Before I worked at Crossroads, I was a full-time graphic designer, then an e-commerce manager, while also being a digital marketing consultant on the side. I’ve worked with all types of small businesses, corporations and startups. Each client always approached marketing a little differently. But no matter how you approach it, it’s valuable to prioritize and understand its importance as it relates to business success.
Are Your Priorities in Line?
One client in particular (let’s call him Tom) reached out to me to create promotional graphics and advertising for his new business, which was now only 3-4 months old. Tom was incredibly business-savvy and had created a significant point of difference from the rest of his market. The idea was set up for success from the beginning. But like most business owners, he could not afford to staff a full-team to cover all functional areas, therefore some things went overlooked.
About a week into our discussions and planning, I started to learn about some of the struggles Tom’s business was facing. Within three months, Tom had managed to secure an impressive income from his online retail channel, largely due to his rare, quality products that were spreading like wildfire by word-of-mouth. The digital advertising campaign we had launched was only expanding his reach. The problem was…orders were not being fulfilled on time. Contact inquiries were also not being responded to in a timely manner. So all of the positive aura that had been created around Tom’s business began to dwindle in the wake of this common business mistake.
Ways to Setup Your Marketing for Success
Now, Tom’s business was a one-man-shop, and one can hardly blame him for not filling every duty of a growing company by himself. But, there are a few key takeaways, that if focused on, would have relieved the backfire of aggressive marketing:
- Customer service, product quality and personal communication with your audience will always carry more weight than promotional content and messaging.
- Make sure your resources are capable of handling increased production and fulfillment. Marketing is a supplement to your already high-functioning business efforts. Of course, this does not specifically apply to retail – if you run an agency, make sure your employees are ready to spend the time needed to care for each client before you start reeling in new clients.
- Have patience and trust the process. Another client once asked me for a fresh marketing tool to focus on. From what I saw, the actual issue was the basic tools were not being utilized. Evaluate whether it’s really necessary to dive into advanced marketing and social media tactics, such as dynamic advertising and SEO, before you have a solid foundation in steady organic posting, email broadcasts, and smoothly operating website content, etc.
- When you do get your marketing efforts going, it’s important to keep results in perspective. There is no doubt in my mind that a comprehensive marketing strategy, that includes multiple platforms, is the best way to get your message across effectively. But, that also creates complexity for analytics, trying to figure out where the success and fallbacks are coming from. Usually, it’s better to look at trends and inferences after time has allowed enough data to have been collected, usually 2-4 weeks for most campaigns. Putting too much emphasis on daily highs and lows can lead to rash decision making, which will just end up wasting time and potentially higher ROI.
Adding to my last point, it’s important for business owners to realize that analytics are a key factor in determining the progress and overall success of a marketing campaign. The tools available now allow marketers to make significant improvements based on real-time data that can save you a lot of money. The days of releasing a campaign on good faith that it will work are over. Today’s marketing environment is dynamic, fast-paced, and targeted to the point where it’s valuable to invest in personnel that can perform the “art” of analytics.
Want to Know More?
Crossroads is equipped with not only personnel and expertise to supplement and handle your marketing efforts, but also to provide strategic guidance to make sure business planning, recruiting, staff and sales management, and general business functions are running smoothly.
Call us today to see how we can make sure your marketing efforts are setup for success- 225.341.4147.
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