Quick wins create short-lived gains.

Marketing only to the people who are ready to buy right now will only provide short term results. Let me explain.

At the end of the day, the key results business leaders want to see from marketing campaigns are revenue, return and growth. They want to see the proof that their marketing spend has been an investment rather than a cost. They want to see the numbers increasing.

It’s difficult for marketers to illustrate the value and return from top-funnel brand awareness campaigns when the results will not be seen in the short term.

This sometimes leads marketers down a path of striving for revenue, return and growth as their short-term and immediate goals. This means marketing to those who are ready to buy right now and those actively searching for the product or service you offer.

Although this might provide you with some quick wins and immediate results, it also means you’re marketing at the most competitive stage in the buyer’s journey.

When a buyer is ready to buy, they will be researching and comparing prices. Quite frankly, if they haven’t heard of you before and you’re not the cheapest option, they probably won’t choose you.

Marketing only to achieve your end goal, for example sales and revenue, will mean working harder in the long term and constantly trying to grab the attention of those ready to buy.

Those ready to buy can actually be the hardest to convert because they will be comparing you to competitors.

Effectively, you are always going to be on the back foot, lagging behind others who are excelling because they took the time, and money, to build brand awareness.

Building brand awareness now will pay dividends in the future. That’s why marketing is an investment, not a cost.

In order to achieve long-term goals, you will need to implement a long term strategy. Let’s take a look at the fundamentals of how to approach this.

Educate people about the problems they might not even know they have.

Show your customers why they need your product or service. It may be that they don’t even know or at least can’t put their finger on their problem yet.

Top funnel marketing campaigns should make your audience ‘problem aware’, appealing to their current pain points and challenges. Only then can you effectively demonstrate how you can help them achieve a solution.

Marketing campaigns should be tailored to the buyer journey as shown in the funnel above. A great way to implement campaigns that speak to your target audience at each stage of the funnel is with ad sequencing techniques.

Marketing to your audience before they are problem aware will result in little engagement. Why? Because they are not yet aware of why they need your products or services so will most likely keep scrolling and ignore what you have to say.

Let me give you a scenario:

If they don’t need it, make them want it.

Most of us don’t restrict ourselves to buying only the things we need. If we did, there would be a lot more space and a lot less waste. Often, the things we are easily persuaded to buy are the things we’ve been made to want.

What’s the practical difference between a simple tote bag and a fancy designer handbag? Nothing. What’s the emotional difference? We are made to want the fancy designer handbag.

Let me give you a scenario:

Become a thought leader. Earn trust. Earn loyalty.

All too often I see content pieces from companies dressed up as sales pitches. Sometimes they’re not even dressed up, they are just blatant sales pitches. Nobody is going to regard you as a thought leader if all you’re doing is trying to sell them something.

Instead, provide useful and thought-provoking content. Keep the sales pitches to a minimum. That way, people will continually return to you for top-notch industry knowledge, trust your expertise and will be loyal to you. When people are ready to buy, they’ll come straight to you over anybody else.

Put in the work now to pave the way for easier results in the future.

Want to put in the work now? Or are you happy continually overworking for short term results? Book an initial assessment call to discuss how you can make your marketing work for the long term.