23 Expert Tips to Transform Marketing and Grow Your Business

Marketing is constantly evolving and it’s now more important than ever to create compelling experiences for your customers so they become your brand advocates. Your story is no longer about your product or service offerings but more about what resonates with your customers. To succeed, companies must take a transformational approach by telling a simple story, creating a clear and compelling strategy, and aligning the systems to execute flawlessly.

Here are 23 expert tips that can help you excel with your Story, Strategy, and Systems to transform your marketing efforts:

“People don’t buy goods and services, they buy relations, stories and magic.”

Seth Godin | Marketing Author and Blogger @ThisIsSethsBlog

“Marketing is in a state of transition. Digital, data, and demand are more important than ever. And the CMO sits at the intersection of converting digital know-how and data analytics into consumer demand.”

Kimberly A Whitler | Associate Professor UVA Darden School of Business

“If you’re a business owner, then you’ll understand that building a strong reputation is essential to business growth. One marketing activity we always recommend to clients is to put effort into generating more online reviews.  Gaining more good quality reviews through your Google Business Listing, Facebook page or review platforms such as TrustPilot, TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc. helps build trust with potential new customers of your business, as nearly 90% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.”

Gareth Waters | Co-Director Alliance Agency

“One of the most important things for those just starting a business is to have a clear brand. That may sound like marketing jargon, but, in essence, your brand is how your business comes across to others. Your brand should run through your logo, physical stores, website, social media, and even how your team speaks to customers. To get started, don’t overcomplicate it. Go back to basics. Consider who your company is and what you’re trying to achieve. Who are the people who would benefit from your services? What are your company’s most vital values?”

Emma Williams | Digital Marketing Manager Edge of the Web

”Consider incorporating compelling video material into the mix if you haven’t previously. Short, interesting video clips, especially on social media, may attract a lot of attention. Creating a brief, fast-moving video (typically set to music) that illustrates an intriguing or popular product is a very effective method. Customer input is also critical. Potential new consumers are more inclined to trust you with their money if they discover that you have impressed your existing client base. To avoid unfavorable reviews and harm to your reputation, work hard to fix any issues that arise with your customers.”

Matt Lee | Founder Innovative Building Solutions

“Content is fire, social media is gasoline. Without useful content – without content that entertains, without content that breaks through – it’s much, much more difficult to create and maintain an audience then it used to be.”

Jay Baer | Founder Convince & Convert

“Story without Strategy is Art. Story with Strategy is Marketing”

Dave Sutton | Founder and Author TopRight

“As the buyer’s journey becomes increasingly digital and the line between digital and non-digital touches begins to blur, the ability to seamlessly plan all marketing and deliver a consistent, mutually supportive set of interactions to prospects will be the hallmark of an effective demand creation team.

Monica Behncke | VP and Group Director, Forrester

“Knowing your audience demographic is the biggest and most important tip for marketers who wish to boost their business and drive it to success.  A common blunder is to believe that anyone can be your buyer. Larger enterprises may be able to appeal to a larger market, but there’s a reason why they say success is in the niches. And to build a niche and appeal to niche buyers, you must first comprehend their pains, difficulties, triggering events, and priorities. Understanding your target market can reveal unfulfilled demands and provide a complete understanding of the context in which a product is sold.”

Vartika Kashyap | Chief Marketing Officer ProofHub

”The user experience is key. Instead of the Era of SEO, we’re now looking at the Era of UX. The user experience, when marketing your website is key, to figuring out what your users’ pain points are and what they need from you. Also, translation is a huge global need – Throughout the world, there are more than 7,000 languages. How can people understand one another through the various languages? Through translation, of course. And what this means in marketing is that more people are more likely to engage with your content if they are written in a language that they can understand.”

William Mamane | CMO Tomedes

“You can increase sales significantly while reducing your operational expenses simultaneously through chatbots and artificial intelligence respectively. Based on research, using chatbots in your sales and marketing efforts can increase your sales by as much as 67% surprisingly. In case you haven’t noticed, the use of multilingual chatbots can defeat the language barrier easily. You don’t need to hire customer sales agents and customer service representatives that can speak five languages efficiently and effectively. Moreover, chatbots can be programmed to deliver sentiment, analysis, and natural language processing strategically.”

Luke Lee | Managing Partner Ever Wallpaper

“Stories are here to stay, so capitalize on your followers’ FOMO (fear of missing out) by creating fleeting interactive content. According to published statistics, millions of people listen to podcasts every week, with weekly podcast listeners being more likely to follow companies and brands on social media. It is possible to get new listeners or other podcast producers if you strategically promote your podcast via social media. Many social media apps also allow you to stream live videos, such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, and often only require just a few clicks to set up.”

Adam Ng | CEO and Founder Trusted Malaysia

“Content is king but engagement is queen, and the lady rules the house!

Mari Smith | Facebook Marketing Expert 

”First, make sure you have a strong online presence. This means having a well-designed website, optimized for SEO. Make sure you are active on social media as well. Start creating engaging and informative content that will capture the attention of your target audience. Once you have the foundation step up consider using paid advertising to reach an even wider and targeted audience. The final and most important step is to track your marketing efforts so you can measure their effectiveness and make necessary campaign adjustments.”

Angel Martins | Marketing Specialist Finsbury Media

“Audit SEO Keywords Regularly in your content. Always monitor and update keywords regularly to attain campaign optimization. Keywords are the maps that direct customers to your website.  Determine the relevance of each keyword according to the season, and current trends, and adapt to the changing interests of your target audience. Always remember that the more relevant the keywords that you use, the more possibility that your bid will be successful in making conversions. Lastly, stick on your budget by prioritizing spending on your best-performing keywords and without paying more than necessary.”

Victoria Mendoza | CEO Media Peanut

“An effective small company marketing plan would be to start a blog, write posts about the product, and then put links to the blog on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, for example.  Customers are more likely to make a purchase from a company they have confidence in or from which they get value from reading blog postings. Setting up a blog could include blogging about the company’s aims and progress, as well as calling attention to specific items that may be of interest to potential customers, such as new product releases.”

Stefan F. Dieffenbacher | Founder & Managing Director Digital Leadership

“The single most important ingredient to an effective customer-driven marketing strategy is relevant data”

Doug Fowler | President Waypost Marketing 

”Trigger a sense of urgency and call to action when announcing offers and discounts on your products. It aids in quick actions from customers thereby leading to a better sales rate in a short span, Also optimize the purchase tunnel by working on the customer reviews on digital store webpages. Create a positive impact on your products by responding to the negative reviews in a responsible format. This behavior adds credibility to attract new customers for your goods.”

Kimberly Silva | CEO FindPeopleFirst

“Webinars have been our secret, yet-not-so-secret tool to generate leads online. By conducting industry-specific webinars that discuss solutions to various customer pain points, we have seen a huge rise in the number of leads. We conduct a good number of webinars every month, based on various target-group requirements. This focused approach helped us attract a lot of attention from our target market across different geos.”

Chirayu Akotiya | Global Head of Marketing Leena AI

“Compiling data about existing clients is important to businesses. It becomes evident who is buying and how they connect with a company online based on this data. Marketers should examine which channels clients are likely to use once they have defined their target demographic. Instagram is a good place for a fashion firm to reach its target demographic. LinkedIn will be of interest to a SaaS provider whose customers are more business-oriented. Businesses should invest time where the target audience spends their time because each social channel attracts a distinct audience.”

Max Whiteside | SEO & Content Lead Breaking Muscl

“I would say that internet communication is more crucial than ever before. Numerous organizations have made substantial adjustments to how they communicate with clients. Sharing business-related community updates and proactively informing your clients are essential for expanding your business. Whether you are beginning to sell your products or services online or simply providing additional communication and engagement, by continuing your digital communications you will increase brand trust and awareness.”

Kenny Kline |  President & Financial Lead BarBend

“Mediocre marketers think in terms of campaigns. Great marketers think in terms of growth frameworks.”

Neil Patel |  Co-Founder Neil Patel Digital

Sometimes the only way to succeed is to go a little crazy

To truly transform, marketing must get all 3S’s right: the right Story, the right Strategy, the right Systems, all measured through the lens of Simplicity, Clarity, and Alignment. Learn more about how the TopRight 3S approach will help you transform your marketing and grow your business in our best-selling book: Marketing, Interrupted.  To receive a steady stream of marketing tips and insights, subscribe to the TopRight blog  or connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.