Posts Tagged ‘effective marketing’

Digital Marketing and the Small Business: A Perfect Match

Thursday, November 10th, 2022

Most small businesses don’t have the big budgets that big brands have. Yet they need to make an impact through their marketing and communication efforts. That, obviously, can be a challenge.

Digital marketing, though, represents significant opportunity for small businesses.

(more…)

How Can You Find the Right Focus For Your Marketing Messages?

Friday, May 13th, 2022

A prospective client contacted us recently wanting to produce a white paper to serve as a promotional tool. The white paper needed to include: a focus on the new national campaign theme, a focus on the new local campaign theme, a focus on the areas served, a focus on the organization’s new direction for the coming year, a focus on…OK, hopefully, you get the point.

If you focus on everything, you’re focused on nothing!

It’s tough to focus. Any organization has multiple objectives and messages that need to be conveyed and there can be a tendency to try to “do it all” in one message. The trouble with that, though, is (more…)

COVID-19’s Impact on 2021 Content Marketing Strategy

Monday, March 29th, 2021

When pandemic restrictions around the country started occurring in March 2020, few imagined that many would still be in place—or starting up again—as the year drew to an end. As I write this, in mid-November, cases are rising across the country, and new restrictions are emerging. Through it all, organizations of various kinds have had to adjust and adapt to the new normal—whatever that is. As businesses plan for 2021, none can ignore the potential for COVID-19 to continue disrupting their operations and impacting consumer decisions. (more…)

Keeping Your Awareness and Engagement Efforts Focused

Tuesday, August 13th, 2019

market research, marketing researchWe’ve written before about the sales funnel—the process through which potential customers become aware of, engage with and, hopefully, ultimately become actual customers of your company. The first part of this funnel is typically referred to as “awareness.” This is the stage at which the market—as you’ve defined it—becomes aware of your product or service. They may never be interested in making a purchase or even learning more about you, but they are aware you exist and have entered this first section of your funnel.

At the heart of the sales process is the drive to move potential customers through the funnel from awareness to action—i.e., making a purchase. A lot of resources are put into measuring the losses at each stage of the funnel and figuring out the sources of that attrition and how to reduce it. Unfortunately, a lot of these resources may be wasted. (more…)

Using Push Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business

Thursday, October 25th, 2018

Most of us in the marketing business are familiar with the concept of – if not necessarily the term – pull marketing. Pull marketing refers to using your business development strategies to attract customers actively seeking out a product or service to your particular offering. For example, a pizza company might work on increasing its page ranking through search engine optimization (SEO) so that it shows up prominently when a hungry potential customer searches for “pizza near me” in their search engine.

But there’s another type of marketing that takes a more aggressive approach. “On the other side of the coin is a push campaign,” writes Rocco Baldassarre – Founder & CEO of Zebra Advertisement 1DollarAd.com – In an article for Entrepreneur. “A push campaign presents products and services to an audience without serving an initial demand.”

Baldassarre writes about push marketing in the context of online marketing and offers four tips for maximizing the outcome of your efforts. (more…)

All It Takes is a Little Nudge

Tuesday, January 16th, 2018

Hiring marketing or content marketing talent?People may sometimes think about marketing as the process of convincing someone to buy something they may not be initially inclined to purchase. Maybe it’s luring a customer away from a competitor or convincing someone to buy something they don’t really need.

From a more marketing-friendly perspective, though, the process could be seen as (more…)

Focusing on Value Over Features in B2B Sales

Tuesday, November 14th, 2017

To a large extent, the sales and marketing world can be divided along two broad lines: business-to-business (B2B) versus business-to-consumer (B2C) and products versus services. Sales strategies for B2C services will differ from B2B services, which differ from B2B products, etc. There are best practices and pitfalls for each quadrant of possible scenarios created by this way of looking at sales and marketing. (more…)

Beyond Bribery: Building Customer Relationships Through Engagement

Monday, January 9th, 2017

38309393 - group of different families together of all races

It’s hard to overstate the importance of brand loyalty. Marketers know how difficult it can be to win new customers. Once you have brought a new consumer into the fold, it’s important to take steps to ensure that they will not only keep coming back, but that they will also refer others to you. (more…)

Do you think your customers just “don’t get it”?

Thursday, July 3rd, 2014

Every once in a while I hear someone make a comment about their customers like: “They just don’t get it.” Or, “what they don’t understand is…” The truth is, with any audience, when you hear yourself saying these words warning bells should start going off inside your head. Chances are, it’s not them, it’s you that doesn’t “get it.”

As I work with clients, or speak with prospective clients, it’s not uncommon for them to lament that their target audience just “doesn’t understand the value” of their products or services. That certainly can be a valid communication opportunity. But, in  my mind, the opportunity doesn’t lie in trying to come up with new and ever-more-creative ways to spin your messages to that audience. Instead, the real opportunity lies in  (more…)

Which Comes First: Customer Service or Customers?

Tuesday, May 20th, 2014

I saw an interesting comment on a blog site recently in response to an article about 6 effective marketing tips for small businesses. One poster noted that, among the small businesses she works with, her focus is on providing strong customer service and trusting that the rest will come. (Sort of a Field of Dreams approach I guess…)

There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with focusing on customer service–in fact I’m all in favor of it. But (more…)