Four States Small Business Blog

A CNA (customer needs analysis) is a critical first step to building a good relationship with a media partner, but it’s even more critical to seeing positive ROI across your marketing campaigns. We took a good look at what a CNA is and what it entails in a previous post.

Essentially, a CNA is a business profile that helps media partners understand where your company has been, where your business is now, and where you want to see your brand go in the future. It involves asking questions you should often already have the answers to, and highlight areas where you need help developing better answers. You should expect it to be the first step a new media partner takes because without it, you can’t create a meaningful marketing strategy or achieve the best possible ROI for your efforts.

And now we’ve come to the third and final installment of our series about achieving small business success by generating powerful results with their marketing. As we’ve mentioned, there’s a three-part formula necessary for producing that success, whether it’s for a nationwide advertisement or local Joplin marketing campaign: branding, a business website, and a 21-52 marketing plan. In Part 1, we took a look at branding for small businesses, and in Part 2, we discussed why you need a strong business website.

Advertising is supposed to be a tool, and one that provides clear results for your business. You need to be seeing returns on your investment (ROI) for each of your advertising choices. If you aren’t, then why are you advertising? That’s just a waste of time and resources, not to mention a big waste of money!

Discounts, special promotions, and sales are often a big draw to customers — in fact, two of the top motivating factors for how American consumers choose where to shop are price (81%) and the availability of discounts (71%). But is that what actually drives results? Is that all that keeps customers coming back? In today’s post, we’ll take a look at what drives consistent results, as well as when you should actually be using discounts.

At the end of Q2 2017, Procter & Gamble, the biggest advertiser in the U.S.A., announced that due in part to the fact that it cut back its digital marketing budget by as much as $140 million, it was able to beat earnings expectations. Specifically, despite a slump in consumer spending, P&G reported a 15% rise in all-in net earnings to $2.3 billion, or a percentage point of profit margin, and at least half that gain is a direct impact of cutting its digital advertising budget.

Brand awareness plays a vital role in the success of your small business. But how do you know whether your brand awareness strategy is working? Like every other aspect of your marketing strategy, it’s important to track and measure brand awareness to understand if you’re getting the results you want and maximizing ROI. Tracking brand awareness can be challenging, so in this post, we’ve put together some tips for getting started.

Believe it or not, 18% of small businesses admit that they don’t track any metrics or key performance indicators (KPI) related to their marketing, however, tracking marketing metrics is critical to the success of every marketing campaign, not to mention an overall marketing strategy. That’s because marketing metrics are the only way to know for sure that you’re seeing the results that you need, along with the ROI you want, from each of your marketing efforts. Without them, you have to guess whether you’re reaching your audience effectively, spending your marketing budget on the right channel and tactics, and growing your business. Tracking these metrics provides a history and basis of comparison to ensure you’re improving along the right track.

As a business owner, you understand that digital promotions can be an effective part of your marketing strategy. What may not be as clear is how to make it work. Zimmer is here to help. We’ve put together 6 tips for effectively using digital promotions to grow your business and increase ROI.

Your sales cycle is the period of time from the identification of a lead until you close the sale. Sales cycles vary considerably among different types of businesses, products, and services. Understanding your sales cycle provides a view of the customer’s journey, or buying funnel, and can help you plan your marketing in a way that is both effective and realistic.

Successful marketing ROI doesn’t come with the press of a button or the flip of a switch. It requires careful and strategic planning. It also requires setting realistic marketing ROI expectations that enable you to properly plan and evaluate your campaigns. We’ve written this article to be a quick and simple reference to help you ensure your marketing ROI expectations are realistic and achievable. This should help you better evaluate your marketing strategy and goals.