Diversifying Your Marketing Portfolio: An Introduction to Modern Marketing as Compared to the Stock Market
It’s becoming pretty common knowledge that if you want to have success in the stock market, you have to have a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
While your formula will vary a bit based on age and your overall investment goals, it’s usually a good idea to have some risky quick-gain stocks offset by long-term and steady growth options.
This same principle can be applied to the marketing portfolio of any sized business. For the past 10 years, Trimark has experienced the full gamut of marketing strategies, some borderline insanely risky while others have been chugging along steadily for the past 10 years constantly making small strides for the better.
As uncertainty of times come and go, marketing campaigns are tested. Those with a great diverse portfolio always seem to weather the storm. At Trimark Marketing Group, each client’s marketing goals are evaluated, and a diverse marketing plan is suggested for continual growth and sustainability. All the pieces of this customized package work different avenues of advertising and brand presence, and should combine to meet the goals of the business owner.
Here are a few examples of marketing strategies at each spectrum of risk taking and the reward associated with each:
Email Campaigns
On the riskier side of the portfolio you have MASS email blasting: Do not confuse this with email or newsletter marketing. MASS email blasting is usually sent out to hundreds of thousands of people— sometimes millions—and is usually used to sell a product or a service quickly.
Consider these the risky start-up company stocks you might purchase; you could stand to make a sizeable amount of money if the company takes off or your stock splits, but more than likely they won’t, so it’s not recommended to funnel much more than your expendable budget into these high-risk funds.
In the marketing world, these types of emails are unsolicited and usually result in a spam reports or blocked email accounts. In the short term, this is a way of getting large amount of sales. However there is no sustainability and usually the campaign is closed down after it is flagged by enough unwelcoming recipients.
Traditional Marketing
On the other side of the spectrum are traditional marketing methods, such as TV or media advertising. This form of advertising is not only perceived as much more “legitimate,” but it also usually shows its effectiveness on a long term basis with months—and perhaps even years—of airing before results are noticed.
This avenue is kind of like your retirement funds, kind of like a Roth, 401K or even low-risk bonds. Their immediate effects convert actual customers at a snail’s pace compared to the investment, but when examined over the life of an investor, they do a lot to solidify brand identity, and if successful, can have a powerhouse effect on a company that grows substantially.
This steady form of marketing builds brand recognition and the consistency of being seen on TV eventually results in a consumer recognition and recall.
Online Marketing and Social Media
In the middle of the spectrum you have New Media marketing, things that have taken a hold in the last five years or so. This includes online marketing, search engine optimization, website development and pay-per-click advertising.
These avenues are kind of like a well balanced medium of mutual funds and those mid-level juicy, but established stocks that are yielding you a nice 6-7 percent return. These avenues contribute to long-term growth, but also give you a nice immediate bump to thicken your investment portfolio.
A well-SEO’d website with great web design and functionality will show you an immediate measurable bump of customers that find your business from your site. Over time, your page ranking will increase with age and steady content building. You’ll build upon this further with social media posts to saturate your brand and offer incentives to customers in a targeted, but non-intrusive format.
Since these forms of marketing are in the middle, they are your bread and butter. They’ll see increases year after year as your overall marketing budget grows. Also, being in the middle of the spectrum, they command lot more attention, and with the right mix, will yield great results in the relative short and long term that will continue making you money.