Part 2: Conquest Marketing – Is it right for me?
In last week’s post, we introduced the concept of conquest marketing. Conquest marketing is marketing to anyone outside of your current customer base and doing it better than your competition. But how do you successfully launch your conquest strategy?
These are just a few ways to execute a conquest marketing campaign.
Traditional approaches, such as TV and radio advertisements, are still proven useful in conquest marketing. Traditional approaches are especially useful when building brand awareness and customer experience. Visa recently launched a unique brand and sensory identity that can be used in a number of ways on traditional outlets – from television, radio, and at the point-of-purchase decision. Consider creating a memorable phrase, sound, or visual that will associate your product or service back to your brand for consumers. This is a part of their experience.
It’s 2019: If you don’t have a content strategy, you’re already behind your competition. Content marketing is one of the keys to conquest marketing – plus it can be done at little to no cost! It allows you to (1) become a thought leader; and (2) create custom content to persuade your audience as to why they should work with (or purchase from) you. Use written content, video content, infographics, and interactive content to increase brand awareness. From there, you can recycle this content to be used in paid searches, email campaigns, and on social media!
In addition to content marketing, social marketing is just as powerful in your conquest marketing campaigns. It will prove especially useful in efforts to engage with consumers at the top of your funnel in the awareness stage. You’ll want to keep your focus on your key demographics and smaller groups. Social media offers great insights into who your targets are already doing business with – whether it’s by the pages they like and interact with, or the content they share (especially when it comes to products they use). Use both organic and paid social marketing to spread the word about your organization and its offerings. Don’t be afraid to ask your current clients to leave a review. This will help you stand out amongst the competition, especially since buyers nowadays do comprehensive research before making any decision.
While using paid search in your conquest strategy can be effective, it can also be expensive. You’ll want to make sure you understand your buyer and what keywords are relevant to them. If you’re still in the early stages of the funnel, focus your message on being the solution to their everyday problems; focus more on price when they are further down the funnel and you’re getting close to a business close.
There are two ways you can expand on paid search if you’re into the nitty and gritty of conquest marketing. Spending a little bit of time can also help you to crush your sales cycle.
Believe it or not, big brother is “watching” your move when visiting websites. Behavioral targeting allows for you to create customized campaigns based on previous Internet actions. For instance, say you have a prospective buyer browsing products A and B on your website. From there, display banners on other websites and in search engines could potentially display these items, pushing a consumer to make a purchase decision.
Geo-targeting is often used for a more strategic approach, based on a specific set of geographic parameters. It can be done by city, zip code, IP address, device ID, GPS signals, geo-fencing, and more. Again, while it may prove effective, it is also costly if not executed properly.
While our inboxes seem to get inundated with irrelevant offers, email marketing is still a powerful and useful tool to draw customers to your product or services. Instead of a “spamming” your targets with promotional emails, determine what is important to them and allow them to opt-in.
You can approach email marketing in two distinct ways: (1) small and targeted or (2) mass and general. Depending on your campaign goal, you may consider one or the other, or both. By targeting a small group, it may require more time and attention, however, you’re able to be specific in your messaging and focus on pushing them through your funnel. Mass emailing can help direct traffic to your website, thus increasing brand awareness.
While there are many approaches to conquest marketing, having a mix of different media in your strategy is key to standing out. We’ve helped a number of organizations create omnichannel approaches to strengthen their brand and increase their market share. Are you ready to execute your conquest strategy?
Resource: The Conquest Marketing Guide
Marketing Manager