How do I choose the right Marketing company?

An image of a group of people working together.

Choosing the right Marketing company is a very difficult decision and I would say that you have to do your homework and due diligence. You would think that you need to find a company that has worked with your product before. A company that has had success in your product line before or a company that knows your product. This thought is both right and wrong in my opinion. I know some great Marketing companies that do a very good job that do have verticals. They do the same thing with the same type of company and they have had great success with that model. I also have know some great marketing companies that concentrate on only one client in any specific industry or vertical. I have worked with both types of companies and they both have given me success in one form or another.

What I suggest is go with a company you trust. Interview all options and go with the person that you feel is truly going to give you the best bang for your buck. There are 5 simple questions that you should ask a marketing company.

What Key performance indicators do you measure?
Key performance indicators are one of the most important measurements to know that your Marketing Company is working hard for you. Depending on which Marketing avenue they are doing it could be calls, clicks to a site, conversions, impressions, views, or many other things depending on if it is Traditional or Non-Traditional based advertising.

How do you evaluate your success with my business?
A Marketing company must be able to track what is happening with your account. It is
very difficult sometimes to track everything however ultimately a Cost Per lead should be
established and evaluated on a regular basis.

Who will be working on my account?
Most times it is not the Account Executive that will actually be handling the day to day of your account. So find out who the manager is and what their experience is.

What marketing medium do you favor?
There are many different kinds of Marketing companies. Some specialize on Digital Marketing, some on website design and other on traditional avenues. A great company can work with all of them so you can get one Fantastic overall plan.

What do you know about my company?
Ultimately this all comes down to trust. Do I trust you with my money to spend in the advertising world? Therefor any good Marketing company is going to do some research on your company before they get there. They may even give you reports or a synopsis of what they found or how they found you. If they don’t then how do they even know they can help you?

After all this you will have a feeling of trust with the company that you choose. Ultimately that is what you need. A Marketing company that you choose should be a will be a major part of your team.

It’s Time to Start Thinking about Budgeting

This is vector art of a content marketing strategist.

It is the middle of August and it seems very strange to be thinking about 2018. You are still finishing up vacations and the kids are on their way back to school. The question is how long do you want to wait? In today’s business world marketing budgets take longer to prepare, especially when Content Marketing is the largest growth possibility in 2018. If your business is grossing  more than 5 million in revenue, according to the Small Business Association, your company should be spending 8% to 10% of the total gross revenue in order to grow. If less than $5 million in gross revenue, a company should be spending 10% to 12%. It is further suggested that in 2018 a company spends ⅓ of this on Digital and ⅔ on traditional marketing avenues.

 

The real question is how do you use it? Where do you spend it? What do you spend it on? The answer is Content Marketing! I know what you are thinking, “You are nuts, that is against all marketing principles and that puts all of my eggs in one basket.” I would agree with you unless we are talking about Content Marketing.   

 

Content Marketing is a marketing art that combines both Traditional marketing and non-traditional marketing. I like to explain it as a spider web, You have your Mooring threads, these we would explain as Traditional and non-traditional marketing, these connect to your anchor point which is your business. Your frame threads are your different avenues, TV, Radio, Newspaper, social media, digital advertising and many other avenues. Your radials are your different possibilities in your categories which include items like ABC, CBS, Facebook, Instagram, Journal Sentinel, google in our local Milwaukee market. Finally you have the most important element and that is the Viscid thread. The Viscid thread ties it all together and create the foundation for the success of the web. That is the part that creates the personal touch for the consumer all leading them to the Hub of the web which is your website, your location, a phone call or email.

 

Imagine you are watching TV. Then you see an ad that shows you what is possible with a certain laundry detergent. Then you look on Youtube and see a different story for the same company that shows the same story in a different way. Then you look on Facebook and see an ad for the same product telling the story of the Laundry detergent. Now imagine you are in the store trying to pick out a laundry detergent. You are most likely to relate to the story they provided and get the detergent that you saw in all those advertisements. That is Content Marketing!

 

We believe that “Your success is our Success” It is what makes us different. It is what makes us Paragon.