Four States Small Business Blog

As fall shifts to winter, it’s the time of year where your fireplace may be plenty warm and you’re reflecting on the blessings you’ve received. As a local business for more than 50 years, we have much to be thankful for, and we’re thankful to work with the wonderful Joplin community

If you’re in the business of selling products or services to other businesses, then you’re what’s known as a B2B or Business-to-Business enterprise. Okay, so you already know this. But did you know that radio advertising works great for B2B, too?

Branding is a term that was once reserved for business marketing, but it’s expanded far beyond that now. Celebrities and entrepreneurs have personal brands that are as valuable and powerful as the organizations and companies that fill our marketplace. Recently, however, political branding has taken center stage. Applying brand to a political campaign isn’t actually new, but adapting the corporate terminology that surrounds branding is new in the mainstream. (This is, perhaps, most clearly demonstrated by the film, Our Brand Is Crisis, which centers around two consultants who are, essentially, political marketers.)

Every marketing campaign relies on effective advertising frequency, which is to say, the number of times that a consumer is exposed to an advertisement or brand message per week that’s best at effectively influencing them to respond. It may sound like a magic number, but we know what that number is: a frequency of 3. Hearing an advertisement three times builds recognition and trust while inspiring action without the risk of wearout. In today’s post, we’ll talk about three ways to make the most of the first three times consumers are exposed to your marketing in Joplin, Missouri.

With multiple universities, colleges, technical and trade schools in the area — it can be difficult for schools to stand out and snag student attention in Joplin. Marketing is an important way to help differentiate your school from the rest and ensure potential students are aware of its best qualities and benefits. Of course, this is a time when people, students especially, don’t want a sales pitch.

Advertising is a critical business process and a major investment for businesses of any size. Most businesses understand that an ad campaign will help promote products, raise awareness for special offers and events, and hopefully influence shoppers to choose their brand. However, it’s also critical for both the products and services as well as the brand in terms of differentiation and staying top of mind, influencing consumer perception, and improving retention and recall.

Doing business in Joplin is ideal for quite a few reasons, from demographics to the local government. In fact, Joplin, Missouri was recently ranked #145 on Forbes list of best small places for businesses and careers. That’s because Joplin came in at #139 in job growth, #110 in education, and #91 in cost of doing business.

Thanks to ever-evolving technology, the path to purchase has changed, and the advertising world is always adapting to keep up with it. New channels, platforms, and tools are constantly being developed, giving marketers a truly vast array of options, including some unique ones, like interactive quizzes. These quizzes may not be new, per se, but they’re vastly underrated by most brands as a legitimate way to build engagement and develop leads.

Finding the sweet spot for frequency in your annual radio advertising schedule can be a challenge, but it can affect the success of your radio advertising efforts and campaigns. At Zimmer, we believe that following a 21/52 plan can help you achieve the right balance and bring you success.

As human beings, we tend to jump to conclusions. If we see an uptick in sales, we may assume it’s the result of our advertising. Likewise, if sales are flat or declining, we may conclude that our marketing campaign isn’t working. But in neither case is your marketing necessarily the reason for the results you’re seeing. Here are five ways to know if your advertising is effective.