Why Market to Existing Customers 

The ROI from Marketing to Existing Online Customers, part of the Adobe® Digital Index Report, broke down some of the numbers behind marketing to existing customers: 

• In the U.S., 40% of revenue comes from returning or repeat purchasers, who represent only 8% of all visitors
• Marketers in the U.S. must bring in 5 shoppers to equal the revenue of 1 repeat purchaser
• Repeat purchasers account for even more revenue during the holiday season and times of slow economic growth 

In the report, they note that a much smaller percentage of digital marketing budgets are suited for marketing to returning and repeat purchasers.

The average retailer spends more than US$20 million annually on interactive marketing to persuade prospects to visit its websites, explore its product offerings, and make purchases. Because only a small fraction (approximately 1%, See Table 6) of these prospects actually purchase, retail marketers spend the bulk of their digital ad budgets acquiring new visitors. (page 3) 

In contrast to new customers only seeing conversion rates of 1%, returning and repeat purchasers have conversion rates that are five and nine times higher, respectively. 

How Your Small Business Can Market to Existing Customers 

Start With Understanding Your Customers 

You can’t market to people you know nothing about, so your first step is collecting the data you have on your existing customers and clients in order to create a better understanding of who they are. Not just age, gender, and income, but also their purchasing and shopping behaviors, what you can discern about their lifestyles and motivations, and what they might have in common. All of these aspects can help inform the rest of your tactics. 

Follow Up Post-Sale and Ask for Feedback 

One of the best ways to start a customer relationship is to follow up with them after the initial sale after a week or two to check in with how they are feeling about their purchase. Ask for and engage with their opinions and feedback and use it to inform next steps and changes. If these customers can see that their answers are really being listened to, that can be a huge component of building brand trust. Come back to these returning customers to get input on new products and services, and encourage them to leave honest reviews. 

Create Highly Focused Content 

Your existing customers can and should drive a targeted content strategy. From their data, their behavior, and their feedback, you may find that there are reoccurring questions and topics that come up time and again. You can leverage those trends to drive a campaign of blogs, social media posts, articles, and potentially third-party link building. 

Set Up Customer Loyalty Programs 

Everyone loves getting something extra, which is why customer loyalty programs are popular. The type of loyalty program varies from business to business, but it can involve tactics like: 

• Stacking small rewards that eventually add up to larger ones
• Tie purchases to shared values by linking a percentage of their purchases to particular charities
• Offer exclusive discounts and freebies for multiple purchases or particular products 

Keep the process simple and easy to use so that it’s easy for your customers to sign up and participate. 

Set Up Personalized Communications and Recommendations 

The data you gather on your customers should directly influence your communications with them, particularly with email marketing campaigns. We’ve discussed before how important it is for small businesses to personalize their email lists, and it’s an extremely effective tool for staying connected to your customers. Based on their shopping behaviors and purchases, you can keep them in the loop on new developments, offer them recommendations that align with their needs and interests, and even call out and celebrate their special days, like birthdays, so they feel understood and seen. 

Host Customer Appreciation Days or Other Events 

This one might be a little more costly or resource-dependent than other tactics on this list, but hosting a special live event can work on multiple levels. Customer appreciation events can help demonstrate how much you value your clients and build brand reputation and loyalty, but it can also serve as a launchpad for new products, additional sales, and feedback collection.  

Run a Reactivation Campaign 

If you haven’t already been maintaining a connection with your existing customers and/or if you’ve had customers who have fallen away, a reactivation campaign can bring a new infusion of energy into your marketing. This often looks like a series of emails with messaging tailored explicitly to people who previously connected with your brand but have ghosted your communications in recent months. If you can re-engage even a handful of these customers, it can pay off quicker and more effectively than trying to get customers who are brand-new. 

What Is Paid Media? 

Paid media is exactly what it says on the tin: it’s the ads, posts, and marketing that you pay for in order to get it to your ideal customers. Unlike traditional advertising, it’s aimed at boosting brand reputation and visibility and not just about selling a particular product or service.  

Paid media includes things like: 

• Paid search and pay-per-click
• Social media ads
• Sponsored podcast ads
• TV and radio advertising
• Ads for YouTube and streaming platforms
• Online display ads and banners
• Direct mail 

The benefits of paid media are that it can be implemented and scaled up quickly and targeted to specific demographics. It’s an especially effective way to reach customers who might already be interested in or actively searching for you. 

The biggest challenge with paid media is that it relies on you having the budget to keep it going, whether it’s for Google AdSense or an ad spot during the local news or a paid YouTube sponsorship. 

What Is Owned Media? 

Owned media is the advertising and content you produce and share on your own website, socials, and audience. It’s the long-term strategy for establishing your brand image and building authority in your industry.  

Owned media includes things like: 

• Your website
• Blogs and articles
• Whitepapers and ebooks
• Brochures
• Your social media accounts
• Email newsletters and subscriber lists 

The benefits of owned media are right there in the name—it’s owned, it’s yours. You have control of what’s being posted and the messages and values you’re portraying to consumers. It also doesn’t incur the same costs as paid media. 

The biggest challenge of owned media is that your own website and platforms likely won’t have the same reach, so there is less chance for discoverability for brand-new consumers who aren’t familiar with you. 

What Is Earned Media? 

Earned media is different from sponsored spots or paid ad reads; it is, instead, free coverage from an independent third party.  

Earned media includes things like: 

• Coverage on news programs or talk shows
• Endorsements on podcasts or radio
• Social media influencers naming and recommending your brand
• Customers naturally sharing and reviewing you online 

The benefits of earned media—sometimes also called user-generated content (UGC)—are that it carries the most credibility and weight with other consumers and can be extraordinarily beneficial to your marketing.  

The biggest challenge with earned media is that you can’t control it; it is entirely organic. It relies on well-crafted public relations and relationship-building, not just with journalists and influencers, but also with your own current customers. 

Best Practices for Using Paid, Owned and Earned Media 

For all the pros and cons of each, the best marketing strategy will utilize a balance of all three of these media types to achieve the best results in your campaign. Your budget, your resources, and your goals all will factor into the overall makeup of your sales funnel.  

When you’re developing your strategy, it’s important to stay flexible so you can adjust and pivot as needed depending on your key performance indicators. It’s okay for these three types of media to interact and overlap; they should work together.  

Earned media is difficult to track, but there are tools like Brandwatch that offer media monitoring and reporting, plus Google Alerts, which alert you of media coverage for free. Measure the effectiveness of earned media through metrics like third-party backlinks, quality press mentions, social shares and mentions, influencer shoutouts, and reviews. 

What Home Services Contractors Should Look for in a Marketing Agency 

Localized Focus 

Your home services business has a finite number of people and homes in your service area and likely several competitors around you. It doesn’t necessarily matter what your random search stats are looking like if the customers closest to you aren’t finding you.  

The right home services marketing agency is going to understand that and build strategies around it. They’ll have a detailed plan for location-specific keywords, inclusion in trusted directories, optimizing for that all-important “near me” search, and so on. It’s not just about any old SEO; it’s about targeted, localized search engine rankings that make it to the top. 

Urgency and Seasonality 

No one tends to think about their plumbing until an emergency strikes. No one wonders what shape their roof is in until a hailstorm hits. Home services customers are often driven by urgency and/or seasonality and need to make a decision on a quick timeline. 

This means partnering with a digital marketing agency that understands how to build a different kind of sales funnel, one that very clearly and directly tracks lead sources and streamlines the customer journey. A stressed customer is going to bolt at the first hiccup, so you need a home services marketing team that nows how to automate booking and customer communication. 

Reviews and Reputation 

Authority and trust are key in an industry like home services. 97% of consumers read reviews of local businesses, and 2 out of 5 consumers read reviews every time they look for a business. And it’s not just about Google, either; the average consumer looks at six different review sites.  

So any home services marketing agency needs to be comfortable with reputation management strategies. They need to know how to automate communications to current customers that make it easy for them to leave their reviews in multiple places. They need to have response flows ready to respond to both positive and negative feedback quickly and effectively. 

New Technology 

The way internet search functions is changing. AI and voice search are rising in popularity, and more and more people are finding their recommendations for local businesses through platforms like ChatGPT, TikTok, and YouTube. 

The only constant in digital marketing is change, and the right agency for home services contractors will be able to help your business navigate that. You need marketing teams that stay agile and nimble and ready to learn and adapt quickly. 

What Is B2B Lead Nurturing? 

At a basic level, lead nurturing for B2B encompasses the process of building a relationship with a prospective buyer or client at each stage of the sales funnel. It’s a combination of short-term and long-term strategies segmented and personalized to the buyer’s needs and concerns to establish brand recognition and trust.  

A lead nurturing system should include the ability to: 

• Segment leads into focused categories
• Structure content to progressively build knowledge
• Track interactions, behaviors, and touchpoints
• Coordinate messaging across multiple marketing channels 

Laid out like that, it can be a little overwhelming, but it can easily broken down into smaller, more manageable steps. And the benefits make the investment worth the while. In 2022, Marketo found that companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost. The Annuitas Group found that nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. And lead nurturing emails had 4-10 times the response rate compared to standalone emails. 

7 Types of Lead Nurturing Campaigns 

Most lead nurturing messaging campaigns fall under one of several categories: 

• Welcome: To guide new customers through the onboarding process
• Educational: To inform prospects of your services or offerings with the goal of stirring interest
• Engagement: To drive interactions around an event
• Promotional: To highlight specific features of your products/services relevant to the recipient
• Sales: To promote discounts, special pricing, sales, etc., to create a sense of urgency
• Re-engagement: To elicit the attention of leads who have fallen off along the sales journey
• Authority: To demonstrate trust via customer stories, testimonials, thought leadership, etc. 

6 Effective Lead Nurturing Strategies for B2B 

Implement Lead Scoring 

Lead scoring is one of the best ways to make lead nurturing more manageable. By ranking leads and prospects based on engagement and fit, you can better understand where each person is in the buyer’s journey and prioritize follow-up accordingly. The structure of your scoring system will depend on your campaign goals and KPIs, but the objective is the same: identify which leads are most ready for sales outreach. The higher the score, the sooner your sales team should follow up. 

Continually Profile and Segment 

If you take nothing else away from this article, remember the word: personalization. It’s the crux of all lead nurturing campaigns, and the more data you have on your leads, the more you should use it to shape content and messaging. You can do that by looking at behavior or incorporating a question or poll into your messaging. The more you know, the better you can personalize to their needs and interests. 

Create Targeted Content 

Using all those defined segments, you can strategically tailor the content and messaging you deliver to each lead. This makes the recipients feel seen and heard and more likely to be receptive to your information and your brand. Combine this with email flow automation to make it easier for you to deliver tailored content to the right people at the right time. 

Make It Multichannel 

We mentioned this above in the pitfalls section, but it’s worth reiterating. While we usually think of lead nurturing in terms of email marketing, there are a lot of different opportunities across marketing channels that you can leverage. This can include social media, dynamic content on your website or landing pages, sponsored retargeting posts, and direct outreach from your sales team. 

Provide Value 

Throughout the relationship with clients and partners, you want to try to offer unique, valuable content, not just the same old messaging over and over. Especially at the top of your sales funnel, free content and resources not locked behind a paywall can build brand awareness and connection. 

Continuously Evaluate 

As with any aspect of marketing, you need to check in often on your campaigns to ensure you’re getting the results you want. At least every few months when you’re building your strategies, you should assess your metrics and key performance indicators to see what is working, which channels are effective, and what needs to be set aside. 

Virtual campus tours are delivered either through interactive photo and video online or, in more advanced versions, through VR headsets. And while social distancing is no longer a thing, virtual campus tours have online continued to grow in popularity as schools find new, tech-forward ways of enhancing the traditional experience.  

Virtual vs. AR vs. VR 

Let’s set out some real quick definitions so we’re all starting from the same page: 

• Virtual campus tours – An umbrella term that encompasses any kind of campus tour where the prospective students are not physically present at the school location
• Augmented reality (AR) tours – These are campus tours where the prospective student is on campus and using VR glasses or mobile apps to get an enhanced view of the school
• Virtual reality (VR) tours – A type of virtual campus tour that is conducted by the prospective student putting on a VR headset to walk through the location 

Benefits of Enhanced Virtual Campus Tours 

Even before 2020, virtual campus tours were on the rise because of the number of benefits they provide. Recent reports and surveys have found that: 

• Schools with virtual tours experience a 16% in applications
• Universities using virtual tours attracted and engaged 30% more prospects
• 94% of admissions staff believe virtual tours increased their productivity and efficiency
• And that’s just the start. 

Expanded reach 

Since virtual campus tours can be accessed anywhere in the world, that means your pool of prospective students gets a lot bigger. This includes expanding your outreach to international students who can’t spend the time and money on extensive travel. It also helps you connect with potential students in your region who may not have the financial resources to drive over to your campus for a visit. 

Accessibility 

Virtual and augmented reality tours increase how accessible your school is for interested students in a few different ways. For example, your campus might be compliant with the American Disability Act, but it might still be difficult for students living with disabilities to travel to you just for a short period of time. It’s also always available, throughout the day, every day, without having to schedule an appointment or rearrange their calendar to come on an appointed day. This is especially important for prospective students who are nontraditional and maybe trying to juggle higher education with a full-time job or other responsibilities. 

Personalization 

Depending on the prospect’s age, goals, and interests, they’re going to have different parts of your campus that are the most applicable to them. Virtual campus tours give you a much better opportunity to collect this data and utilize it to give them a more individualized experience. You can also much more easily put up translations in different languages, further expanding your recruitment pool. 

Data-gathering 

For schools, virtual and augmented reality campus tours can provide a goldmine of data, allowing your team to see where potential students went, how long they stayed, what they clicked on and were interested in, and additional useful information. These metrics not only give you a clearer idea of how your virtual tour is working , but also trends in your demographics and ideal customer base. 

Best Practices for Creating Virtual Campus Tours 

If you don’t already have a virtual or augmented reality campus tour established for your institution, here are a few things to keep top of mind while creating one: 

• Know your specific goals — Always, always our first piece of advice. Decide what you want prospects to come away with, what you want to highlight, and how you’re going to stand out.
• Make it extremely visible — Any virtual tour should be able to be featured on your school’s site and social media platforms, which means optimizing it for these different channels from the jump.
• Establish featured locations and hotspots — Especially as you’re starting out, it may not be feasible to put absolutely everything on the tour. Make a list of all the potential places, and prioritize the ones that really stand out.
• Develop the relevant information — Clicking on a hotspot in either a VR or AR tour allows students to dive deeper into areas of interest. Take the time to make this content interesting and engaging, as well as relevant to them.
• Consider gamification — This is entirely optional, but integrating challenges, prompts, or digital scavenger hunts can help boost engagement and keep prospects hanging around to the end. 

It’s important you establish these foundations before starting to build out the VR or AR campus tour or looking into engaging a company to do that for you. 

Sorry for the long delay in getting out the next article in this series. The end of the school year crept up a little faster than I expected. On with the article!

In the last post in this series, we looked at how AI search engines find and use website content. The main point was that AI search is not completely separate from the existing search ecosystem. These systems still need to discover, crawl, interpret, and evaluate information before they can use it in an answer.

That brings us to the next question: how do you write content that AI systems can easily understand?

This is where things can get a little messy. Any time there is a new shift in search, people start looking for hacks. Add this file. Use this exact format. Write this many words. Include this phrase X number of times. But from what we can see so far, writing for AI search is not about writing content that sounds robotic. It is about writing content that is clear, specific, useful, and easy to connect to a broader topic.

In other words, the goal is not to trick AI systems into using your content. The goal is to make your content easy to understand, easy to trust, and easy to reference.

Clear Content Is Becoming More Important

AI systems are trying to answer questions. To do that well, they need to understand what a page is about, what specific information it provides, and whether that information seems reliable enough to include in a response. That means vague content is at a disadvantage.

A page that says a business offers “comprehensive solutions for today’s evolving needs” does not really say much of anything. A person may skim past that and assume the company knows what it means. An AI system has to work harder to figure out what the page is actually saying.

Compare that to a page that clearly states who the service is for, what problem it solves, how the process works, what makes the company qualified, and what someone should expect next. That page gives both users and search systems more to work with.

This does not mean every page needs to be painfully basic. It means the content should avoid hiding the point.

Start With the Question the Page Is Supposed to Answer

One of the simplest ways to make content easier to understand is to be clear about the question or topic the page is addressing.

For example, if the topic is “how long does HVAC training take,” the page should answer that question early. It can still include context, details, and related information, but the reader should not have to dig through five paragraphs before getting the basic answer.

This matters because AI systems often break larger questions into smaller pieces. A user may ask, “How long does it take to become an HVAC technician and what do you learn in school?” That question may involve training timelines, licensing, hands-on skills, program formats, and career preparation.

If your content clearly answers each of those related questions, it becomes easier for the system to understand which part of your page is useful.

A good structure might look like this:

• A clear answer near the beginning
• A section explaining the timeline
• A section explaining what affects that timeline
• A section explaining what students learn
• A section explaining what happens after training
• FAQs that answer common follow-up questions

That kind of structure is not just good for AI. It is good for people.

Use Headings Like a Map

Headings have always mattered for readability, but they may matter even more as AI systems try to interpret the structure of a page. A good heading tells the reader what they are about to learn. A weak heading sounds clever but does not give much context.

For example, a heading like “Getting Started” could apply to almost anything. A heading like “What to Expect During the First Month of Massage Therapy School” is much more specific. It tells the reader and the system what the section is about before anyone reads the full paragraph.

This does not mean every heading has to be stuffed with keywords. It just means headings should be useful. They should break the page into logical sections and make the topic easier to follow.

A good test is to scan only the headings on a page. If you can understand the flow of the article from the headings alone, the structure is probably in decent shape. If the headings feel generic or disconnected, the content may need to be reorganized.

Another aspect to this that is often overlooked is what heading type you’re using. What I mean by that is what you see in the backend. Headings are placed in a hierarchy through a number. These look like h1, h2, h3… and so on.

Content will generally only have one h1, which you can think of as the main point of the content. Below that, the headings should break down the topics. An h2 breaks down the topics of the h1, and an h3 breaks down an h2.

An important thing to remember with the heading tags is that you can jump up the hierarchy, but never down. So h4 followed by an h2 is fine, but an h2 followed by an h4 is not.

Be Specific About People, Places, Services, and Topics

AI systems are not just looking at words in isolation. They are trying to understand entities and relationships.

That sounds more technical than it really is. An entity could be a school, a program, a city, a service, a credential, a product, a person, or an organization. When content is specific about these things, it gives search systems more context.

For example, a page that says, “our program prepares students for healthcare careers” is less specific than a page that says, “our medical assistant program teaches students clinical and administrative skills such as taking vital signs, preparing exam rooms, updating patient records, and supporting physicians in outpatient settings.”

The second version gives more detail. It connects the program to real skills, real work settings, and real responsibilities. That makes it more useful to a reader and easier for AI systems to understand.

The same applies to local content. If a business serves a specific city or region, the content should explain that naturally. Not by repeating the city name twenty times, but by including useful local context where it belongs.

Add Context That Generic Content Cannot Provide

This is where a lot of AI-focused content strategies go wrong.

Because AI tools can generate a decent surface-level article on almost any topic, generic content is becoming less valuable. If your page only says the same basic things that every other page says, there is not much reason for an AI system, a search engine, or a human reader to treat it as especially useful.

The better approach is to add context that is specific to your business, your audience, or your experience.

That could include:

• Common questions your sales or admissions team hears
• Details from working directly with customers or students
• Local market knowledge
• Examples from real situations
• Clear explanations of your process
• Quotes or input from subject matter experts
• Original photos, charts, or comparisons
• Practical guidance that goes beyond the obvious

This is one reason I keep coming back to the idea that AI search is not just a content volume game. Publishing more content is not automatically better if the content does not add anything new.

Use Structured Data, But Do Not Treat It Like a Cheat Code

Schema markup and structured data can help search engines better understand the information on a page. For certain types of content, it can clarify things like FAQs, products, events, reviews, courses, organizations, locations, and more.

Structured data should support what is already visible on the page. It should not be used to say things that the page itself does not explain. If the content is thin, unclear, or unhelpful, schema is not going to turn it into a strong resource.

A good way to think about structured data is that it reinforces clarity. It helps label important information, but the information still needs to be worth labeling.

For many businesses, the basics are a good place to start: organization schema, local business information where appropriate, service or program details, FAQs, breadcrumbs, and article markup for blog content. The exact markup depends on the type of site and the type of page, but the principle is the same. Make the important information clear on the page, then use structured data to help search systems interpret it.

Connect Individual Pages to a Larger Topic

This is where the next topic in the series starts to come into play. A single well-written page can be useful, but AI systems are often looking for broader signals of expertise. If your site has one isolated article on a topic, that may help. If your site has a connected library of useful content around that topic, that is stronger. This is the basic idea behind topical authority.

For example, a massage school website should not only have one page that says “become a massage therapist.” It should have content that explains licensing, training timelines, student experience, career paths, clinic practice, different massage settings, skills students learn, and common questions prospective students ask.

Each page should have its own purpose, but together they should show that the website understands the topic deeply.

This matters for AI search because many AI-generated answers pull together information from multiple angles. A system may need to understand not only the main answer, but also the related subtopics around it. Sites that cover a topic clearly and consistently may give those systems more confidence.

Do Not Confuse Clarity With Oversimplifying

There is one important caution here. Writing content that AI systems can understand does not mean dumbing everything down. A good page can still be detailed. It can still include nuance. It can still explain exceptions and gray areas. In fact, that is often what makes the content more useful. The key is organization.

A page can cover a complex topic as long as the structure helps the reader follow along. Define terms. Use examples. Break long sections into smaller sections. Answer the obvious questions before moving into advanced details. Make the next step clear.

That kind of writing works because it respects the reader’s time. It also gives AI systems a cleaner structure to interpret.

What This Looks Like in Practice

When reviewing a page for AI readability, I would look for a few basic things:

1. Does the page clearly state what it is about?
2. Does it answer the main question early?
3. Do the headings explain the structure of the page?
4. Are important entities, services, locations, and credentials named clearly?
5. Does the page include information that is specific to the business or audience?
6. Does it connect to other related pages on the site?
7. Is the content written for a real person, not just for a search engine?

That last point is probably the most important. AI systems may change how content is found and summarized, but people are still the audience. The content still needs to be helpful when someone lands on the page.

The Bottom Line

Writing content that AI systems can easily understand is not about chasing a brand-new formula. It is about getting better at the things that have always made content useful: clarity, structure, specificity, and trust.

The difference now is that vague content has fewer places to hide.

If your page is unclear, generic, or disconnected from the rest of your site, it may be harder for both people and AI systems to understand why it should be used. But if your content answers real questions, explains the topic clearly, and fits into a larger body of expertise, it has a better chance of being useful in both traditional search and AI search experiences.

That leads naturally into the next topic in this series which will be why topical authority is becoming even more important. Because in AI search, it may not be enough to have one good answer. You may need to show that your site understands the whole conversation around that answer.

What Is Short-Term Marketing? 

Short-term marketing is often more appealing because it is focused on delivering quick results on compressed timelines over a few days, a few weeks or a few months. It’s for driving customer action and achieving more immediate goals like: 

• Launching a new product or service
• Boosting website or landing page traffic
• Increasing lead generation
• Testing new messaging or engagement strategies
• Improving lead conversion
• Adding new followers on social media accounts 

Examples of Short-Term Marketing 

There are a lot of different tactics you can incorporate as part of your short-term marketing plan.   

Pay-per-click (PPC) and targeted paid ads 

Paid advertising on Google or on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook are a focused way to reach your ideal, targeted audience.  

Sales, discount, and giveaway promotions 

Contests, polls, giveaways, flash sales — everyone loves a great deal. Pushing out a limited-time offer is a great tactic for driving urgency and action.  

Site optimization 

Refreshing your website and landing pages to make it clear and easy for visitors to use can provide quick boosts for leads. Calls to action should be visible and straightforward. 

Personalized email campaigns 

Email marketing already has some of the highest return on investment. A well-designed, personalized automated email sequence can keep potential customers engaged and tip them into action. 

Media and public relations 

Collaborating with local news providers, contributing to industry blogs or publications, and pushing out official press releases can put you in front of new audiences. 

Examples of Long-Term Marketing 

It’s kind of un-sexy work, the process of growing an email list. It takes time, working step by step to convince customers and potential customers to sign up, to stay subscribed, to stay  

Brand voice 

Authenticity is important to today’s consumers. They want to interact with companies that they feel like they know, so building your brand and establishing your brand voice is worth the time it takes. 

Authority and reputation 

Webinars, whitepapers, conferences and events, regular articles and insights — all of these go toward establishing your authority and demonstrating real thought leadership in your space and industry. 

Customer relationships and testimonials 

Personalized communication and connection contribute to the slow build and establishment of customer trust, which in turn can result in authentic testimonials. 

Content marketing 

Content is foundational to the user experience, and focusing on consistently creating and posting high-quality, relevant content demonstrates real value and reinforces customer trust. 

SEO 

Building your authority and regularly posting content can contribute to the long-term improvement of your search engine ranking, especially when paired with other SEO tactics like keyphrase research, as well as optimizing site structure and code. 

How to Leverage Short-Term and Long-Term Marketing Strategies? 

You obviously need a combination of both short-term and long-term tactics in order to make the most of your overall digital marketing plan. Putting all your effort into one or the other will not give you the sustainable results you need. Here are some steps you can take to try to ensure you’re effectively balancing both: 

Know your company’s goals. 

Sit down and map out what you want to achieve with your marketing, both immediate and long term. What metrics do you want to see five years from now? Ten years from now? 

Know your customers. 

All the marketing in the world doesn’t matter if it’s being shouted into a void. If you don’t already know where your customers hang out online and how they behave, pause and collect that data before moving forward. 

Drill down on your available budget and resources. 

The cost of putting on an event versus writing regular blog posts is very different. And your team might not have the knowledge or availability to do an event in the first place. Outline which tactics are accessible for you and the approximate costs of each so you can allocate accordingly. 

Understand how short-term can support long-term. 

Try to avoid siloing these two strategies into different areas. Short-term tactics can feed into your long-term efforts. For example: If you’re working toward being seen as a regional leader in your metro area, a short-term tactic like putting on a weekend educational event supports that. 

Create a digital marketing plan. 

Using your understanding of audience, budget, and resources, you can break down each business goal and outline which tactics — both short- and long-term — will be utilized. For example: You want to grow your list of engaged email subscribers, so you plan to use tactics like retargeting disengaged recipients, offering a new lead magnet, doing a social media giveaway. But you also invest in better, more quality content in your emails so current customers have a good reason to stay subscribed.