As a small business owner, you know the importance of marketing your products or services. However, with so many different marketing channels available, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. That's why creating a strategy is so important. In fact, I always say, I won’t sell you something you don’t need when speaking with my clients. The more important factor is finding out what your goals are, and then helping deliver the best options for your particular business and your particular goals.
Here are some tips to help you create a successful marketing strategy:
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Most of our clients are familiar with print advertising in our magazines, they are not as familiar with digital marketing so we wanted to give you a great comprehensive guide to digital marketing. Connection Publishing just recently launched our advertising recommendation engine that gives us access to a nationwide data pool to give recommendations to advertisers regarding what type of digital advertising is best after analyzing the marketing usage from like businesses nationwide. It uses data analysis, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to make the recommendations. It is awesome!
Digital Marketing is the use of digital channels to promote a brand, product, or service to potential customers. It encompasses various strategies and tactics that businesses use to reach their audience, build brand awareness, and drive sales. In this article, we will take a deep dive into Digital Marketing and explore the various components that make it a critical aspect of modern-day marketing. I have linked each option to our product page if you want more info or if you are interested in having Connection Publishing fulfill your digital marketing needs (We would love to help!). Why is Digital Marketing important? Digital Marketing has become an essential aspect of modern-day marketing for businesses of all sizes. Here are a few reasons why:
Digital Marketing encompasses various strategies and tactics that businesses can use to reach their audience. Here are a few of the most popular types of Digital Marketing: 1. Digital Display: These are banner type ads that are based on targeting information, displayed on popular websites like CNN, ESPN, and popular blogs. These are sold by CPM (Cost per thousand impressions). Most businesses buy 100K impressions per month.
2. Targeted Email: This method uses emails that have opted in to receive marketing in line with their interests. You can be very targeted with these campaigns and follow it up with retargeted digital display ads. Email follow up is a powerful tool that businesses can use to nurture leads and drive sales. By sending targeted emails to their audience, businesses can build relationships and promote their products or services. 3. Paid Search (SEM or PPC) - Paid Search advertising is paying to show up in search results, it uses search traffic to make sure you are found. Depending on the industry, you will pay more or less based on what your competitors are paying for the ad space. Today, SEM is the phonebook for business search. This can be a very important part of digital advertising. Don't over look being in the phonebook. With PPC advertising, businesses can target specific keywords, demographics, and behaviors to reach their audience and drive sales. As a secondary aspect to your Paid Search efforts, Google Maps management is crucial! Particularly for local brick and mortar businesses. Our goal when we work with a local business is to help them rank near the top of the google maps listings. 60% or more of local search utilizes the maps portion of google. 4. Paid Social Media or Social Media Marketing (SMM) - This is the use of paid ads across different social media platforms. It is not the same as placing ads or boosting your social media posts. It is a highly targeted advertising approach that can be an extremely effective approach to lead generation. SMM, bot paid and organic, involves using social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to promote a brand and engage with customers. By creating compelling content and engaging with their audience, businesses can build a loyal following and increase their online presence. 5. Digital Video - There are various ways that digital video ads can be delivered. We see video on our favorite social media platforms in both short and long format. We also see commercials before videos and content that we watch on mobile devices and internet connected TV. This product range is quite broad. Here is a breakdown of the various types of video.
The following are some other digital options that we don't offer at Connection Publishing: 1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)SEO is the process of optimizing a website's content and structure to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). By optimizing a website for relevant keywords, businesses can attract more organic traffic to their website and increase online visibility. 2. Content Marketing - Content Marketing involves creating and distributing valuable content that attracts and engages a target audience. By creating high-quality content, businesses can increase their online visibility, build brand awareness, and establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry. We use this one at Connection Publishing and if you are a content producer, we are happy to share with you how we use our content to drive traffic. We also offer a subscription video production program where we come on location to local businesses and video for one hour per month and product 4-6 videos that you can use any way you would like for $799. This will add to your content creation efforts and if you so choose, you can also use these videos with the Digital Video options I mentioned above. Let me know if I missed anything. Hopefully this help you pick your best sources for advertising your business. Each type of business is different and you must find a way to get the word out. Sometimes it is overwhelming, which is why we had our custom recommendation engine built so that by analyzing the data from across the nation, we can recommend to you the best advertising tools you should be using. If you would like us to enter your business into the program, please let us know. It is FREE and there is no obligation. Book an appointment here. Do you own a business? Do you wonder how much of your revenue you should be spending on your marketing efforts?
I believe that local small companies often overlook the importance and power of effective marketing and being able to succeed in a market because of their marketing. And so it's my goal to help small businesses know how to effectively market their companies and succeed at a high level. My name is Ryan Spelts and I'm a small business owner and I'm a marketing student and I love all things marketing and have used marketing effectively and helped many of my clients use marketing effectively. And I'm here to help you know how to do that for your small business. The challenge of knowing how to market your business is one that I have seen many, many times and it's why I started writing my book. The little booklets that I designed for my clients called The Marketing Playbook. I wanted to help my clients think effectively, strategically, and create marketing that is effective and has long-term effect. I actually own a local publishing company. We publish five local city magazines and we know from talking to clients how daunting marketing can be for them. They'll often tell me that I feel like I'm wasting money. I don't know what to do or say in my marketing. I'm not sure if anybody's hearing or saying what I'm saying. So the point of these videos is going to be to help you be effective in your marketing. Big businesses have an advantage over small businesses in that they have money and they're able to spend a lot more in marketing. But there's a unique flare and an approach that small businesses can take to make sure that they are known in a market, that they have a brand that people know and trust, and that people are willing to call them and to do business with them. We're gonna discuss some of those things over this series. And so, this first one I just want to talk about budget. How much should you spend on marketing? It's a good question. The small business administration says you should spend between 7% and 8% of your monthly revenue on marketing. That means if you're doing 10,000 a month, you should spend $700 or $800 a month. If you're gonna do a hundred, thousand dollars a month, you should spend $7,000 to $8,000 a month on marketing. That's money that should be budgeted, set aside and spent no matter what. You should make sure you spend money on marketing. Now, some businesses might take a little less than that. Some businesses it might take more than that to, to be effective. Startup businesses have to spend a lot more than that, especially if it's a new concept or a new idea that's unfamiliar. If you're coming into a market that has familiar competitors, then you need to market against those competitors. So we'll talk about the ins and outs of marketing in this series and talk about how to be effective in your local market. I had a client one time that was a home services company. They did home services like plumbing, heating and air conditioning and electrical. And they were growing. They were very successful in the local market and were doing millions of dollars a year in revenue and business. And so they decided to buy another home services company in Colorado, a neighboring state. And because of the investment there, they decided to take their advertising dollars that they were using in Utah and apply those dollars to the market in Colorado because they felt like we've been in Utah for 20 years, it will be ok. We've been very effective here. Everybody knows who we are, they know what we do. We don't need to advertise like we were doing before. Unfortunately, that that mistake, that decision, led to a major drop in revenue for their Utah market. And they realized their mistake in that people need to be reminded of who you are, what you do, and why you do it. And so when they left the advertising market, they immediately had to return to the Utah market and start advertising again just to make sure that they could keep their numbers up and their sales could continue to, to grow and to succeed. And then of course, they had to market in Colorado as well. So those are two different businesses and locations they had to market for both of them separately. Henry Ford said, stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time. We want to talk about how to be effective with your marketing and how to make things work. So start with a budget. Set aside amount of money that you can spend on marketing and let's make sure and spend it effectively. If you'd like a free copy of the Marketing Playbook, you can get it @ ryanspelts.com and each week we're gonna bring you marketing tips and know how. Follow along. |
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September 2023
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