Top 6 Examples of Short-Term and Long-Term Marketing Strategies
As marketing teams, we are always looking at new ways to promote our brand, changing trends and consumer needs in a competitive market, to help our brand grow. Marketing strategies act as a guideline for taking measures that ensure lasting growth for our brand. Not only that, but they help us track our progress, about what works and what does not. However, the complicated question that has always confused marketers is ‘how to optimise their marketing strategies in regards to the available budget’. Whether to use long-term strategies which help to build the brand, or use short-term strategies to instantly boost its performance.
Difference Between Short and Long Term Marketing Strategies
Even though long-term strategies provide long-term sustainable benefits, they require greater investment in terms of time and resources. They involve strategies that increase brand awareness and establish your brand reputation while positioning it in the market as the go-to option among a myriad of competitors and building a community of loyal customers and followers. Short-term strategies and plans are usually much quicker. You can put up a digital ad or pay-per-click in a single day. They bring instant results with a rapid rise in brand popularity and exposure. However, they may need to find a way to provide brand growth which is as sustainable as long-term actions. But, the immediate benefits would add to and support your long-term goals. Regardless of the difference between long term and short term planning, we need to understand that both target marketing strategies are interrelated, interdependent and equally important to scale your brand.
In this article, we take a closer look at both types of strategies and ways to prioritise between the two segments to make the most out of your marketing budget. Let’s have a look at 3 examples of short-term and long-term marketing strategies to understand how companies with the best marketing strategies in India grow by creating a reliable and consistent return on investment
3 Short-Term Marketing Strategies
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Search Engine PPC Ads
Search Engine PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Ads are text-based sponsored advertising messages that are displayed on top of search engine results to draw in traffic to your website. As the name suggests, PPC which means pay per click, charges you on every click/user directed to your website. PPC ads allow you to set up a budget out of which the charges are deducted. The charge per click depends on your industry,audience, and keywords and can vary greatly. Advanced targeting, which allows you to set specific customer profiles and demographics to target. You can also measure the progress of your PPC ads along with the number of clicks.
Tools like Google Analytics and Keyword Planner help you research your audience and potent keywords. PPC ads are especially beneficial for new businesses as they can help you quickly raise your brand awareness while growing organically through SEO. The only downside is that they can be expensive and if your message is not expressed clearly or you haven’t used the right keywords, your expenditure could go to waste.
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Social Media Ads
Social Media Ads are targeted ads that display your message on popular social media platforms. They can be less intrusive as they are not labelled as “sponsored” which is the case with most search engine ads. The benefits they provide are the integration of visual elements and lower costs. Contrary to Search Engine Ads, Ads on social media allow you to add audio-visual elements to display your message.This may turn out more successful in grabbing your audience’s attention and gives your Ad a greater appeal and a higher likelihood of conversion and engagement.They are also quick to set up and can go live within a day.
Social media targeting differs from PPC, using different parameters and options. Behavioural targeting where defining specific interests, demographics and behaviours of customers as well as custom customer profiles can be employed for your Ad. The costs are much lower than Search Engine PPCs.
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Display Ads
You have probably noticed ads of certain brands that appear on many websites or streaming sites you visit. Popular with many businesses and industries, Display Ads are a highly potential option to advertise your brand. The Google Display Network is said to reach over 90% of the world's audience. They allow you to display your message in a static or animated banner on different websites.
Targeting can be based on keywords. You can also employ remarketing which essentially means placing a pixel on a website which follows the user displaying ads on every site he visits. Advanced targeting such as geofencing where you can target smaller geographical areas where the audience would be able to view your message.
3 Long-Term Marketing Strategies
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Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimisation popularly known as SEO is essential to grow your brand attract organic traffic and get more conversions. It relies on certain principles that establish your website as reliable and trustworthy. Further, allowing improved visibility in search results. This helps you position your brand better among competitors. It involves optimising everything from your content, website code, visuals, and UI (User Interface) to make it accurate, seamless, reliable, useful and consumer-friendly.
In broad terms to make it SEO-friendly. Investing and implementing SEO may consume time and resources but the long-term benefit is undeniably great, hence making it the ultimate digital marketing long-term strategy in the world, today.
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Content Marketing:
High-quality content adds a magic touch to your brand! Speaking about content, it is the data that your audience comes across, and the message that they receive. How they perceive your brand and products is determined by the quality of your content. Content marketing involves consistent creation and distribution of content on blogs, and social media platforms, as well as distribution to other online and offline sources, to attract new customers and retain the existing ones. Whether they are physical posters or banners, online blogs or videos, create content that connects with your audience, taps into their emotions, emphasises its relevance to your audience and shows the value that your brand provides to the customer. As mentioned before consistency is a factor you can’t miss. Consistent distribution of content across channels and platforms establishes your brand in the mind of the customer.
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Social Media Marketing:
Social Media is not just a marketing channel, it gives your brand a chance to create a community of its own. Looking at the vast scope of social media, and its affordability, brands can effectively use it to propel growth. Popular Social Media Platforms allow you to promote your brand and products, engage in conversations, and generate leads and subsequently conversions.
Attempt to make your brand an experience on social media, giving the users engaging content that allows them to learn and be inspired. Tap into different emotions while creating and marketing your content on social media. Create further engagement by creating interactive polls and stories. Replying to comments enables you to demonstrate your reliability and hook the user’s interest.
Conclusion
These were 3 examples of short-term strategies and 3 examples of long-term strategies for marketing. When used effectively and in conjunction, they can drive considerable growth and help you scale your brand in the digital medium. However, it is important to understand that the list above is not conclusive. There are multiple other ways in digital and physical marketing, which when identified and utilised effectively by the marketing team can provide fruitful results.