Four States Small Business Blog

Whether you are being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic or some other unexpected situation, your business can remain relevant and profitable. You can still be successful. You just need to be sure to utilize the tried and true approaches known to work. 

Check out these seven ways your business can survive when you are dealing with uncertain times. These are suggestions all Joplin business owners should take to heart. 

Welcome to the second installment of our B2B marketing best practices blog. With the first article, we introduced ideas like thoughtful buyer personas, the buyers journey and marketing funnels and how to use them, and the value of local SEO here in Joplin, MO.  

Twenty years ago, B2B marketing meant cold calls and constant prospecting. It was a long and costly process. But the advance of the internet has changed how businesses market to each other, and thank goodness for that! 

If you are researching the best advertising method for your company, you may have seen arguments that promote digital marketing.  Many articles claim that digital marketing is a better way to advertise because it is cheaper than traditional marketing and provides more measurables.  

When developing a three-month marketing budget, you might think it's better to advertise on as many channels as possible.  However, this tends to be ineffective. Many advertisers end up wasting money on marketing channels or advertisements that have little to no impact on branding or sales.  Others waste money by spreading themselves too thin in a single quarter.

Many company leaders tend to view a marketing budget as a discretionary item, liable to cuts as needed. However, such a viewpoint is ultimately self-defeating. The reality is that a marketing budget is an investment that can yield rich dividends in the near future and in the long term.

When calculating a brand's value, one of the most important metrics is awareness. While most businesses are concerned about raising brand awareness, not everyone realizes that there are different levels of awareness. The most important distinction is between top of mind (or unaided) vs. aided awareness. In order to identify these differences in awareness, you need to ask certain questions. There can be dramatic differences in the results produced from different types of awareness. In one study of car purchasing behavior, a Nielsen study found that top-of-mind awareness drives 90% of purchasing intent. 

Have you ever noticed that some brand campaign efforts focus less on selling a product or service, and more on building a positive awareness and perception of the brand? This is known as brand awareness, and it is a powerful marketing tool. Why? Because people who are ready to make a purchase will turn to the brand that readily comes to mind first.

When it comes to building your brand, the process is not all that different from building a house. 

A call to action, or CTA, tells the reader on your website what you want them to do. CTA buttons are buttons that the reader can click that will direct them towards your conversion goal, whether it is a purchase or a subscription or something else.