How to Market In Your Sleep

Marketers often contend with finite resources, including available budget, bandwidth, and time. We get it, and at DMA, we encourage fresh produce professionals to work smarter, not harder, when it comes to marketing strategy. We believe you can accomplish your marketing goals by creating opportunities for your brand to work on your behalf—even when you’re sleeping.

Interested in strengthening your 2019 marketing approach…while also getting a little more shut-eye? Here are three tips to help you maintain and increase brand relevance:

Know that if you build it, shoppers will come.

If you are a seasoned marketer, you probably have experience with both push and pull strategies. The push strategy involves spreading your message and call-to-action frequently and creatively enough that it stands out and makes a lasting impact on your audience. The pull strategy, on the other hand, involves a more passive approach in which you seek to attract shoppers (rather than bombard them) with a compelling and relevant call-to-action. The idea here is that when you focus your resources on building a foundation of essential marketing tools—including a website, blog, social media, email strategy, and so on—you’ll have the ability to attract an audience that actually has an interest in and intention to buy your product.

If you’d like to execute marketing that works for your brand long after you’ve left the office, be sure your foundational marketing elements are cohesive and current.

  • Take a deep dive into your website and see if it’s time to update the content and swap out the photos.
  • Check your social media profiles and ensure you’ve posted recently and that you have a strategy for content to share in the future.
  • Create automated emails that are sent to your shoppers when they take specific actions of intent on your website.
  • Build a blog (like the one you’re reading now, for instance!) with content that will interest your audience for years to come.

At the end of the day, know this: when you build a consistent voice and comprehensive strategy for your marketing message, you’ll find your shoppers are drawn to it—even when you aren’t actively promoting it.

 

Observe your audience’s shopping behaviors with your eyes closed

To optimize your time and marketing budget, we recommend listening to and learning about your audience in order to better cater to their needs and desires. There are a number of ways to accomplish this. For instance, you can spend some time engaging in social listening on Twitter and Instagram, or instead by gathering a focus group and leading a discussion on the topic you’d like to learn more about.

However, listening and learning don’t always have to be active. You also can gather intel from your audience by featuring forms on your website that collect information—without you having to complete work beyond creating the form. Give your audience a compelling offer to download or access in exchange for completing a short “survey,” and you’ll accomplish two things. First, you’ll gain their contact information so that you may nurture the relationship you’ve created and earned. Second, you’ll learn more about their buying habits and preferences. This information is valuable beyond measure: you can use it to guide product development, content creation, sales conversations with retailers, and more.

 

Speak to your shoppers when they are ready to listen

Effective marketing happens when you meet your audience where they are, when they are ready, and using their preferred approach. This means you must always be ready—and trust us, we know just how time-consuming that can be! Luckily, there are several simple steps you can take to speak to your audience even when you’re not actively promoting your message.

Take social media posting and engagement, for instance. Yes, social media strategies must involve some aspect of in-the-moment engagement, but you also can plan your content far in advance and schedule it out on each platform so that you’re always staying top-of-mind with your audience. At DMA Solutions, we provide free tools for produce marketers like you to help you plan social media content in advance. Download our free 2019 Social Media Calendar to get started today!

 

We know that because of the perishable nature of what we do, work in the fresh produce industry just doesn’t stop. In 2019, we’re resolving to build strong marketing strategies that work for produce brands around the clock, increasing demand for the products grown every day.

 

Interested in elevating your marketing strategy this year? Reach out to us through our website or tweet us at @TheCoreBlog—yes, even when we’re sleeping.

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