When you need help expanding your business, knowing how to choose a marketing agency is a great skill to have! Marketing agencies have been industry staples and trusted partners for advertisers for years and the right marketing agency is a huge boon for any brand looking to supercharge their marketing.

However, there’s a myriad of marketing agencies out there and they are not all created equal. Business owners often find themselves fielding pitches from a plethora of prospective marketing agencies and it can be confusing if you aren’t familiar with the marketing industry.

The terminology will be completely new, the pitches will start to blend together, and eventually, the unique, creative agency names will start to sound less cute and more cliche. There’s only so many ways you can purposefully misspell your agency name or claim to be “ground-breaking,” but somehow, every startup agency finds a way to be cliche in their own tired way. The point is, you’re busy growing your business. You don’t have time to separate the real, award-winning agencies from the two-bit pretenders.

That’s why we wrote this blog to help you think through how to choose the right marketing agency!

Read on to learn About Choosing A Marketing Agency!

The Benefits Of A Marketing Agency

Why would you even want to partner with a marketing agency? Well, there are a couple of reasons.

The Right Marketing Agency is A Source of Knowledge

If you’re a small business owner, time is a scarce resource. You don’t have time to learn about the finer points of A/B testing, market research, and SWOT analyses. The right marketing agency can help you fill in those gaps and augment your knowledge of your industry and business with marketing specific knowledge.

The Right Marketing Agency Offers Specific Technical Expertise

Digital marketing is a complicated specialty and it’s short of impossible to master the specifics without working in the industry. Backlinking, schema mark ups, search engine optimization and keyword strategies take time to master and most small businesses just don’t have the time to master these digital marketing practices. A good digital marketing agency will have specific departments or people for specific purposes and that distribution of work lets your business invest in mediums you never thought possible. Now, with the right agency alongside you, you can use SEO, PPC advertising, and web design to grow your business!

The Right Marketing Agency Frees Up Time

Compartmentalizing marketing into separate functions frees up time for all parties involved. Maybe you can manage your in-store marketing and customer loyalty promotions, but need help with bringing in new business. Outsourcing the aspects of your business that an agency partner can manage gives you time to focus on what you do best: managing your business!

How To Choose a Marketing Agency

Well, now that you understand the benefits of marketing agencies, how do you actually choose an agency?

Research Each Agency

Researching any potential marketing agency or marketing partner is the first and ultimately, perhaps the most important part of your process. We can give you great advice, rules of thumb and tips and tricks, but unless you are able to research for yourself, all of that is for naught. We encourage you to delve into any potential marketing agency’s online presence and analyze them thoroughly. You won’t be disappointed.

Consider Your Strategy

While researching a marketing agency for your needs, it’s important to consider your strategy. You can select the best marketing agency in the world, but if you don’t align that choice to your comprehensive marketing strategy, you won’t see the best possible results. If you know your needs, you can better select agencies to help get you there. For instance, if you need to focus on your branding, selecting a marketing agency that specializes in lead generation won’t be a recipe for success. Inversely, if you need market research to better inform your marketing strategy, selecting a branding-focused marketing agency won’t quite cut it.

Ask Potential Agencies For Proof

Asking for proof from any prospective marketing agency is crucial. Every agency will claim to be the best in their niche and it can be confusing if you take all of these agencies at face value. We recommend separating the real deals from the rest by asking for social proof of some sort. Any marketing agency worth their salt should have client testimonials, case studies or white papers for you to review.

Now, because most agencies will have these promotional materials handy, don’t take these promotions at face value. Your potential agencies have likely curated their marketing materials to focus on their best clients, projects, or moments. To combat this, go straight to the source. Reviews on sites like Google Maps, Yelp, and BING will come straight from customers and be more authentic.

Look For Industry Recognition

Finally, any marketing agency worth hiring should have earned the respect of the industry. Keep an eye out for industry awards, memberships, and any recognition that showcases what this marketing agency has been able to do.

Your Dallas Marketing Agency

Enter JSL Marketing & Web Design, your top Dallas marketing agency! We’ve been helping businesses across the Dallas-Fort Worth area grow their businesses for years and are looking forward to partnering with you! Your business is unique. Choose a marketing agency that understands that and helps you promote your business accordingly.

There’s a lot we can say about our business, but we’d rather let our industry awards speak for themselves! They say it all way better than we could!

And our clients’ perspective is definitely worth sharing as well!

“They’ve been wonderful to work with. They’re always on top of any task.” – Melissa W. 

We can offer any of the following services to help you promote and grow your business!

 

• Email Marketing
• SEO
• Market Research
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising
• Web Design
• Brand & Logo Development
• Content Development 

 

Fill Out The Contact Form Below To Get In Contact With An Expert!

If you’ve followed the digital marketing industry in recent years, you know that the deprecation of cookies has been a central point of discussion in marketing. Cookies are slated to be sunset in 2023, but Google has already pushed this timeline back several times. But regardless of whether or not Google keeps its target date, advertisers can no longer rely on cookies as a part of their marketing strategy. This change will ultimately have a lasting impact on the advertising industry, likely to affect everything from ROI to privacy policies.

Luckily, advertisers and small business owners have plenty of time to adjust their strategies, but their changes need to impact the upcoming shift significantly. Here at JSL Marketing & Web Design, we put our heads together and started thinking through the future of advertising. Every business’s game plan for a post-cookie world will be unique, but we put together some starting points to consider.

Keep reading to learn more about marketing in a post-cookie world!

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of data that help users identify you. Think of it like a valet park situation. You visit a website and receive a small amount of data that links your computer to you and your searches, much like a parking lot might give you a ticket to identify which vehicle is yours. There are many uses for cookies so we won’t dive into the finer technical details. (But you can read more here if you are interested in learning more!) We can, however, share three of their common uses:

 

• Authentication

• Personalization

• Tracking

 

Essentially, cookies help advertisers and websites curate and personalize their message and content to your interests. This also allows advertisers to understand more about you as a user and what advertising content they are interested in.

Are you a small business owner? A heavy news consumer? An Atlanta Falcons fan? A Quick Service Restaurant frequenter? Cookies help advertisers expand their reach outside off-the-shelf data segments and show ads to a particular audience with more efficient data collection.

Naturally, the demise of cookies will have a significant impact on the industry. The main consequences we can expect are

 

• Difficulty personalizing content to users

• Difficulty tracking users

• Difficulty expanding target audiences

 

Ultimately, advertisers will have a hard time knowing which users are interested in their product, resulting in less successful paid ad campaigns.

However, Google’s delayed timeline for the deprecation of cookies means you have more time to plan accordingly and develop your strategy for a cookieless future.

Cookie Tip #1: Rely On Other Mediums

You might be lucky if your business spends only some of its marketing budget on advertising. Marketers can use a slew of mediums to reach new customers that will be largely unaffected by the end of cookies. Social media advertising, search engine optimization, and Pay-Per-Click advertising are all tactics you should consider weaving into your outreach. You should be diversifying your marketing tactics already, but the fall of cookies is the perfect excuse to reevaluate what mediums are part of your media mix.

Cookie Tip #2: Put Relationships First

Cookies primarily help advertisers reach, track, and serve new customers, but a marketing strategy that relies on customer loyalty will likely be unscathed by the loss of cookies. We encourage advertisers to keep reaching out to their existing clientele as cookies are sunset. Tactics like email marketing are a great way to engage with your customer base without relying on cookies.

This is good advice for a post-cookie world but also good business advice. Your existing customers are much more likely to convert than new clients, and they are typically a more cost-effective audience. Marketing to your current clients will help your business grow, regardless of whether or not Google allows cookies.

Cookie Tip # 3: Don’t Forget Conversion Rates

Cookies have historically helped advertisers reach people via online advertising. This has led to more potential customers entering any advertiser’s pipeline. However, the end of cookies means many businesses will struggle to categorize and reach potential customers. Most of those brands will likely see fewer people in their marketing funnel. So how do you handle this curveball?

Well, improvements in conversion rates can help brands offset any declines due to a loss of cookies. Suppose you have 100 new leads in a month, and 2% of those can be expected to purchase from you. If those monthly leads decline to 80 a month, but your conversion rate rises to 5%, you’re getting more purchases than before! We suggest focusing on conversion rates and optimizing accordingly for the best results! Changes in email copy, web design, branding, and Calls To Action can boost conversion rates and help you succeed in a cookie-less world!

Cookie Tip #4:  Improve The Customer Experience

Since cookies help advertisers reach more people, most advertisers expect a decline in new leads and web traffic post-cookie deprecation. We’ve talked about how conversion rate improvements can offset traffic declines, but improving your customer experience can also help! Responsive web design, quicker customer service via chatbots, and e-commerce landing page optimizations also help streamline your customer experience and reduce the risk of steep traffic declines post-deprecation.

Contact JSL Marketing For A Cookieless Strategy

Need help planning a marketing strategy to deal with these advertising industry changes? Look no further than JSL Marketing & Web Design! We’re an award-winning Dallas marketing agency ready to help you review and optimize your marketing strategy.

Fill out the form below and get in touch with our experts!

Like everything else in the world, there are many different types of marketing personalities. If you’ve been on the internet long enough, you probably know which Spice Girl you are, your Hogwarts House, or what your favorite wine says about you.

Similar to your Meyer’s Briggs personality type or Enneagram number, there are distinctive marketing philosophies or personalities. Yes, knowing if you’re more Sporty Spice or Posh Spice is strictly for entertainment, but knowing your marketing personality can help determine your brand’s marketing strategy.

The following ‘marketing personality types’ are just tongue-in-cheek, generalized descriptions. These are meant to be fun but useful ways to understand the different marketing approaches. We recommend you read, laugh, and learn a little about yourself and your brand!

Marketing Strategy 1: The Measurer Brand

Measurer Brands are data-driven — always looking at the numbers. If they were a Hogwarts house, they’d be Ravenclaws. If they had a favorite class, it’d be Stats. If they were a book, they’d be two books (catch our drift?). Measurers like to test out ads and specials, prioritize their ideal customer profile, and keep data libraries with info on past initiatives and efforts. Strategy isn’t a scary word for a brand that enjoys data; it’s a challenge. (And honestly, probably a fun challenge at that.)

Best Marketing Channels

SEO, Paid Advertising, Email Marketing, Market Research

Areas For Improvement

Videography, Photography, Web Design, Logo Design

Pros

Measurers know how to get stuff done. A brand with savvy data skills, a talented team, and a proven paradigm for determining success always knows its targets and whether or not it hits them. Measurer Brands usually enter campaigns with a S.M.A.R.T goal, data on past performance, and a timeline for each campaign stage, leading to flawless execution.

Cons

Brands that prioritize measurement tend to be great at collecting data but sometimes require help with marketing’s emotional side. Measurer Brands can falter with elements that can’t be quantified immediately, like logos, web design, or written content.

Recommendations

Measurer Brands don’t take many risks, so we challenge you to work on humanizing your brand’s perception. Design elements like photos, videos, and colors are usually hard for measurement-heavy brands to quantify, but they’re extremely important for successful marketing. Measurers can improve their current marketing strategy by adding a creative touch to their Left-Brain tendencies.

Marketing Strategy 2: The Creative Brand

Creative marketing brands are the gifted art students of the marketing world. If creative marketing brands were personified, they’d probably also look like gifted art students. (We’re thinking intricate tattoos, wide-rim glasses, and leatherbound books of Russian poetry. And coffee. Lots of coffee) Creative Brands may be erudite, but they’re also gifted. In our experience, Creatives tend to have amazing advertisements, stunning logos, and web content that could win a Pulitzer.

Best Marketing Channels

Videography, Photography, Content Marketing, Web Design

Areas For Improvement

Technical SEO, Reputation Management, Paid Advertising, Market Research

Pros

Creative Brands always leave a mark. You can’t help but be impressed by their marketing materials and always walk away WOWed. In a world where consumers see over 4,000 ads daily, Creatives can cut through the advertising clutter and grab potential customers’ attention.

They also approach strategy differently. Whereas other brands might be more stiff or conservative with their marketing, Creatives are more likely to take risks and try new things. This doesn’t just apply to creative ways of producing marketing mediums and content; they often have brand-new ideas to meet customers efficiently.

Cons

Creative Brands sometimes fall victim to their own brilliance — the ability to make changes and try new things can be a double-edged sword. Without a steady leader guiding them, Creatives can falter and vacillate between ideas. An idea doesn’t immediately bear fruit? Time to pivot to the next cool suggestion. Someone float an interesting observation? Time to scrap the current strategy and start fresh. Creative Brands are usually the most likely to upend their logo, strategy, product, and content at the drop of a hat. While pivoting is important, consumers can get confused if a brands messaging is inconsistent and impatient. Ad confusion is real, people!

Recommendations

Creative Brands should hold themselves and their tactics accountable by measuring their marketing efforts as much as possible. A Creative’s strategy usually rests on innate creativity (or even just a vibe), so we recommend utilizing data to guide more decisions. This can help correct any disorganization.

Creative Brands should also depend on creative measures less. These brands love the creativity, teamwork, and innovation of new websites, stunning videography, and redesigned logos since that’s where they excel. The more technical aspects of digital marketing, like Local Reputation Management, off-page SEO, Google Ad match types, and market research, tend to bore them to tears. However, marketers achieve the best results when technical expertise and creative brilliance intersect. Creatives: find some techies and data geeks to augment your artists and bohemians — your marketing strategy will benefit from it.

Marketing Strategy 3: The Volume Brand

Volume Brands understand that new business is the lifeblood of any company, so they prioritize bringing in new customers. Where other brands struggle to invest in lead generation or are wary of spending on outreach, Volume Brands understand that marketing isn’t a cost but an investment. Volumes understand that Pay-Per-Click ads, paid social campaigns, and email marketing are all important when trying to reach potential and current customers. They are willing to invest accordingly for the best results.

Best Marketing Channels

Paid Social, Pay-Per-Click Advertising, and Email Marketing

Areas For Improvement

Market Research, Branding

Pros

Volume Brands can expand quickly and confidently. Their outreach strategies drive results, and their sales team never runs out of leads. Other brands may struggle to gain new business, but Volumes always have the right mix of outreach channels and are constantly adding new clients.

Cons

Volume is great, but it does have its downsides. Volume Brands often rely on paid channels like paid social and Pay-Per-Click ads to drive business and can overspend in the process. This often goes hand in hand with another problem; Volume Brands typically rely on a high quantity of lower-quality leads and customers to grow, which can be a time-suck. If a volume brand sends 100 leads from a web form to their sales team and only 20 meet specifications, the sales team likely will need to waste time triaging leads. Usually, Volume Brands have enough leads in the pipeline to grow, but time and money should be spent on things other than separating the good leads from the bad.

The Volume Brand model also doesn’t fit all industries. If you’re a Business-To-Business company, a high quantity of low-quality leads is probably not the right model for your needs. If you’re trying to reach accounting firm owners, you want a niche audience — an influx of leads wanting to learn about accounting or apply for accounting jobs doesn’t help you at all. Many companies encounter this issue when using quantity over quality to overcome marketing challenges. It might work for some, but the more niche the audience, the more targeted the marketing needs to be.

Recommendations

Tighten the nets slightly. Volume Brands are starting from a good place because they have great lead generation and an extensive pipeline. That allows them to be more judicious with their marketing and narrowly define what is and isn’t their ideal customer. Market research is typically not a core competency for Volume Brands, but the more these brands understand who converts and renews, the more efficiently they can spend their precious time and budget.

Marketing Strategy 4: The Cool Cat Brand

Cool Cat Brands can inspire consumers. Their marketing is super-polished and impressive, like the Creative Brand, but their main calling card is an immensely favorable brand impression. The good name of the Cool Cat Brand is earned in multiple ways. Maybe it was the industry awards or amazing customer reviews. Maybe it’s just a great brand story with incredible recognition and loyalty to boot. Regardless of how it happened, Cool Cats have their customers’ attention and won’t lose it anytime soon.

Best Marketing Channels

Logo Design, Reputation Management, Brand Collateral

Areas For Improvement

Paid Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Market Research, SEO

Pros

Reputation matters, and The Cool Cat Brand always has a sterling reputation. This usually translates into a loyal consumer base and long-term contracts, critical elements for any brand. Where other businesses might struggle to retain customers, The Cool Cat Brand easily gets the buy-in of their loyal customers. This great reputation also aids their outreach. These brands typically are not as focused on gaining new business as other brands, but Cool Cat Brands tend to always make a favorable impression when they do attempt to gain new customers.

Cons

Cool Cat Brands can get complacent. Because consumers love their brand and story, Cool Cats typically have less incentive to change or measure changes in their marketing environment. These brands are especially vulnerable to sudden situational changes, whether from new competitors, economic downturns, or PR disasters. In many ways, Cool Cat Brands are always resting on their laurels and expecting their great name and brand reputation to carry them. If this ever fails, these brands can be caught flat-footed.

Recommendations

Cool Cat Brands have a great customer base but should consider diversifying. We would recommend these brands commit to improving their data measurement and lead generation. While these are not immediately profitable activities for Cool Cats, both tactics let the brand grow. Plus, their great logo, story, and value proposition mean they tend to convert new business easily, if paired with sound research and strategy.

Up Your Marketing Strategy With JSL Marketing & Web Design

So, you’re probably wondering which marketing strategies are the best choice overall.

To be honest, none of them and all of them! Successful brands can take elements of each marketing personality and weave them into their own marketing strategy. The Measurement Brand’s analysis, the Creative Brand’s innovation, the Volume Brand’s muscle, and the Cool Cat Brand’s connections are not mutually exclusive!

The first step is identifying where your brand excels and where it can improve — that’s where JSL Marketing & Web Design comes in! We’ve helped brands all over Dallas and the state of Texas grow, and we want to help refine your business’s marketing strategy.

We’ll help determine what you’re doing well and where you might need help. Whether it’s researching and developing your overall strategy or implementing the technical elements of digital marketing, we’re here for you!

We offer a multitude of marketing services that are customized to fit your needs, including

• Email Marketing

• Brand Research

• Photography & Videography

• Social Media Management

• Content Marketing

• SEO & Web Design

• Logo Design

• & More

 

Fill out the form below to get started. Let’s find a marketing strategy that works for you!

Maximizing your marketing dollars can mean the difference between breaking even with your ROI and hitting a 3X ROI! As marketers, we’re always looking to make the most of our marketing budgets without breaking the bank. That is often easier said than done. There are so many different platforms to advertise on and all of them come with their own costs. Even DO-It-Yourself marketing tactics, like planning and shooting your own videos or designing custom social media graphics, often requires paying an editor. As a small business owner, you know you need to spend money on marketing to make money, but you still want to be sure you’re prioritizing the right marketing mediums. Where do you start?

The marketing consultants at JSL Marketing & Web Design have got you covered! Read the rest of this blog post to learn ….

• Which Marketing Mediums To Start With
• How To Decide Where To Spend Money
• What Client Testimonials Can Do For Your Brand
• How To Get Free Word-Of-Mouth Promotion
• And More!

 

Read On To Learn How To Maximize Your Marketing Budget

Marketing Budget Tip 1: Go Back To Basics

If budget wasn’t an issue, it’d be great to run broadcast television ads, paid ad campaigns, and billboard advertising 24/7, 365. However, most of us have marketing budgets to adhere to. It’s not that these marketing tactics aren’t useful. It just means that you have more pressing concerns to deal with and you don’t want to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars.

As a rule, we recommend starting with a functional website, a clean logo, and a properly-optimized Google listing. Most small businesses will see better results if they focus their marketing efforts on web design and local SEO before they start running paid ad campaigns. Again, there is a time for a smaller business to look at utilizing advertising in their marketing plan, but this typically comes after nailing the fundamentals.

If paid ads and broadcast ads are the slam dunk and three-pointer of the marketing world, think of web design and SEO as the dribble and bounce pass of marketing. You would never consider starting with the 3-pointer when coaching an elementary basketball team, especially if most kids couldn’t properly dribble. In the same way, focusing on shiny ad slots and pay-per-click ad campaigns if your website doesn’t load properly is a mistake. SEO and web design tend to be some of the most cost-effective ways of growing your business, so most businesses will see a better ROI by revamping their listing and website before they move on to broadcast advertising. Get the basics down pat and then expand.

Marketing Budget Tip 2: A/B Test & Prioritize High Performers

You’d be surprised how many marketers don’t actually test their ideas out in the “real world.” Eliminating underperforming content, videos, and calls to action from your marketing channels won’t reduce cost, but it can absolutely raise your return on investment, and that’s just as good, in our opinion.

Marketing Budget Tip 3: Repurpose Content

This recommendation comes with a caveat; only repurpose when it makes sense. The ad copy that you use on your website can’t just be copied and pasted onto social media, given how different social media is from the web. Still, there are occasionally use cases where you can repurpose a piece of content from one medium to another. For instance, a well-written blog piece for your website can be truncated down for email marketing in a few minutes and often with great results.

Video marketing is another great example of this. A well-designed and edited promotional video can often be repurposed on web pages, in email blasts, and on social media. If the video is 30 seconds or under, it might not even need editing from one platform to another!

Marketing Budget Tip 4: Start A Refer A Friend Program

Turning to your established customers to help promote your brand is an amazing strategy. For one, it incentivizes you to find and work with your most loyal customers, which is never a bad business strategy. After all, they’re driving the majority of your business, so a little extra time interfacing with happy clients is a good play. In that same vein, asking your clients to promote your brand is often the best form of marketing. Prospective clients are skeptical of marketing materials and often require some form of social proof to commit.

The average American sees over 2,000 ads in a day and that means that you often need to prove that you’re the real deal prior to getting a sale. Asking your clients to refer friends in exchange for a gift card or discounted rate means that your best clients are singing your praises to their friends and family. Since people are statistically likely to trust the recommendation of their friends and families, your Refer-A-Friend program is one of your most effective AND low-cost ways of gaining new business.

Marketing Budget Tip 5: Get Testimonials From Your Existing Clients:

Your current clients are an untapped goldmine of content. If you don’t have unlimited funds, turn to your clients for testimonials! If you’ve built strong and resilient relationships with your clients, they’re more than likely thrilled to share! Their testimonials will resonate with prospective clients more than if you wrote your promotional materials and the best part is that they’re doing the heavy lifting! We would recommend trying to get a video recording of the testimonial if you can. The video may require some basic video editing before promotion, but the personal touch and visualization will have a greater impact on your prospective client. Still, if you can’t get a video for social media or your website, a written review for email marketing, your website, or social media is just fine!

Marketing Budget Tip 6: Only Use Your Funds Strategically

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It was true when your mom told it to you as a child and it’s true now with your marketing budget. If you’re looking to grow your business, you might think that you need to be wherever your customers are. In a perfect world, yes, you’d love to have the dollars to run complementary campaigns on social media, broadcast TV, and in print media. However, if you have a set marketing budget, it often makes more sense to exclude certain mediums and focus on where you see the best results.

We encourage you to keep your industry in mind. For instance, print marketing materials can be a great marketing tactic for a medical specialist’s office looking to gain referrals from primary care practitioners. These properly branded and educational materials are great to leave at a doctor’s office to help build referral marketing streams. That approach, however, might not be conducive for a quick-service restaurant. A restaurant owner will probably be better served investing their funds into web design and SEO. There might not ever be a reason to ever use print marketing to promote a restaurant and that’s fine. If focusing marketing budgets where they’ll have the most impact is working, that’s A-Ok!

This strategic selection paradigm applies to a variety of marketing tactics., from defining your ideal customer profile to the creative design you design. Oftentimes, spending a little more on the right marketing, whether it’s creative, research, or branding, is more effective than developing haphazard marketing. Make sure you’re incorporating time to properly research and plan into every marketing campaign for the best results!

Consult With JSL For Your Marketing Budget Needs

Are you looking for a consultation on how to effectively use your marketing budget? JSL Marketing & Web Design is here for your marketing needs! Your business is unique. Make sure that you’re getting the best, customized marketing strategy to maximize your marketing budget.

We offer a variety of services to help your marketing efforts.

• Market Research: Learn about the competition.
• Budget Recommendations: We offer customized media recommendations to help you make the most of your hard-earned marketing dollars!
• Logo Design: Maximize your brand dress!
• SEO Strategy: Figure out which keywords will help you reach your audience.
• Brand Messaging Advice: Develop the perfect ad copy and brand pitch for your specific audience.

 

Call JSL Marketing & Web Design To Learn More!

Maximizing your marketing dollars can mean the difference between breaking even with your ROI and hitting a 3X ROI! As marketers, we’re always looking to make the most of our marketing budgets without breaking the bank. That is often easier said than done. There are so many different platforms to advertise on and all of them come with their own costs. Even DO-It-Yourself marketing tactics, like planning and shooting your own videos or designing custom social media graphics, often requires paying an editor. As a small business owner, you know you need to spend money on marketing to make money, but you still want to be sure you’re prioritizing the right marketing mediums. Where do you start?

The marketing consultants at JSL Marketing & Web Design have got you covered! Read the rest of this blog post to learn ….

• Which Marketing Mediums To Start With
• How To Decide Where To Spend Money
• What Client Testimonials Can Do For Your Brand
• How To Get Free Word-Of-Mouth Promotion
• And More!

 

Read On To Learn How To Maximize Your Marketing Budget

Marketing Budget Tip 1: Go Back To Basics

If budget wasn’t an issue, it’d be great to run broadcast television ads, paid ad campaigns, and billboard advertising 24/7, 365. However, most of us have marketing budgets to adhere to. It’s not that these marketing tactics aren’t useful. It just means that you have more pressing concerns to deal with and you don’t want to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars.

As a rule, we recommend starting with a functional website, a clean logo, and a properly-optimized Google listing. Most small businesses will see better results if they focus their marketing efforts on web design and local SEO before they start running paid ad campaigns. Again, there is a time for a smaller business to look at utilizing advertising in their marketing plan, but this typically comes after nailing the fundamentals.

If paid ads and broadcast ads are the slam dunk and three-pointer of the marketing world, think of web design and SEO as the dribble and bounce pass of marketing. You would never consider starting with the 3-pointer when coaching an elementary basketball team, especially if most kids couldn’t properly dribble. In the same way, focusing on shiny ad slots and pay-per-click ad campaigns if your website doesn’t load properly is a mistake. SEO and web design tend to be some of the most cost-effective ways of growing your business, so most businesses will see a better ROI by revamping their listing and website before they move on to broadcast advertising. Get the basics down pat and then expand.

Marketing Budget Tip 2: A/B Test & Prioritize High Performers

You’d be surprised how many marketers don’t actually test their ideas out in the “real world.” Eliminating underperforming content, videos, and calls to action from your marketing channels won’t reduce cost, but it can absolutely raise your return on investment, and that’s just as good, in our opinion.

Marketing Budget Tip 3: Repurpose Content

This recommendation comes with a caveat; only repurpose when it makes sense. The ad copy that you use on your website can’t just be copied and pasted onto social media, given how different social media is from the web. Still, there are occasionally use cases where you can repurpose a piece of content from one medium to another. For instance, a well-written blog piece for your website can be truncated down for email marketing in a few minutes and often with great results.

Video marketing is another great example of this. A well-designed and edited promotional video can often be repurposed on web pages, in email blasts, and on social media. If the video is 30 seconds or under, it might not even need editing from one platform to another!

Marketing Budget Tip 4: Start A Refer A Friend Program

Turning to your established customers to help promote your brand is an amazing strategy. For one, it incentivizes you to find and work with your most loyal customers, which is never a bad business strategy. After all, they’re driving the majority of your business, so a little extra time interfacing with happy clients is a good play. In that same vein, asking your clients to promote your brand is often the best form of marketing. Prospective clients are skeptical of marketing materials and often require some form of social proof to commit.

The average American sees over 2,000 ads in a day and that means that you often need to prove that you’re the real deal prior to getting a sale. Asking your clients to refer friends in exchange for a gift card or discounted rate means that your best clients are singing your praises to their friends and family. Since people are statistically likely to trust the recommendation of their friends and families, your Refer-A-Friend program is one of your most effective AND low-cost ways of gaining new business.

Marketing Budget Tip 5: Get Testimonials From Your Existing Clients:

Your current clients are an untapped goldmine of content. If you don’t have unlimited funds, turn to your clients for testimonials! If you’ve built strong and resilient relationships with your clients, they’re more than likely thrilled to share! Their testimonials will resonate with prospective clients more than if you wrote your promotional materials and the best part is that they’re doing the heavy lifting! We would recommend trying to get a video recording of the testimonial if you can. The video may require some basic video editing before promotion, but the personal touch and visualization will have a greater impact on your prospective client. Still, if you can’t get a video for social media or your website, a written review for email marketing, your website, or social media is just fine!

Marketing Budget Tip 6: Only Use Your Funds Strategically

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It was true when your mom told it to you as a child and it’s true now with your marketing budget. If you’re looking to grow your business, you might think that you need to be wherever your customers are. In a perfect world, yes, you’d love to have the dollars to run complementary campaigns on social media, broadcast TV, and in print media. However, if you have a set marketing budget, it often makes more sense to exclude certain mediums and focus on where you see the best results.

We encourage you to keep your industry in mind. For instance, print marketing materials can be a great marketing tactic for a medical specialist’s office looking to gain referrals from primary care practitioners. These properly branded and educational materials are great to leave at a doctor’s office to help build referral marketing streams. That approach, however, might not be conducive for a quick-service restaurant. A restaurant owner will probably be better served investing their funds into web design and SEO. There might not ever be a reason to ever use print marketing to promote a restaurant and that’s fine. If focusing marketing budgets where they’ll have the most impact is working, that’s A-Ok!

This strategic selection paradigm applies to a variety of marketing tactics., from defining your ideal customer profile to the creative design you design. Oftentimes, spending a little more on the right marketing, whether it’s creative, research, or branding, is more effective than developing haphazard marketing. Make sure you’re incorporating time to properly research and plan into every marketing campaign for the best results!

Consult With JSL For Your Marketing Budget Needs

Are you looking for a consultation on how to effectively use your marketing budget? JSL Marketing & Web Design is here for your marketing needs! Your business is unique. Make sure that you’re getting the best, customized marketing strategy to maximize your marketing budget.

We offer a variety of services to help your marketing efforts.

• Market Research: Learn about the competition.
• Budget Recommendations: We offer customized media recommendations to help you make the most of your hard-earned marketing dollars!
• Logo Design: Maximize your brand dress!
• SEO Strategy: Figure out which keywords will help you reach your audience.
• Brand Messaging Advice: Develop the perfect ad copy and brand pitch for your specific audience.

 

Call JSL Marketing & Web Design To Learn More!