealing, the competition may be too fierce and result in an ROI that just isn't worthwhile.

In this regard, don't discount alternative options such as long-tail keywords, which innately tend to attract users that are already browsing with the intent to buy. While ranking for these may net you a lower search volume, you'll be spending less to compete and gain more qualified visitors at the same time.

Your SEO plan will help your brand make money, but it requires constant commitment to evaluate and improve. With time, dedication, and a little creative thinking, SEO can be your greatest ally for long-term marketing success.

There are 20,000 digital marketing agencies in the United States alone, as per a 2021 study by IBIS World, and millions are scattered worldwide. The market size of the agency business in the US is $19.8 billion, and it has an annual growth rate of 6.2%.

You have bleak chances of survival in case you are unable to differentiate your agency from others. Choosing a niche for your agency is a proven strategy to specialize in a particular segment, grow and scale your agency.

How Should Digital Agencies Choose a Niche?

The factors responsible for pushing the growth in the digital industry are a growing life cycle stage and consumer spending. It makes focusing on a niche market even more crucial when everyone else is offering generalized services.

If you are still caught in the specialist vs. generalist debate, here are some valuable insights from some of the most successful agencies on differentiating your agency by choosing a niche.

Mauricio Cardenal, the founder of Roofing Marketing Pros, a digital agency specializing in serving businesses that offer roofing services, has a unique business model. His agency provides qualified leads to roofing contractors with the help of a call center software and a digital marketing team.

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They generate leads using digital marketing tactics exclusively for a specific contractor and then nurture them with the help of a call center. When the lead is ripe, they send it to the roofing contractor to visit the site, provide them with the cost estimate, and close the deal.

So, a laser-focused approach provides you a five to ten times ROI. Unlike an agency that offers generalized services, specializing in a specific service involves using systems and processes that deliver results in very little time.

These processes help you aggressively bring a business in front of its audience and target them. In this case, the target audience is the people looking to get their roofs replaced or repaired.

Marketing Strategy to Target a Niche Market

Most roofing contractors wait for the stormy weather so that they can get new repair jobs. However, it can be highly frustrating for a business that depends on a single service to wait for their phone to ring for a new appointment in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, 90% of callers don't even qualify as serious customers. They call to check the prices, etc. So, such businesses need a sustainable business model to generate leads all around the year and not just during the stormy season.

Roofing Marketing Pros’ marketing strategy is also unique, just like his positioning. Instead of providing a rebuttal to the typical customer queries and objections such as “why should we hire you,” Mauricio Cardenal asks his prospect why he should partner with them.

He questions his customers, “are you genuinely committed to taking your business to the next level?” and “do you want to expand, change and hire more salespeople?“

Please have a look at a compelling and strong call to action on their landing page.

Tip: It's easy to target your audience as a specialist compared to a generalist because it reflects a high level of commitment and expertise.

1. Choose a Niche That You Are Familiar With

What prompted Cardenal to choose roofing contractors as a niche was his exposure to the business as a young intern that liberated him in adulthood. During his college days, he worked for a general contractor and learned the nuts and bolts of the construction business. He realized that PPC or Pay Per Click could be the best digital marketing strategy for a roofing company for short-term business goals, given the average ticket size for a roof. His experience and vision are paying off tremendously in terms of the success he has achieved for his clients.

2. Choose a Niche That Is in Demand

One more reason why Cardenal focused on roofing as a niche for his agency business was that it was an in-demand service.

With the commoditization of digital agency business and mushrooming digital marketing agencies across the globe (estimated to be more than one million), focusing on a specific niche is considered the best strategy for an agency. By doing so, agencies also push themselves to specialize in a particular niche.

So, they hire experts, improve their learning curve, conduct internal training and implement the best practices to improve quality and productivity. According to Mauricio Cardenal, high-quality work that offers value and standard processes in a niche-based agency allows you to charge higher prices, replicate the results and scale your agency. Specialization in a specific segment also enables you to build relationships with the top influencers in that segment.

But, it's crucial to make sure that this niche you choose is in demand and there is not much competition.

3. Find a Digitally Friendly Niche

If you choose a segment that avoids digital marketing, you'll be less likely to succeed as a digital marketing agency. For example, some local businesses that thrive on word of mouth or references may not be very digital-friendly.

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Some of the companies deliberately avoid digital marketing. You should avoid such niches.

4. Perform Competitive Analysis

To succeed in digital marketing, it's essential to know what your competitors are doing. This way, you can eliminate a lot of time wasted with trial and error. Research your biggest competitors and find out their killer marketing strategies and what they are offering. Conduct a SWOT analysis to know their strengths and weaknesses and discover the service gaps you can fill. However, it's important to note that you shouldn't tread a beaten track. Don't allow your competition to dictate what you should do. Craft your personal and brand identity to blaze a new trail and shout it out loud in your community.

5. Define Your Buyer Persona or Customer Avatar

Defining your ideal customer avatar and buyer persona refines your messaging. Try to know every little thing you can to understand their habits, routine, likes, dislikes, passion, and what drives them to take action. Give your avatar a name. The better you know your prospective customer, the easier it would be to connect with them.

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6. Assess the Financial Prowess of Your Audience

A company might not be financially sound to buy your premium services even if it's booming. It happens when we have low-profit margins. So, apart from the willingness and interest to buy, they must also have a good cash flow to afford your services. If they hire an agency, a business needs to spend 10-15% of its revenues on marketing initiatives. But, very few companies can afford that. So, don't waste your time on unqualified leads.

7. Evaluate the Niche Opportunity

It would help if you didn't choose a niche like a cryptocurrency, which is still in its nascent stages, or something like payday loans or credit cards which is almost saturated. When something is either too popular or nearly saturated, it will cost a fortune to achieve any results. You don't stand a chance even if there is the slightest opportunity as the giant agencies are already after them. Additionally, you may also avoid an almost obscure niche where your services are not at all required. So, choose a niche where you have ample opportunities to grow and make money.

8. Choose a Niche That Has Long-Term Growth Potential

Several niches are facing existential crises during the pandemic. Garments, textiles, and the warp knitting industry are the worst hit, and millions of people have lost their employment in these niches worldwide. Apart from the temporary turmoil, some industries are on the verge of collapse, and that's often irreversible. So, it would help if you always chose a niche that has long-term growth prospects.

9. Decide to Have a Passion and Deep-Seated Love for Your Niche

You should choose a niche that you love unconditionally and genuinely care for. If you have a real emotional connection with that industry, products, and people, it will help you a lot, especially during tough times. If you're doing it just because that specific niche is booming, chances are you might lose steam soon and don't find yourself giving your 100%.

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10. Hire a Mentor

In the end, it's crucial to have a mentor who can do some hand-holding when the going gets tough, and you find yourself fighting your battle alone. The best mentor is someone who has the experience of running a successful agency himself. Running an agency isn't for the faint-hearted. It can be the scariest and loneliest experience for an entrepreneur, but if you persevere, it will transform your personal and professional life.

Conclusion

As you visualize opportunities in a specific niche, so will others. So, even though you have a small number of competitors, the competition can be fierce. If you're a bit inexperienced in your field, choosing a niche can be counterproductive. If you don't have the expertise in a particular domain, hire a trained workforce to meet clients' expectations. So, the second most crucial thing after choosing a niche is working hard and acquiring specialization in that niche. If you select a business segment and can still not deliver results, your reputation will be at stake.