Four States Small Business Blog

Branding is NOT Marketing: Getting to the Heart of Your Business

Posted by Mark Zimmer on October 10, 2017 at 8:00 AM

You know something about marketing, but want to learn more—that’s why you’re visiting this site and reading tips shared by some of the best Joplin marketing pros. But when discussing marketing efforts, you definitely don’t want to leave the importance of branding out of the conversation.

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Topics: Marketing Strategy

3 Reasons Why Local Politicians Need Great Websites

Posted by Pam Larimore on October 5, 2017 at 8:00 AM

A big challenge for any local politician is staying in touch with the community. You gained their support to get elected, but now that you’re in office, it’s not possible for you to go out and shake each and every hand like when you were on the campaign trail.

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Topics: Integrated Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior, Government

Your Logo is NOT Your Brand

Posted by Pam Larimore on October 3, 2017 at 8:00 AM

Sometimes companies make the mistake of thinking, if they have a great company logo, they’ve done all they need to do in terms of branding. Your logo represents your brand, but it is not, in fact, your brand. In this post, we’ll discuss what your brand is, why it’s important, and why having a good logo is not enough.

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Topics: Marketing Strategy

Why Branding Is Critical During a Political Campaign

Posted by Mark Zimmer on September 28, 2017 at 8:00 AM

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.)

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Topics: Marketing Strategy, Joplin Market, Government

Why Procter & Gamble Had to Cut Its Digital Budget: Trendy Tools Don’t Mean Winning Results

Posted by Chad Elliot on September 26, 2017 at 8:00 AM

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.

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Topics: Radio Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Marketing ROI, Digital Marketing

How Your Hospital Can Use Radio to Boost Marketing ROI

Posted by Chad Elliot on September 21, 2017 at 8:00 AM

When it comes to marketing healthcare, radio might not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, 2017 is a great year for healthcare brands, practitioners, and hospitals to consider marketing themselves on the radio.

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Topics: Radio Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Health/Medical

Can You Really Track Brand Awareness?

Posted by Mark Zimmer on September 19, 2017 at 8:00 AM

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.

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Topics: Small Business Resources, Marketing Strategy, Marketing ROI

How to Get New Visitors to Your Casino, and Keep Them Coming Back

Posted by Mark Zimmer on September 13, 2017 at 8:00 AM

There’s something fun and exhilarating about visiting a casino for Americans. In fact, Americans spend much more on casino visits than they do on movie visits, and an annual $59 billion dollars are spent at casinos across the country.

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Topics: Integrated Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior, Casinos

9 Marketing Metrics to Track Year After Year

Posted by Pam Larimore on September 7, 2017 at 8:00 AM

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.

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Topics: Marketing Strategy, Marketing ROI

Frequency of 3 and How It Works

Posted by Mark Zimmer on September 5, 2017 at 8:00 AM

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.

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Topics: Radio Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Joplin Market