Four States Small Business Blog

The end of the year is the ideal time to build your marketing plan for the year ahead. After all, having an annual marketing plan offers a high-level view of your marketing program, keeps your marketing team accountable, ensures your budget stays on track and identifies any gaps in your existing strategy.

Seasonal businesses like home improvement may be tempted to ease up on marketing during the off-months, but this can be a mistake. It's very important to remain consistent throughout the year regardless of the activity level of the company. This helps to ensure that people have your business in mind when the time comes to make buying decisions. It also providesseveral other benefits, like building trust and driving customer loyalty.

While the popularity of jingles might have peaked in the 1950s, the radio jingle is still an invaluable marketing tool. Advertisers have not given up on this clever tool by a long shot. Brands like McDonald’s and Nationwide still work to generate the goodwill and nostalgia that jingles, at their very best, have done so well for nearly a century.

For brick-and-mortar businesses, local marketing is an effective way to increase brand awareness and reach new customers in your local community. It’s also one of the best ways for local businesses to capture market share from larger competitors located in other areas. And it’s gaining momentum among marketers, as 58% of senior marketers consider local marketing an essential factor for a business’s profitability and growth.

Zimmer Radio recently partnered with Honor Flight of the Ozarks to help them raise awareness and funds to fly veterans to see their war memorials in Washington, D.C. For the second year in a row, Zimmer hosted the Honor Flight Radiothon fundraiser, which has raised more than $43,000 over the past two years. Management, staff and radio personalities from several Zimmer radio stations helped with the fundraiser.

Marketers use a number of acronyms everyday, but KPI might be one of the most important, right behind ROI. A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric - typically expressed as a numeric value - that indicates the growth, success, or failure of an advertising campaign or individual channel or component.

Earlier this year, we partnered with branding expert Chuck Mefford to teach Four-State businesses how to develop their brand through his revolutionary BrandsFormation workshop. The overwhelming feedback we received from attendees convinced us that we need to make this event available to more businesses in our community, so we're bringing Chuck back for an encore!

Digital advertising isn’t always as simple or straightforward as it may seem. For brands trying to integrate digital for the first time, there’s so many options that it can be overwhelming. And more experienced marketers may want to create an entirely new digital strategy because their current strategy isn’t working. 

There’s a good chance you already have a brand strategy for your farm. You know the types of products and services that you offer, how you differentiate yourself from competitors, and why your farm is uniquely suited to a specific type of consumer. Guess what? You're essentially "branding" your farm! Branding is simply telling a compelling story about your business in a way that interests your core audience.

There’s a good chance that your potential clients have been inspired by Fixer Upper, The Property Brothers, or similar home remodeling shows. They encourage homeowners to step up their “home-improvement game” by taking on small and large renovation projects, and giving them the inspiration they need to tackle their own. But with so many options for home improvement businesses in the Four States Area, how will they choose which is the best partner for their project?