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There are some ways that a strategic partnership with a marketing agency can help you to improve your small business growth.

Ways that a Strategic Partnership with a Marketing Agency Can be of Help to Small Businesses Growth

Most of the businesses are finally trending in the right direction and after more than just a year of the lockdowns, the mask mandates, the restrictions, and the consumer hesitancy.

Consumer optimism has now been really steady, and there are also lots of welcoming signs of discretionary spend recovery.

But, despite all the positive outlook, the marketplace is still very rocky and also vulnerable. Nobody knows what exactly that the future holds, especially with the continued risk of different new cases surging and more contagious variants on the rise.

 

Businesses are not yet out of the woods.

This is the place where the marketing agencies have a unique opportunity for them to become a valuable strategic partner in other words it is where the marketing agencies can “sell” themselves and also help small businesses navigate these uncertain times and these changes.

Here are reasons why a small business owner should consider the partnering with a marketing agency:

1. Free Up the Valuable Time & Resources for the Business

According to the CallRail survey, they revealed that the two greatest roadblocks that are people face mainly for the business owners to create a marketing plan were the time and the budget:

About 44% of the respondents said they were too pressed for the time, overwhelmed with the running of the business, and had no budget to hiring anyone.
Also 74% said that they would rather spend their time on the primary business responsibilities than spending it on the marketing.

Many of the entrepreneurs are now operating with a DIY mindset and they try to juggle too many tasks on their own.

Choosing a marketing agency will offer more of an experience to the table while also helping you to free up owner’s invaluable time for other important tasks that you may have in some way fallen by the roadside.

 

2. Monitor Trends & Make the Experience-Based Recommendations

We are aware that COVID-19 took the market by storm. Most of the businesses did not know what they are to expect, and then they found themselves floundering to navigating the new market.

While that a professional marketing agency would still be facing those same old challenges, that they have had the added benefit of years, even the decades of marketing experience that will help them in making strategic decisions.

About 81% of the small business owners attest that for them having a marketing strategy was very critical to the success of their business during the COVID-19 pandemic. A strategy that has been grounded in the long-term experience can mean the difference between the survival and the demise.

If businesses are not focusing on the smart marketing, they are missing out on the revenue.

 

3. Reduce the Extra Payroll Costs While Gaining More Resources

A 67% of the survey respondents said that they wish they had hired a marketing agency rather than them hiring internally.

Entrepreneurs have really enjoyed the great success on their small business journeys, choosing a good choice to start your own business comes with so many risks. One of the major risks is the financial burden that it can bring.

How you can Elevate your small business:

 

1. Reducing Extra Payroll Costs and Gaining More Resources

A common misconception is the hiring of an in-house is cheaper and also solves an immediate need. But all this things that are listed are not usually the factoring in the added costs. For the onboarding, the recruiting, the training, and then retaining the employee with much expenses. Even an extra expenses such as for the health insurance, the retirement plan matches, the vacation and the sick days, the payroll taxes, the life insurance, the disability coverage, the tuition reimbursement, and even more.

When all is said and done, for you to hire a new employee usually totals about 1.25 to 1.4 times the base of salary range. Addition of the time that was invested in training the new person and also familiarizing them with the business.

And if that employee finally ends up leaving, there goes a very huge investment.

Even if you notice that an outside marketing agency seems the more expensive based on their hourly rate. It is often a more cost-effective solution than the hiring of an in-house, not to mention the added benefits of having an expert team on the call with many other additional resources and also manpower available.

 

2. Modernize the Marketing Strategy

We are living in a fast-paced market. The New apps, the trends, the SEO updates, and the best practices are constantly coming and going.

Are the small business owners able to capitalize and stay on top of it all and also maintain efficient conversion rates?

A modern marketing strategy will utilize the inbound marketing techniques, such as the high-performing web content. In addition to the more traditional outbound and the marketing methods, such as the commercials and the PPC ads.

Today’s marketing strategies cover a wide broad range from the keyword research. To the graphic design, to the omnichannel campaigns, to the social media, to the call volume, to the email, and everything in between, all of these leading up to data measurement and analysis.

To be really successful, the person that is in charge of the marketing efforts needs to be very up to date with the most recent marketing techniques that is available. What worked last year or even the last month might not be effective at all today.

3. See Long Term Results

A survey was carried out and there was a record of about 71% of the CallRail’s survey respondents. Having a feeling that their business was currently well positioned for the long term growth and the long term success. But 25% of them did not feel too confident about the future of their business. And the rest of 4% admitted that even if their business continued on its current trajectory, it is suspected that it would eventually fail.

To build and to also maintain a business, it requires a long-game strategy in addition to the flexibility that is needed for you to overcome the short-term problems.

The website is currently one of the most critical aspect of your marketing program and it is essential to building a foundation of the trust of your prospect and also converting them into a long term customers. The X Factor are the things that spur the marketing growth. It specializes more in the creating and also specializes in promoting new sites or in the rejuvenating of your “blah” web presence converting into a lead converting machine.

First, you need to invest the time to define how your business will be unique and also try to understand the type of customers that you hope to attract. Then you will be able to build the proper messaging and a comfortable web-enabled journey for your prospect that will compel them to start acting and also engaging you for more details.

 

Consumer Trend

In these time that is fast-changing, one of the most important questions that marketers are asking themselves is, “Which of the changes are permanent?” As we are now searching for new ways that will help us to thrive in this our new world, this question is a very crucial one.

In the midst of the ongoing pandemic, we have seen different consumer behaviors become more and more dynamic and also becoming unpredictable than ever. Now, few years into the COVID-19, we see three consumer trends that are emerging that businesses should keep in mind as they are moving forward:

1. The pandemic has now accelerated the existing shifts in behavior
2. People now need more help than ever navigating choice complexity
3. People want an open and an affordable digital world, and that requires the relevant ads that respect their privacy.

Leveraging competitor insights

For you brainstorming and then trying to imagine the most beautiful, those eye-catching, the hook-inducing creative does not always happen just like that, in a blink of an eye or within just seconds, let alone for minutes or even hours. This is where it comes to the area of utilizing competitor insights where the insights comes into play.

The most abundant resource that is very much available right now is the Facebook Ads Library. Because it contains all the creative assets that every advertiser is making use of across the platform. It always gives me surprise how few people actually know of this free and powerful tool.

When you are trying to browse through the competitors or browsing through the best-in-class advertisers in this library, to know a sign of a great performing creative you should look for how long a time an advertiser has been running specific assets. How does one discover that? The date of when an advertiser began running their creative is stamped there conveniently on each of the asset — this is just beyond powerful. I can just spend hours simply trying to scan through the creative assets, and each of the advertiser are now providing even more intel and more inspiration.

The Creative should be at the top of the list as you are thinking of where to place your efforts on your paid social growth marketing. The types of strategies put in motion will still vary over time, but what would not vary is the importance on the strong creative, the make it or the break it factor to success.

The growing of an e-commerce business can be summed up in just two words and that is—digital marketing. Companies are now placing their ads where the eyeballs are: the Instagram, the Facebook, the YouTube, the TikTok, the Pinterest and other trending platforms. Brands that have also effective social media campaigns are now seeing major returns. You need more than just having a good product to see a spike in revenue from the digital advertisements. Many startups are recently losing money creating the lackluster ads or failing to analyze their metrics to possibly reach their target demographic.

If you are just starting out or you are struggling to create an effective campaign, here are some tips for you to grow revenue through the digital marketing.

 

Use Relevant Content

Those days when you will see different companies that are needing the big marketing dollars just to produce the advertisement campaigns are no more, those days are long gone. The today’s social ads are now looking less like the those cinematic TV commercials that are used in the days past, and they are now looking more like an organic content that anyone could create just making use of an iPhone and some basic editing software. The large and the small businesses are using the customer or the influencer testimonial videos or the shooting videos from their phone, the adding subtitles, the music and uploading the content as an ad. When it is done right, this approach will translate to the customer acquisitions.

You can test out different creative assets for you to discover what your audience are responding to. The social media algorithms favor video, so that is a very good place for you to start. Include the subtitles as most users will want to watch on mute.

Social media has really changed the way that the consumers speak and what they are responding to. The user-driven trends have come here to stay, so you need to keep up on the current trends to create content consumers respond to. And a trend that is going viral on one platform (just think of the rise of the TikTok videos with the on-screen text) will likely carry over to all of the social media channels.

Start Small

The last thing that you want to do is for you to go all in and spend a sizeable amount on an ad that is not performing at all or not performing well. First, you will need to identify who your potential customers are through the market research, the surveys and also by testing out audiences through the Facebook or the Instagram ads. You will need to optimize your ad spend by the ROAS (return on ad spend) instead of the CPA (cost per acquisition), the CPC (cost per click), and others. As we know that it is often the metric that will make the most sense out for your business. If your website is seen to be user friendly, the ads are very compelling and visible to your demographic, the sales will come in.

For truth to be told, i have faced many meetings i can not even count how many times that i have sat on meetings where I have felt compelled to defend my marketing budget. “It is an investment in growth,” I said, as others that are on the senior management team rolled their eyes at me.

Does nothing change???

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s newest study, “The rise of the marketer: The Driving engagement, the experience and the revenue,” found that “business owners are viewing marketing both as a revenue drivers about (69% agree, 19% strongly) and the cost centers about (68% agree, 26% strongly). At most the companies, the business owners have the knowledge that the marketing drives revenue, but the view that the marketing is a cost is just as widespread.”

Huh? Can it be both?

Over the next 3years to 5 years, the respondents expect that the marketing function will soon migrate from the cost side of the ledger to the revenue side. And, what will be driving that? Several things…

Marketers need to start demonstrating their contributions and also the abilities to drive the revenue more internally. “If you are aggressively pursuing an agenda of accountability and transparency, then you will be viewed as a trusted partner and also an adviser,” said John Dragoon, the CMO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in one of the interviewees.

Marketers need to win their customers at any touchpoint, making the customer to experience paramount to the driving leads and the revenue. Yet, today, two-thirds of the marketers polled say that they are not responsible for the managing of the customer experience. This will be a change as consumers now gain the power and also become less reliant on the sales, and the marketing function is now increasingly orchestrating relationships.”

Companies will be needing specialists to help manage and to shape the customer-centric cross-channel and the cross-business strategies. “Even if the marketing does not have a sole of accountability, it is first among the equals in making sure that everybody understands their role in creating the touchpoints that are differentiated, the consistent and the outstanding,” adds Dragoon.

 

So, what type of marketing leaders can fit in this new role? What skills do you think they need to fit in?

1. Coming in at number one is marketing operations at 39%.
2. The technology and the digital engagement is #2, also at 39%.
3. Strategy and the planning is #3 at 38%.

That of course must be in one way connected to some CRM, whether that is also in HubSpot or in the Salesforce, the Zendesk, the Zoho or any of the other myriad CRMs that exist.

But note that the two must be effectively integrated and also optimized, and the salespeople actually have to make use of these systems. Adoption is critical, which is a typical struggle at many of the companies. But just as company executives insist on the rigorous adherence to the performance systems and the processes, they should insist that their sales and their marketing teams show the same commitment to the analytics and the process optimization.

Are you getting the most out of your marketing strategy and your data or are you not? This is a question you should as yourself if you are to move to greater heights.

The best way for you to approach this is with a ‘data driven’ mindset, which results in the capturing of good quality data at the source – good data quality means the creating of data correctly the first time. To fully maximise and to fully optimise assets such as leads and the data, you should also invest in a solution that addresses the data quality and the data integration.

 

Sales
Optimising your marketing channels
An omnichannel approach to the marketing and to the communications is highly effective for the driving sales, but it should be noted that these functions often operate in the silos. This can result in an inconsistent customer experience across the marketing funnel and it can also negatively affect the marketing ROI.

Good marketers can be able to identify the most appropriate mediums and the channels to push marketing campaigns out, the whilst tracking performance in detail. The Omnichannel campaigns typically comprise of the multiple layers of user engagement and the actions, all of which are requiring the data intelligence to identify insights about each segment.

One option for the marketers to achieve this is for them to use the customised solutions that seamlessly integrate the multiple tools, the functions, and the systems with the automation to serve the business’s unique needs.

A comprehensive, integrated solution is key
In an ideal world now, your marketing team can start achieving this without the hassle of the platform-hopping or dealing with all the bulky integration issues. Interestingly, a solution like this is existing, and it was been developed by Unico.

The Unico offers a full suite of the marketing automation solutions that seamlessly integrate with the legacy databases and the systems. By analysing your organisation’s needs through the reviewing your existing systems, the processes, and the marketing functions, the Unico’s team will be able to identify where automation can add value. Your customised solution will be then optimised to align with your corporate goals, the internal “key performance indicator” (KPIs), and the overarching marketing strategy.

The Unico can also consolidate your customer data and also generate the customised reports to help your team to make informed strategic decisions. Onboarding with the Unico is pretty simple, as they will also be able to provide a tailored training program that is bespoke to your team’s skills and the knowledge.

You can be rest assured that the assistance will be given every step of the way through their 24/7 customer support and also their maintenance service. If you want to learn more about Unico’s unique blend of consultancy, the data integration, and the automation capability get in touch today.

In the last decade, the marketing automation has drastically transformed the business world in different radical ways as it creeps into every stage of a B2B or the B2C sales funnel. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools have now revolutionized the prospect management, programmatic advertising has also boosted the ROI on the ad campaigns, and the email marketing apps like the MailChimp have really changed the way that businesses are now interacting with customers.

You should know that back in 2018 the marketing automation is taking the next step forward in refurnishing of the CMO’s digital toolkit by playing off developments in the Artificial Intelligence and the Machine Learning algorithms. Today, there is no stated digital marketing solution that can not benefit from the AI, and according to a recent report by the Salesforce, “High performers are just 2.2 times more likely to use the AI in their marketing campaigns than under-performers.”

The AI is also well equipped to help businesses in making those difficult or repetitive decisions, freeing up time for other tasks. In the past, the automated marketing was already rendering help to marketers with certain decisions, such as which markets to tap. For the B2B businesses, lead scoring has been of help in selecting ideal contacts for developing the business relationships.

Moving forward, the AI will also be able to recommend or to even make decisions on its own, in the more complex and the more difficult areas. AI Researcher Ajay Agrawal has carried our some work with colleagues from various universities to them in developing a simple structure with application in the multiple domains – including the home security, the business, and the politics – which will enable the companies to automate complex decision making processes from the ground up.

A marketing automation solution that is capable should ideally be able to do the following:

1) To abolish data silos, and the centralize customer data from multiple sources
2) To create a unified user view that can capture every facet of the customer journey
3) To leverage the customer insights into campaigns to possibly facilitate a highly contextual omnichannel engagement strategy
4) To create a highly complex lifecycle marketing campaigns that are trigger-based, that are fully automated, and fine-tuned for conversions
5) To delight customers at the scale with hyper-personalized, the one-to-one engagement on every of the channel
6) To analyze and to also extract essential marketing, the campaign, and the revenue-related insights to help marketers understand the ROI of their efforts
7) The ability to create a layer of intelligent the engagement that leverages the power of context to create a positive interactions at a recurring rate that will in turn generate brand loyalty
8) To give marketers the access to the top engagement channels like the push notifications, the Whatsapp, etc.

Marketers must remember that the data in itself is not powerful but it grants power to those people who can understand it and deploy their learnings very effectively. The answer to an unrestricted growth for the digital consumer brands lies in their ability for them to adapt to the changing needs of a dynamic market, the evolving consumers, and the ever-changing technology landscape.

 

There are some of the biggest challenges that you’ll face before you can become a successful influencer marketing

This historic period brings new challenges to marketers. Here’s what you need to know. Biggest challenges that is faced to a successful influencer marketing

The ongoing pandemic has for sure forced different brands to have a rethink on the ways they sell and the ways they communicate with customers. Consumer behavior has also changed dramatically. Global populations retreated indoors just to avoid contact and curb the spread of the on going coronavirus. People are recently increasingly turning to the digital as a source of comfort and connection.

As consumers are struggling with uncertainty, the fear, and the stress, brands have every interest in adapting their outreach and also communication strategies. Businesses leveraging the influencer marketing are now faced with multiple challenges resulting from the new reality and they will need to connect with their consumers through a carefully and crafted pandemic-appropriate campaigns.

Creating a campaign concept
There are certain things for you to keep in mind when you are looking for a campaign concept amidst an ongoing pandemic. To begin with, is the campaign appropriate or thinking further is it going to be viewed as the irresponsible and totally out of place in light of the government guidelines on the social distancing, the face-touching, and the hand hygiene? Think of KFC’s ‘It is finger lickin’ good’ slogan, which the brand had to drop during the pandemic. A message like this would seem so wrong at a time when maintaining hygiene is top of mind. Second, it can be very tempting to ignore the pandemic altogether and picture the world that we used to live in. This strategy can somehow be a risky one, as this taking on the world does not coincide with the consumers’ reality.

Choosing the right type of influencer
Psychologists has warned that the global pandemic has triggered a loneliness pandemic due to the social distancing and the isolation. The recent Harvard research shows that the rate of loneliness is particularly very high among the young people who feel as if no one really cares about them. Brands’ messages should also look at this channel and address the feelings of isolation and abandonment and the emotions, the views, and the pain points of younger generations, including the loneliness, the authenticity overload, and the socially conscious living.

Instead of making use of the influencers to showcase the product offerings, the brands should be partnering with the purpose-driven communicators. Most of the genuine influencers are thought leaders and they are advocates who are seeking to change the world in the meaningful ways. As young people are recently increasingly avoiding sponsored content, the brands should be partnering with the socially conscious thought leaders, the activists, and the creators.

A digital marketing strategy is a very important part of the overall marketing strategy of a business. The small business marketing can include many of the offline local advertising methods but also needs to include a healthy portion of the digital marketing strategies so that it will be successful and maximize sales in today’s economy.

Whether you are just starting a small consulting business, you are just running a local consignment shop, or you opened a café, you will be constantly looking for ways that you can attract business without you breaking the bank. A small business that is fulfullin most or even all of its business online needs to now embrace a digital marketing strategy that will help it be seen by the online users.

One of the content marketing best forms is a blog on your website. Your company blog can serve as an online database for your customers. It gives you the privilege to demonstrate your experience and your knowledge in your industry. It also helps you in resonating with your audience members’ pain points and it shows why you are a legitimate solution that they just have to consider.

On top of that, the high-performing website content can also be shared on the social media (the online equivalent of the word-of-mouth marketing.) It can also help your website to rank higher in the organic search engine results.

Much more like a good digital marketing strategy, the building of a company blog or of a similar website resources can feel like a lot of work. However, the number of benefits that it can yield for you makes a blog well worth the effort.

Leverage Influencers
The digital marketing can atimes feel very lonely. It is easy for you to feel compartmentalized into your tiny corner of the internet. However, there are just a couple of ways that is possible for you to tap into an army of online partners to help you promote your brand.

This army is made up of the influencers. The Influencer marketing consists of getting the influential online personalities for the purpose of partnering with you and promoting your brand.

This form of digital marketing taps into the loyalty and trust that the influencers have with their followers. It also is very easy to scale all depending on your needs. For instance, you can spend some thousands of dollars going after a larger influencer that comes with millions of followers. If you are working with a smaller budget, you can still pursue a network of smaller nano-influencers — those who have the audiences of up to 10,000 followers or less.

 

Do not let the numbers fool you, either. The Nano-influencer marketing has proven beyond doubt to be an effective way to promoting brand. For instance, the nano-influencer accounts on the Instagram with less than 5,000 followers tend to boast an engagement rate between 5.3% and 7.2%. The percentage then drops to a measly 1.1% for the largest influencer accounts that is on the platform.

 

Research Your Target Audience Online
Being a successful small business, you may be feeling that you already understand your audience. However, if you want to be very effective online, then you should be willing to invest more in some additional customer research.

 

The digital marketing is a pivotal part of most of the modern business success. While this may be a very powerful marketing tool to make use of, for you creating an effective digital marketing strategy can also feel overwhelming.

Here we have just some few ideas that will be of help to you in pulling together an effective strategy for your online marketing activities.

Assess and Strategize First
Before you start to spend your money, i will advice that you need to slow down and then consider what your marketing strategy is in the first place. For many of the SMBs (small and medium sized businesses), their marketing when checked is in most times a patchwork effort to tap into as many digital marketing services as possible and that is an inclusion of quite a few options. The digital marketing agency “Hennessey Digital” explains and defines the digital marketing services as an “umbrella category” that includes, this among some of the other things:

1. Website development;
2. Social media marketing;
3. PPC (pay per click) advertising;
4. SEO (search engine optimization).
The ability for you to make use of these various online options can create a diverse, an affordable, and also a scalable marketing strategy. In other words, they are very accessible to the small and to the large businesses alike. However, the various diversity of options can also create a bit of a problem. With so many choices that are available, it can become pretty easy to overstretch your marketing budget.

This is the reason why, before you start spending a penny, you should first create a very clear and a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Creating this should help you when selecting the online channels that will help you reach your audience, the way you should be spending your time and your resources in those areas, and what type of metrics that can help you to gauge your effectiveness.

All of this may seem like a whole lot of preparatory work. But, this is an essential first step for you in your creating of a quality digital marketing strategy. Without you setting the stage beforehand, you can possibly end up just frittering away your marketing funds with just little to nothing to show for all your effort inputs.

Making Use of Your Website as Online Content Hub
The content marketing is known to be an integral part of most of the digital marketing strategies. The whole concept revolves around consistently and the creating content that is very relevant to your audience, it also provides genuine value, and it helps to set your brand up helping your brand to become an authority in your field. When it is done well, the content marketing can help you to attract new customers and will also help to retain existing clients, as well.

If what you are craving for is to have a powerful digital marketing strategy, then it should be built on the content marketing. This is not just an easy task, but it is one of those task that requires an upfront investment and it can for sure continue to reward you far into the future.