Marketing is an integral component to achieving growth and success for a business. Every year things change within the marketing landscape making it harder for entrepreneurs and business owners to stay ahead of the game.
Here are some tips to navigate this ever-changing environment gleaned from lessons learnt in 2022. These are the areas entrepreneurs should be focusing on to grow their brands and businesses in 2023.
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Underestimating LinkedIn
We noticed that many entrepreneurs and business owners underestimate the value and benefits of using Linkedin. With over 850 million subscribers, LinkedIn is the only platform that allows you to connect with decision makers from various industries and sectors. You can search and connect with someone from a specific industry, location and job title. It is also great for content creators especially if you are wanting to grow your personal brand.
The organic growth reach is high and the platform is not as saturated as other social media platforms like Facebook. In the year 2023 I would advise entrepreneurs and business owners to tap more into LinkedIn. Post more about what you doing, the events you attending, provide tips, value and don’t forget to engage with your connections on the platform.
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Collaborate
Many entrepreneurs have a silo mentality and mindset when conducting business. They are trying to achieve everything on their own. What we realised during 2022 is that collaborations can create endless opportunities and benefits for brands.
Firstly, brands get to gain access to new potential customers and markets as they cross promote.
Secondly, brands get to share the risk, responsibilities and in some cases the costs when it comes to marketing campaigns and promotions.
Lastly, when you partner you become exposed to new ideas and ways of executing initiatives. For the year 2023 I think brands need to investigate various ways on how to collaborate with other brands. For a successful collaboration to take place both brands need to understand what the objectives are and vision is for the campaign, event or promotion. Then also to make sure that the collaboration is a WIN/WIN situation for both brands.
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Planning
When it comes to marketing many brands fall behind on their planning. A statement that should form part of any brands planning foundation should be, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. The reason why bigger brands succeed at their marketing is due to their planning. Mr Price, Woolworths, Pick n Pay etc all plan ahead of time making sure their campaigns, promotions roll out in time.
However, we noticed that entrepreneurs plan days or weeks before setting up a campaign which often results in poor ROI for the brand. As the year comes to an end plot, plan and get your team together before the beginning of 2023 and start dotting down those campaigns in advance.
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Short form video
When it comes to video consumers retain up to 90% of the information, which means that it’s a very effective tool to get consumers to remember your brand, product or service offering. This is why platforms like Tiktok has experienced phenomenal subscriber growth.
Currently the algorithms benefits video content on social media platforms resulting in high organic growth. Here are three simple short form videos you can implement in 2023: A one and a half minute video of you talking into the camera about an event, a one-minute compilation video of your product/service showcasing different snippets of the venue, production process of your product or one-minute video of an up-and-coming campaign or promotion.
If you are looking to grow your brand organically as an entrepreneur or existing business owner, short form video is a must in 2023.
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Marketing integration
Marketing integration involves aligning your brand messaging across all your marketing tools making sure that your messaging remains consistent. In addition, it also involves an element of synergy between platforms making sure that when someone interacts with your newsletter they divert to your website and vice versa.
What we realised throughout 2022 is that many brands focus on one tool, which becomes very dangerous. As entrepreneurs we need to be prepared for unforeseen circumstances in case a tool (website, newsletter, social media, SMS, blog, PR, SEO) no longer becomes available to use, you need to have another method in place to communicate with your customers. For 2023 make sure that all your platforms speak the same language and are interlinked.
Spottmedia is a digital marketing company that serves businesses within the technology, property, hospitality, finance, tourism, NPO, Lifestyle and fitness industries. Our services include We follow a process that is aligned towards building a brand and achieving our clients objectives.
