Launching a marketing campaign can feel utterly overwhelming for business owners who would rather spend their time providing excellent products and services to their customers. At the same time, marketing can be a game-changer for businesses when it comes to finding new customers.
Below are some questions business owners frequently have about marketing, and how you can implement up-to-date strategies to help your business grow.
Why should small businesses spend money on marketing?
Many business owners, understandably, feel wary at the idea of siphoning off a part of their budget for ads. However, a solid marketing campaign is well worth the investment. Building up your brand awareness through effective marketing can help increase your customer base and lead to higher sales volumes. The concept behind marketing may be simple, but the act of actual marketing is not.
What is integrated marketing, and why is it important?
Integrated marketing is a comprehensive marketing strategy that creates a seamless and logical experience for prospective customers when they interact with your brand. These interactions can include a combination of direct ads, social media, blogging, content marketing, and more. Wherever your customer sees or hears about your brand, be it on social media or on the radio, the messaging must be consistent. Integrated marketing isn’t just about engaging potential customers in different ways, but it’s also effective in cultivating qualified leads. These leads are engaged because they are being guided in very specific ways that can ultimately lead to filling out a form. Once you have that form filled, they have given permission to be marketed to on a consistent basis.
Additionally, integrated marketing can not on
ly help you attract new customers, but it can also guide existing customers back to your site to make purchases again and again. An integrated marketing campaign that targets new and existing customers is much more likely to see success.
How does blogging and other content marketing tactics help me get sales?
Blogging and content marketing help businesses, large and small, build up their brand and facilitate trust with their customers. One key part of content marketing is providing genuinely useful information about how to effectively use your products or services, or other information your customers may find helpful. Content marketing can take a fair amount of time and effort, and you may not directly see the fruits of that labor right away.
Instead, content marketing is all about creating a brand that customers know has their best interest in mind by providing information or tools without a direct expectation of anything in return. When that trust is facilitated in this way over time, customers are much more likely to seek out your goods or services over the competition as soon as they need them.
How much should I spend on marketing campaigns?
A standard rule of thumb for business owners looking to market their brand is that they should invest about 5% of their revenue into marketing to hold the
ir position and maintain their earnings. Businesses that are looking to grow, however, should spend about 10%. Like any rule of thumb, there are exceptions and factors to take into account when devising your marketing budget, but these estimations can at least give you a good idea of how much you should be spending on increasing brand awareness and obtaining customers, new and existing.
These percentages can be scary for business owners, as many do not feel ready to make such large investments into marketing campaigns that are not guaranteed to work. Fortunately, partnering with an established, local marketing agency can help you maximize your return on investment for each marketing dollar you spend.
The bottom line
Marketing is complicated, and it's understandable that many business owners either struggle to run a successful campaign, or try to ignore the need for marketing altogether. If you are not highly knowledgeable or experienced in the world of marketing, connecting with a professional marketing agency for assistance can be one of the best investments you make for your small business.
