Your business plan is air tight. Your logo and website are clicking. You’re making sales but you know your product would sell more if you could just reach your audience better. Now what?

It’s time to fire up your marketing, that’s what.

Sure, marketing costs money and has the ability to take up a lot of time, but it also has the power to inject rocket fuel into your bottom line and grow your business faster than anything else.

There’s a lot of noise in marketing. There’s noise about results you SHOULD be getting, social media channels you SHOULD be using, types of advertising and content that you SHOULD be creating.

But what works for one business might be different than what works for your business.

Focus on the marketing strategies that DO work for you, spend time creating content that DOES move your audience, celebrate the results you ARE getting.

Want to jump in to high-powered marketing but need a little guidance first? Glad you asked! Here are four marketing strategies to try and expert tips from four of the Chippewa Valley’s top marketing professionals.

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1. Social Media Marketing

Social media has a massive amount of potential for businesses that create content that their audience loves to consume on the platforms where they’re already spending a lot of time. Social media is great because a) it’s free b.) it’s simple for people of any background to publish content c.) it’s a great way to keep your marketing relevant and up to date, and d.) 3.2 billion people globally are on social media!

Expert Local Tip: Nikki Riedel, Applied Data Consultants Inc.

“Know your audience and where they spend time. If they’re a company president, they’re more than likely on LinkedIn. If they’re an 18-year old female, you can bet they’re on Instagram. Save time by repurposing your content. Create a video, and pull the text to create blogs, ads, social posts, and more! Make buying easy for your customers by sending them to a fast-loading landing page. Lastly, be consistent. Whether it’s organic or paid, be sure to post or advertise consistently to build up your brand. Customers need to see something seven or more times before they’ll take any action.”

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2. Video Marketing

Interested in getting into video marketing? Ahhh ... you’re a savvy marketer. Here’s why: Product videos can increase purchases by 144%, video drives a 157% increase in organic traffic, and more than 50% of consumers prefer video over any other type of content.

Expert Local Tip: Adam Condit, Blue Ox Running

“Video marketing is incredibly powerful because you get to be face-to-face (kinda). Our most personal and meaningful interactions in life are face-to-face when we feel cared for and pick up on non-verbal communication. The power of video media with our business is to show our personalities, establish credibility, and provide authenticity, which ultimately drives community and builds trust. Trust and authenticity drive life-long loyal customers! Customers don’t want to know about your products, they want to know you!”

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3. Paid Advertising

There is no faster way to scale your business and reach any audience on earth than with paid advertising. While it can cost more, it allows your business to place any message, video, or graphic in front of a very specific audience whenever you’d like. Need to hit a sales goal very quickly? Paid ads can help. Want to announce to your audience that you are selling a new product? Paid ads can help. Increased your production capabilities and want to ramp up sales? Paid ads can help. If you’re new to digital advertising, here’s a benchmark: Across all industries the average cost-per-click is $2.32 and businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they invest.

Expert Local Tip: Samantha Forehand, Realityworks

“Digital and print advertisements can be an impactful part of your marketing program if you plan it strategically. Before jumping into the design and layout, determine your goal, call to action, target market, and how you will measure its impact. With this outline, determining what platform to advertise on and how it should visually look will be much easier.”

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4. SEO & Content Marketing

Strategically designing your website and content to be found by your audience with SEO (search engine optimization) is 5.6x more impactful than paid search ads. Why? Internet users value products, searches, and solutions that naturally appear in search engine results over paid ads. SEO’d content is 8.5x more likely to be clicked and drives large amounts of traffic to your website even when you’re not paying for ads.

Expert Local Tip: Abby Reimer, Uproer

“A good first SEO step: Make sure the language you use to describe your product or service aligns with the words your customers are using to search for it. Conduct keyword research with a free tool like Spyfu to see which words you and your top competitors are being found for, and adjust accordingly. Finally, if you’re a local company, make sure your Google My Business listing is 100% accurate. This helps your customers find you and stay up-to-date!”

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... now get out there & start marketing!

Successful marketing strategies are always changing and the latest marketing fads come and go. Businesses who want to grow start with a deep understanding of their audience. Where does your audience spend time? What are their goals? What are their pain points? What types of content are they interested in? Build every inch of your marketing around your audience first. When you pay attention to their behavior and demographics, you’ll have the best idea of how your marketing can resonate with them.

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Josh Rizzo is marketing director at Satellite Six, a brand and digital marketing firm in Eau Claire. Statistics cited about come from the Hubspot Annual Marketing Report (www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics).