“The fluidity of your strategy has to be all-encompassing.”
– Christian Amato
Christian Amato is the Chief Business Development Officer/COO at C.M.A, Creative Marketing Alliance. As an innovative business professional with more than 20 years of experience, Christian leads the execution of CMA’s strategic business plan with a focus on profitability and growth. In his dual role, Christian is shaping the company’s overall vision, analyzing expansion opportunities, and delivering growth. He oversees the organization’s daily operations, including marketing, association management, human resources, and finance business units.
An Improved Marketing Strategy
10-15 years ago, marketing used to be about finding your audience. In today’s day and age, the focus should be about your audience finding you. Tools like Google, social media advertising, and SEO have really changed the playing field for marketing. You’re essentially still doing the same things – looking at your demographic, identifying your audience – but it comes down to the message that your company puts out through these various platforms. The important questions to ask are: “What are you trying to say?” and “What are your clients looking for?”
It all starts with being able to be found, which leads to the customer recognizing that you can help them solve their issues.
Staying Relevant
It is essential for companies to stay relevant. If you’re not, it becomes harder and harder to reach the prospects that you want to attract. Find out how your audience is consuming data and adjust your strategy accordingly. Targeting a younger demographic will involve focusing on mobile apps (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) while an older demographic may respond to a more traditional form of marketing (email, flyers). Regardless of which method you are using, be aware of current events and what’s going on around you to better relate to your audience.
Interpreting Data
When you look at social media data, it’s all about the engagement and interactions that prospects are having with the content you put out. If someone poses a question to your company on social media or otherwise, make sure to respond back to them as soon as possible. A person may quickly lose interest and be turned off by your lack of response.
Don’t hesitate to test out different things to see what resonates with your audience and how they respond to it. This may involve the pictures, videos, and headlines that you use. Learning how to word your Call to Actions, or CTAs, will also help. When someone clicks on a CTA saying “Learn More” that equates to them wanting to go on a “second date.” Clicking on one that says “Contact Us” means that they want to get married. Looking at these indications provides even more opportunities for sales. The fluidity of your strategy has to be all-encompassing.
Marketing ROI
Marketing ROI, or Return on Investment, can be difficult to calculate and explain, so it has to be flexible. The key to ROIs is to identify what is the goal for the particular tactic. Measure the incremental things like clicks and engagement, taking into consideration what is having the greatest impact on your current client base. Once you identify what is making the most impact, then you need to capitalize on that.
