Why Long-Term Marketing Is Better for Your Brand

Too often, companies have the idea to start marketing “on a trial basis,” only willing to try it out for a month or two to see if it yields promising results. Unfortunately, this way of thinking immediately starts them off on the wrong foot. You see, this is not how effective marketing works, especially if you’re interested in attracting sustainable revenue from organic campaigns. To craft valuable messaging that’s more than just a flash in the pan, you’re looking at a long-term marketing investment.

To reap the greatest benefits of each marketing channel, your business must be willing to dedicate time and money to developing strategies that will pay off not just now but also in the future. Companies must build an audience over time and encourage regular engagement.

Not sure why consistency is so important? In the following sections, we will discuss why marketing shouldn’t be a short-term investment and highlight a few key benefits that come with long-term dedication and strategy to any ecommerce for small business.

What Is Long-Term Marketing?

Long-term marketing encompasses the big picture, prioritizing the overall goal of your marketing efforts — whether that goal is to rank on the first page of Google’s SERPs or earn your first million in revenue. It is built on the concept that potential customers must forge a relationship and positively perceive your brand before it becomes worthy of their money. 

When working with a marketing team, you may expect that the leads and conversion will start to pour in as soon as you institute a strategy. But even with a well-rounded digital marketing strategy in place, it can typically take three months, six months, or more before you start to see measurable growth. That is because it takes time to find and build your audience and achieve consistent engagement.

But the upside is that long-term marketing is instrumental in building a stronger, more resilient, and more capable business. Meaning, that as your brand grows, it increases in trustworthiness, stability, and exposure to new audiences. The best way to achieve such growth is through having a consistent marketing strategy with content that gives prospective customers time to see the value in your product or service.

But increased sales is not the only goal you can target with a long-term marketing approach. You can also encourage the following, to name a few:

• Build brand awareness
• Spark long-term quality traffic
• Recruit new talent
• Educate customers
• Foster brand loyalty
• Boost customer engagement

This is not to say that short-term marketing has no use in your marketing strategy. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Short-term marketing strategies are ideal for short-term goals that are typically associated with seasonal events, customer appreciation efforts, or social media giveaways. They are beneficial because they provide quick wins for your business, ultimately getting your name out there and exposing your brand to other audiences.

Still, short-term strategies have limitations and are unlikely to show overall growth over time. If you want to see continuous improvement and longevity within your brand, then investing in long-term marketing is the ideal approach.

The Benefits of Long-Term Marketing

Marketing is frequently expected to provide an immediate fix to problems like scant followers and poor exposure, but in reality, it takes time to make a significant impact on the ideal customer you want to attract. For example, while content marketing conversion rates are nearly six times higher (2.9%) than non-adopters, it can take six to nine months to yield those results.

Fortunately, long-term marketing offers countless other benefits, making it well worth the time and resources you must put forth to plan ahead and commit to a course of action.

It Helps You Stand Out

One significant challenge for most brands is standing out from their competition in an oversaturated industry. And as approximately 90% of searchers are undecided about a brand before conducting their online search, it’s important to be visible online.

Long-term marketing can help your brand establish a solid presence and ensnare potential customer interest. By identifying what sets your company apart from others in your niche and marketing it consistently, you establish differentiation and brand awareness.

Even industry juggernauts like Apple and Amazon market their products and services year-round, cementing their presence in consumers’ minds. Look at it this way: even if a customer doesn’t purchase from you now, establishing your brand as the ongoing authority will help consumers think of you first when the time comes.

It Allows Time for Your Strategy to Develop and Evolve

Marketing is equal parts art and science and takes time to refine. For instance, hypothetical audiences may show different interests or behaviors than you expected, demanding a pivot here or a different channel there. However, impatience often results in companies canceling their marketing campaigns before results ever start to manifest. This is, in a word, premature. The best solution is to invest in marketing long-term, monitor KPIs, and adjust your strategy gradually instead of cutting it off mid-stream.

Plus, your strategy will naturally need to evolve and adapt over time. Customer needs and trends are constantly changing, and so should your marketing approach. If you rely on the same old tricks, your strategy will eventually go stale and cease to produce results.

It Builds Credibility

Another benefit to investing in long-term marketing is that it builds credibility. Contrary to popular belief, not all press is desirable press. So if you’re only putting out marketing campaigns when you’re desperate for a sales boost or hoping to gloss over a misstep, you’re leaving a lot of silence to be filled by naysayers.

It is imperative to take control of the narrative with a long-term marketing presence. Present your company as a marketing leader and authority while creating and maintaining a positive brand reputation. Doing so helps drown out any negative feedback and keep your brand top-of-mind for your audience.

It Fosters Better Relationships

Building long-lasting relationships with your audience is the most important part of marketing, even more than growing your business or selling products and services. That is because a loyal customer ultimately contributes to all these other goals.

Like all relationships, it takes time to establish trust, build rapport, and earn customer loyalty, and that can only be accomplished by opting for long-term marketing. Eighty-six percent of customers say an emotional connection with a brand would make them continue doing business with them.

Long-term marketing also touts the benefit of being able to track metrics and learn more about your customers over time, so you can craft more relevant and meaningful messaging for your audience.

Common Organic Marketing Myths

Ready to jump in? When you begin working with a digital marketing agency, you must set your brand up for success. One of the best ways to do this is to understand what marketing can do for your business and reset your expectations of how marketing works.

Trust us when we say that there are no quick roads to successful marketing. While short-term adjustments may result in sudden spikes in growth, the traffic and engagement you receive will be temporary. So, when you’re ready to embark on a journey to long-term growth, take the time to readjust your expectations.

First and foremost, steer your team away from these common marketing myths.

Myth: You Will See Results Overnight

Seeing quick results from your marketing efforts is perhaps the most common marketing myth. Companies new to marketing often find themselves disappointed when their marketing efforts don’t generate immediate results. Contrary to popular belief, organic marketing is not a short-term or overnight investment. Growth happens over time.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), for example, can increase organic traffic but can also take around six months before you can see measurable results. Social media, marketing’s most popular channel, can take months to cultivate followers that will convert to customers. 

According to HubSpot, it can take as many as five to 12 touches before a lead makes a purchase. Still, organic marketing is a substantial way to grow your business, and the months it takes to gain such traction are worth the wait.

Myth: You Should Cancel If You Don’t See Immediate Results

Another common misconception is that marketing can be a short-term engagement. It is important to note that you should never start marketing investments with the idea that you’ll know whether to cancel in a month or two. Marketing simply does not operate in this fashion.

Short-term marketing may get potential customers in the door, but long-term marketing provides sustainable visibility that engages them and moves them through the sales funnel. Canceling one month, two, or even six months into a new marketing campaign will likely forfeit future sales and brand value.

Myth: Marketing Is Easy and Can Be Done by Anyone

Many companies tend to misunderstand digital marketing and the way it works. They feel that marketing is an easy process that anyone can successfully execute. After all, we’ve all used social media in our personal lives — how hard could it be?

In reality, few small or medium-sized companies have both the necessary knowledge and discipline to successfully manage their marketing internally. It requires a dedicated team with professional experience, so if you don’t have the resources to add all those members to your payroll, any do-it-yourself results are sure to be subpar.

Genuine success is rarely free. So if you have the opportunity to work with marketing experts, bust this myth and take their advice to heart.

Myth: You Should Start Small Until You See Results

Once more, for those in the back: marketing shouldn’t be a short-term engagement. Businesses who are unsure if marketing is the right direction may be tempted to take a tentative approach and only commit a very small budget to their campaigns. Unfortunately, like all things worth having, you won’t see quality results by putting in minimum effort.

For example, if you were to work out to improve your body’s health, you wouldn’t expect to see measurable results after exercising for ten minutes once a week. The same concept can be applied to the health of your business and its growth.

The best strategy is for your company to consider what you can invest and what you should invest. Working with an experienced digital marketing agency can help you determine how to allocate your budget most effectively, recommending channels for social media, content, and emails that will best suit your brand.

Myth: You Don’t Need Marketing, Quality Products Will Sell Themselves

No matter how groundbreaking your product or service appears to be, no one will buy it if they don’t know it exists. And it cannot reach its intended or ideal audience without the assistance of a well-rounded marketing strategy.

One of the primary things long-term marketing does is bring visibility and awareness to your product. This includes targeting multiple channels and branching out from your regular operations.

Maybe your brand is already active on LinkedIn, so you think that’s where you should focus any budding marketing efforts. By appealing to your existing network, your product will practically walk itself off the shelf, right? Not if your ideal audience isn’t active on that platform.

But without an intentional marketing strategy, you cannot identify which channels will pique the interest of your key demographic. We see this quite often as a digital marketing firm — companies market to audiences on a single channel and can’t understand why they do not have qualified leads. This is because effective sales efforts demand planning! You must consider not only how you market but also where.

Myth: Your Business Is So Small, You Don’t Need Marketing

As a small business with limited resources, it may feel like marketing is reserved for established companies looking to expand their reach. In fact, small- to medium-sized businesses stand to gain the most from long-term marketing efforts, with the most room for exponential growth.

Of course, unlike larger businesses with more money to throw around, marketing at this stage requires more thought and strategic planning to get the most out of your budget. If you’re not sure where to start, digital marketers can allocate your costs to help you avoid wasting precious time and resources.

Long-Term Marketing Success with Joseph Studios

It can be tempting to use a “test the waters” approach to marketing, but that won’t yield lasting results. Marketing is a long-term investment that requires your full attention and effort. By staying the course, enlisting the expertise of a digital marketing agency, and heeding professional advice, you can build steady and measurable growth for your business.

If you’re looking for an agency, consider Joseph Studios. We are a team of experienced marketers who offer tiered, subscription-based services that, with time and dedication, are sure to take your business to new heights.

For more information about our services or to get a price quote, contact our team today!