Beyond opening the door, a good introduction email also creates momentum. When it’s tailored to the recipient’s needs or challenges, it signals that the outreach is thoughtful rather than transactional, making it easier to start a meaningful conversation. In competitive markets where inboxes are crowded, a clear, concise, and personalized introduction can be the difference between a missed opportunity and a productive business relationship.

Here are some email ideas that have the highest engagement:

1. Welcome Emails

There’s a moment right after someone signs up for your list where they’re still curious. Still paying attention. Still wondering if they made the right decision.

That moment? It’s the honeymoon period.

And a well-timed, well-crafted welcome email (or even better, a short welcome series) doesn’t just capitalize on that moment – it can become the highest-performing message in your entire program.

Because the welcome email hits when attention, intent, and goodwill are at their peak. Your new subscriber is expecting to hear from you. They want to know what they just signed up for. They’re open to your message … maybe more than they’ll ever be again.

A strong welcome email:

• Delivers immediate value. Not “thanks, here’s our home page” but something that makes the subscriber feel like signing up was the right move.
• Sets expectations. Let them know what’s coming and when they’ll hear from you next.
• Drives action. Uses a clean layout and clear, low-friction CTAs to lay out the path for your reader.

2. Automated Emails Triggered by a Recipient’s Action

If welcome emails are the honeymoon, triggered emails are the “You left your keys on the counter” text that brings someone back before the door fully closes.

These automated sends – things like cart abandonment and browse abandonment emails – aren’t just polite reminders. They’re workhorses. Silent performers. Always-on revenue generators.

And they work because they’re behavior-based. You’re not guessing what the subscriber might be interested in — you know. They told you with their actions.

These types of triggered emails, especially when they’re thoughtfully written, designed with intent, and sent promptly, routinely outperform the rest of the program.

They feel personal. They’re timely. And they’re directly tied to the recipient’s behavior, which makes them incredibly effective.

3. Emails That Offer Value to Readers Without a Purchase

These are my favorite emails. They are the ones that show up with something delightful, informative, or just plain entertaining – and don’t immediately try to sell you something.

I call them value-first emails, and they’re a cornerstone of any long-term nurture strategy.

Instead of pushing a product, you’re offering a moment. A recipe. A puppy video. A quirky holiday tie-in that sparks curiosity or gives your reader a reason to smile.

And that’s the key: They open because they want to. Not because they’re ready to buy, but because you’ve trained them to expect something worthwhile, even when there’s no CTA to download or demo or schedule a call.

These emails are especially useful when:

• You have a long sales cycle.
• The prospect isn’t quite ready to convert.
• You’re trying to build trust (or re-earn it).
• You want to keep deliverability healthy without burning your list.

4. Emails That Adhere to Design Best Practices

Email is a visual medium. Even the ones that feel like plain text. Therefore, it makes sense that how your email looks – including its structure, ease of scanning, and how well the design supports the content – can have a significant impact on engagement.

And yet, too often, design decisions are made based solely on internal opinions or brand aesthetics. Not on what actually drives performance.

Here’s what I’ve learned in 20+ years of optimizing email campaigns: The emails that get the most clicks and the highest engagement overall are the ones that adhere to design best practices.

Not overdesigned. Not fancy for the sake of being fancy. Just clean, clear layouts that make it easy for the reader to absorb your message and act on it.

A few key best practices that consistently drive results:

• Respect the eye path. There’s a natural way we scan content: top to bottom, left to right. The most effective email designs guide the eye through the message logically: logo, headline, subhead, image (if you have one), CTA. If something interrupts that flow, engagement drops.
• Use hierarchy to signal importance. Headlines should look like headlines. Buttons should stand out from the rest of the text. Links should be easy to find and easy to click, even on a mobile device. Don’t make your reader work to figure out what matters.
• Embrace whitespace. It’s not wasted space, it’s breathing room. Cramming every pixel with content makes your message harder to read (and less likely to convert).

If you need help with your company’s marketing, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.

A great newsletter is often money in the bank. IT’S NOT LUCK—that’s all the value of a loyal, trusting audience.

That’s why we’re back exploring the current state of the newsletter landscape: to help you build some of that magic for yourself.

Today, there are over 50,000 newsletters in circulation, from personal content creators sharing their favorite recipes to Fortune 500 brands sending product updates. With low or nonexistent startup costs, all you really need is a keyboard, some ideas, and an email marketing platform to get started.

So, what’s resonating with audiences today?

• LinkedIn, Facebook, and email are the top newsletter channels:

LinkedIn is the most popular channel for newsletters, with 51% using it for distribution.

• 45% of respondents agree newsletter profits will soar in the next year:

25% of respondents saw substantial profit growth from newsletters over the past year, and most expect them to keep growing.

• AI has entered the newsletter production process:

64% of respondents agree that newsletters will be AI-generated by 2030.

• The top revenue channel for newsletters is selling products or services:

30% of respondents earn money through sales of products, services, or memberships advertised in their newsletter.

• Nearly one-third of newsletter pros use them for thought leadership:

30% of respondents use newsletters to express their identities, tastes, and hot takes on their industry or topic of interest.

NOW…use this information to help determine what your business should be considering for 2026!

If you need help with your company’s marketing, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.

Audiences want to connect with brands that are present where they are.

Consumers spend a lot of time online reading, listening, and watching, and they’ve built trust with creators they connect with.

1. Visual Storytelling

The most popular content formats for business-facing and consumer-facing brands are short-form video, followed closely by images. Attention may seem limited, but when consumers are engaged, they’re watching interviews, listening to podcasts, and tuning into live-streamed videos from brands and creators they find valuable and entertaining.

The content formats that marketers say deliver the highest ROI are short-form video (21%), images (19%), and live-streamed videos (16%)…and marketers plan to invest more in these channels.

2. Podcast And Audio Content

Podcasts have become an influential format for people across all ages and stages in life. They’re a unique mix of education, inspiration, and casual listening, where subscribers get to know the hosts and look forward to new episodes week after week.

Approximately 100 million Americans listen to podcasts weekly, and as of 2025, podcast listening had reached an all-time high. The average adult, across all generations, listens to around eight hours of podcasts each week.

And not only are podcasts popular, but they’re also influential. 46% of weekly podcast listeners have purchased a product or service after hearing about it on a podcast.

3. YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok

In 2025, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube will remain strong for both B2B and B2C brands. B2B marketers plan to invest more in LinkedIn, and B2C marketers in TikTok, reflecting how shoppers research new products and services personally and professionally. 

Marketers will have to find ways to overcome their biggest challenges to reach their social goals in 2026. For both business-facing and consumer-facing marketing teams, the top challenge is keeping up with trends. B2B marketers are also having trouble reaching their target audience, and B2C marketers want to gain and keep followers.

4. Influencer Marketing

In 2025, 24% of marketers reported using influencer marketing, and both B2B and B2C brands found the most success with micro influencers with 10K – 100K followers.

Working with smaller creators and influencers has allowed brands to build trust with new audiences, gain access to niche, tight-knit communities, and stretch their influencer marketing budget further.

Marketers report seeing the highest ROI from influencers on 1) Facebook (28%), 2) Instagram (22%), and 3) YouTube (12%), and brands most commonly spend 50-74% of their marketing budget on influencers or content creators.

But, will the brand-influencer partnership trend continue, or evolve? 86% of surveyed leaders believe it’s likely that AI-generated influencers or social media avatars will replace influencers in the near future.

NOW…use this information to help determine what your business should be considering for 2026!

If you need help with your company’s marketing, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.

Marketing is a critical component of any company‘s long-term success, and it’s always changing. This can make it difficult to keep up with the latest strategies marketing leaders are using to stay ahead.

The most effective marketers know how to use techniques to connect and convert prospects — but you shouldn’t need to reinvent the wheel to do so.

1.  Never forget inbound marketing:  Inbound marketing centers around meeting consumers on the channels they’re already on. Employing the strategy follows the “attract, delight, engage” model, helping you create content tailored to your different audience segments at their respective place in the buyer’s journey.

2. Integrate inbound marketing tactics to build an online community and empower your employees: By encouraging your team to document and share their processes and customer interactions, you not only see a significant increase in traffic but also enhanced internal understanding and communication.

This practice goes beyond mere marketing tactics; it‘s about embedding these strategies into your cultural DNA. It empowers your staff, gives them deeper insights into your operations, and significantly boosts your online presence.

By transforming these authentic experiences into engaging content for blogs, social media, and press releases, you’re not just attracting an audience — you’re building a community around the brand. This holistic approach has been a game-changer in how to connect with your customers and position yourselves in the industry.

3. Double-down on understanding where your audience spends their time:  You need to identify how someone is going to find you. Therefore, my top tip is to double-down on understanding your audience and where they spend their time.

Digital channels are saturated, and content gets washed away quickly. Using a multichannel approach that surrounds your target is essential. Utilize digital alongside traditional mediums such as print, events, and direct mail to reach your target through a combination of inbound and outbound methods.

4. Be active on LinkedIn:Not just using your company’s LinkedIn account, but your personal profile and the personal profiles of company leaders, as well.

Post regularly (but not too much) and cross-promote with your company, colleagues, and partners to help build brand awareness.

According to LinkedIn, B2B marketers rate LinkedIn as the most effective platform for content marketing, with 94% using it to distribute content.

5. Don’t just put out fluff content – put out content that educates your audience and answers their questions thoroughly: A top tip for inbound marketing success — regardless of what industry your company is in — is to answer the questions that your audience is asking, even if they’re not questions that anyone in your industry really wants to answer.

That means providing content on things like pros and cons, comparisons with competitors, pricing, issues, alternatives, industry education, product education, expectations, and more. That is the kind of content that converts.

The companies that will continue to be successful with inbound marketing are the ones that don‘t just put out fluff content (and there is A LOT of fluff content out there). You need to put out valuable content that helps to educate your audience — even around topics that your industry avoids.

6. Collect as much information about your ideal buyer as you can: Inbound marketing is more than just a single tactic, strategy, or channel. It‘s marketing that’s centered around your buyer. So, take a step back from the detail and understand your buyer’s preferences.

A foundational understanding of how your potential customers purchase should underpin everything you do. Without it, you could be wasting marketing efforts and budget on things that don’t engage your audience.

So, to get that crucial information you need to either conduct or obtain qualitative and quantitative insights from your ideal buyer.

7.  Focus on the 3 M’s: Market, Message, and Media: Focus on the 3M‘s…your Market, your Message and your Media. Fancy ways of talking about these three pillars of marketing often make some people lose sight of them.

Essentially, they’re the absolute bread and butter of any strategic communications. The big difference today is that your target audience is increasingly difficult to pin down, and it‘s tougher than ever to successfully compete for people’s attention. Plus, media channels frequently feel saturated.

The best way — and the only way — I know to navigate these challenges is to treat your marketing campaigns and activities with the rigorous project management they deserve. From inception and ideation to delivery and evaluation, be bold, persistent, critical, and creative in how you navigate this simple 3M formula.

If you need help with your company’s Marketing, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.Creating a SWOT analysis is an important strategic exercise. It gives everyone involved a clear picture of the environment your business is working in and how it is doing within it.

It’s like a quick therapy or wellness check-up for business. You see where you’re at and perhaps even get to vent a bit before taking steps to improve things.

Business Initiatives: What is your marketing team working on? What do you want to work on?

Document them in your marketing plan under business initiatives. This section sets the tone for the rest of the document and its strategies.

Be careful not to get bogged down by big-picture company initiatives (i.e., opening a new location in X city or recruiting new talent via the Y platform), which you’d normally find in a business plan.

This section should outline the projects specific to marketing. You‘ll also describe those projects’ goals, which will be measured.

Target Market: Next, consider your target market, or the audience you are trying to reach with your marketing messages. This includes your industries and buyer personas.

Competitive Analysis: Your buyer persona has choices regarding solving their problems, the types of solutions they consider, and the providers that can administer those solutions.

A competitive analysis will detail the companies or brands you’re up against, which should be considered in your marketing strategies.

Consider who your competition is, what they do well, and where the gaps are that you can fill. 

Market Strategy: I know what you’re thinking, isn’t this whole plan our marketing strategy? And you’re right to a degree, but this section focuses more on outlining what a brand needs established to go to market.

The market strategy in your marketing plan is where all the pieces come together. Your market strategy describes how your company should present itself in the market, keeping in mind its SWOT, competitors, consumers, and goals.

Budget: When I created my first marketing plan, I confused the marketing budget section with my product’s price and other financials. 

This section describes how much money the business has allotted for the marketing team to pursue the initiatives and goals outlined in the elements above.

Marketing Channels: Your marketing plan should also include a list of your marketing channels.

While your company might sell the product using certain ad space, your marketing channels are where you’ll publish the content. This content educates your buyers, generates leads, and spreads brand awareness.

A marketing plan is crucial to your greater marketing results, but don’t let this importance intimidate you.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just getting started, with all of the marketing plan templates, examples, and advice shared, you have everything you need to set your marketing planning process up for success.

If you need help with getting your marketing updated with the latest trends, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.

A marketing plan is a roadmap that businesses use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period.

What Your Marketing Plan Should Include:

SWOT Analysis: Your marketing plan’s business summary should include a SWOT analysis. This summarizes your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT).

Creating a SWOT analysis is an important strategic exercise. It gives everyone involved a clear picture of the environment your business is working in and how it is doing within it.

It’s like a quick therapy or wellness check-up for business. You see where you’re at and perhaps even get to vent a bit before taking steps to improve things.

Business Initiatives: What is your marketing team working on? What do you want to work on?

Document them in your marketing plan under business initiatives. This section sets the tone for the rest of the document and its strategies.

Be careful not to get bogged down by big-picture company initiatives (i.e., opening a new location in X city or recruiting new talent via the Y platform), which you’d normally find in a business plan.

This section should outline the projects specific to marketing. You‘ll also describe those projects’ goals, which will be measured.

Target Market: Next, consider your target market, or the audience you are trying to reach with your marketing messages. This includes your industries and buyer personas.

Competitive Analysis: Your buyer persona has choices regarding solving their problems, the types of solutions they consider, and the providers that can administer those solutions.

A competitive analysis will detail the companies or brands you’re up against, which should be considered in your marketing strategies.

Consider who your competition is, what they do well, and where the gaps are that you can fill. 

Market Strategy: I know what you’re thinking, isn’t this whole plan our marketing strategy? And you’re right to a degree, but this section focuses more on outlining what a brand needs established to go to market.

The market strategy in your marketing plan is where all the pieces come together. Your market strategy describes how your company should present itself in the market, keeping in mind its SWOT, competitors, consumers, and goals.

Budget: When I created my first marketing plan, I confused the marketing budget section with my product’s price and other financials. 

This section describes how much money the business has allotted for the marketing team to pursue the initiatives and goals outlined in the elements above.

Marketing Channels: Your marketing plan should also include a list of your marketing channels.

While your company might sell the product using certain ad space, your marketing channels are where you’ll publish the content. This content educates your buyers, generates leads, and spreads brand awareness.

A marketing plan is crucial to your greater marketing results, but don’t let this importance intimidate you.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just getting started, with all of the marketing plan templates, examples, and advice shared, you have everything you need to set your marketing planning process up for success.

If you need help with getting your marketing updated with the latest trends, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.

DIFFERENCE:

Sales and marketing are both critical business functions that impact lead generation and revenue. But how do they differ? The term “sales” refers to all activities that lead to the selling of goods and services, while “marketing” is the process of getting people interested in those goods and services.

Sales includes all of the activities that lead directly to a sale. Salespeople are responsible for managing relationships with potential clients, or prospects, as well as providing solutions that eventually lead those prospects to turn into paying customers.

In contrast, marketing encompasses all of the activities that help spark interest in your business. Marketers use market research and analysis to understand who their potential customers are and what they care about, and they run campaigns to attract people to their business’s brand, product, or service.

A helpful analogy: Marketing and sales are like siblings with the same goal: helping a company succeed. But just like siblings, they have their own distinct personalities and roles to play.

PLANNING:

Both marketing and sales plans typically start with an overview of the company’s history and its overarching goals and initiatives. However, that’s where the similarities end.

After this basic information, a marketing plan lays out what the product is, its price, who it’ll be sold to, and where it will be sold. This is also known as the 4Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. Goals are set, marketing channels are chosen, and a budget is defined for the various campaigns that the marketing team plans to pursue.

In contrast, sales plans include details about the sales process, team structure, target market, and goals, as well as the action plan, tools, and resources that will be used to hit these targets.

GOALS:

Similarly, while the high-level goal of both sales and marketing is to generate revenue, the two departments pursue different specific goals in light of that larger objective.

The primary goal of marketing is to promote the company, offering, and brand. Marketing departments are responsible for pricing their company’s products and communicating how these products address customers’ needs and wants. These goals are often fairly long-term, as marketing campaigns can span many months or even years.

Sales, on the other hand, is focused on hitting shorter-term quotas and sales volume goals. Sales goals are often measured month-over-month, with sales leaders defining targets and calculating how much their department, team, and/or individual salespeople need to sell to meet corporate goals.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SALES AND MARKETING WORKING TOGETHER:

Clearly, there are many differences between marketing and sales. But that doesn’t mean that the two shouldn’t work together.

To the contrary, it is important to ensure that sales and marketing are aligned in service of common business goals. When these two departments work together, qualified leads improve and revenue soars. You experience a cohesive approach that drives success.

In other words, making sure that sales and marketing are aligned is critical for any organization to succeed. But what does this look like in practice? It means defining all the different processes, goals, tools, and strategies that each department will pursue — and then taking steps to address any conflicts or inconsistencies.

You can do this by making sure you are aligned with a contract that establishes a set of deliverables that one party has agreed to provide another, making it one of the best ways for disconnected marketing and sales departments to come together into a fruitful partnership.

This offers a framework for both departments to define their shared goals, identify their buyer personas or ideal client profile, and standardize lead definitions. It also sets a protocol for lead management, and it outlines how sales and marketing performance will be measured.

If you need help with getting your marketing updated with the latest trends, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.

Every few years, a new channel takes center stage — short-form video, podcasting, or AI-generated content — and people start asking the same question: “Are blogs dead?”

It’s a fair question. After all, platforms evolve and audience habits shift. But the idea that blogs are irrelevant today? That’s a myth I was eager to investigate.

WELL?

According to marketers, not even close!

Blogs aren’t just alive — they’re evolving. Half of marketers say they saw better ROI from blogging in 2024 than the year before. And nearly half plan to invest even more in 2025.

But the way we blog is changing fast. Over 90% of marketers now use AI tools somewhere in their workflow, and Google’s AI Overviews are already reshaping how — and if — blog content gets discovered.

The bar is higher than it’s ever been, but the payoff is still there for those willing to meet it.

THE FACTS:

• 65% of marketers work for companies that maintain blogs, and most publish content multiple times a week. 
• Even more telling, 93% of marketers say blogging is important — or very important — to their strategy.
• And when it comes to budget? Nearly three-quarters of marketers put more than 10% of their marketing spend into blogs. That kind of investment speaks volumes.
• The global picture backs it up, too. There are now over 600 million blogs worldwide, contributing to more than 7 million posts published every day. That’s a lot of words — and a lot of opportunity.
• Owning a website and ranking on Google is one of the best long-term marketing strategies. Starting a blog is the easiest marketing strategy in 2025.

Still, blogging today isn’t what it was five or ten years ago. It’s not enough to just have a blog nowadays. You need to consistently create content that is more valuable than your competition’s content. You need to be an SEO expert to get your articles ranking on page one of Google, and you need a distribution strategy to promote your content across all the channels your audience likes to consume content on.

Hitting publish and hoping for the best doesn’t cut it anymore. To get real results, you need to invest in quality, distribution, and long-term strategy.

And in a landscape where AI-generated content is everywhere, being the “best result” means creating something original, helpful, and worth trusting. 

So sure — it takes more work to stand out. But if you’re willing to put in the effort, the payoff is definitely still there, and worth it.

BLOGGING IS FAR FROM DEAD:

Here’s the bottom line: Not every marketing tactic works for every brand, but blogs aren’t going anywhere. They’re still one of the most effective ways to build trust, drive traffic, and capture leads over time. They’ve evolved, yes. They’re harder to win with, sure. But they’re far from dead.

If you need help with getting your marketing updated with the latest trends, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.

Content marketing is not new. The ideas have been around for decades. At this point, no business professional is unfamiliar with a blog, search engine traffic, or social media.

The problem is that too many people have misunderstood the true purpose of content marketing — and have missed the mark in their past efforts.

Go to most companies’ blogs, and you’ll often find fluffy, self-serving content: Pictures from their clean-up day at the local park, press release-style articles about promotions, and employee-of-the-month winners.

Or, it’s filled with content that feels derivative and identical to a thousand other articles on the internet.

It is no surprise to me that this kind of content has failed to bring in customers.

HERE ARE A FEW CONTENT MARKETING MISTAKES:

MAKING IRRELEVANT CONTENT:
If you can’t draw a clear line between the content you create and one of your paid products, then your content marketing efforts will be wasted. Or, at a minimum, they won’t reach their potential.

After analyzing hundreds of blog posts from brands, I’ve observed that many businesses treat their website content like a parking garage for random content ideas:

• Miscellaneous business updates that aren’t important to viewers.
• Bragging about company culture or philanthropic work.
• Random promotional content and sale announcements.

When you’re creating content, every single piece of content needs to lead directly back to:

1. Email opt-ins and free products.
2. Industry thought leadership.
3. Products and services.
4. Lead generation.

ALWAYS PLAYING IT SAFE:
Content marketing is about educating your customers, building trust, and being transparent so that your potential buyers can access the information they need to become customers.

You have to offer honesty instead of a sales pitch, which means you need to sometimes address thorny subjects and answer hard questions.

Hiding things like the prices or drawbacks of your product will make it impossible for customers to have total clarity before purchasing. Your target audience is asking these questions, so it’s productive to create content with the answers.

Good content marketing helps viewers decide if your product can help them, which means content that helps people opt in and opt out of your offer.

NO CONTENT FRAMEWORK:
Without a plan, your content strategy probably isn’t going to get very far. A good content marketing framework gives you:

1. Goals.
2. Structure.
3. Benchmarks.

Without it, you’ve got guesswork and inconsistency, which can quickly lead to frustration.

INVEST IN YOUR CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY:
Ready to increase brand awareness, reach more potential customers, and maximize your content marketing efforts? Here’s a blueprint for your content strategy:

1. Define your target audience.
2. Choose your marketing channels.
3. Start posting content.
4. Measure progress.
5. Review the analytics.
6. Double down on what’s getting results.
7. Continue creating the most compelling content that you can.

THE PROMISE OF CONTENT MARKETING:

These are just a few of the biggest mistakes that I see brands making with their content marketing. Pay attention the next time you open a promotional email or scroll on social media, and I bet you’ll start to see these mistakes out in the wild, too.

Brands get started in content marketing for a variety of reasons, but in most cases, the goal is to drive revenue. Brand recognition is great, but it needs to translate into sales at the other end of the funnel.

In order to get content marketing right, we need to re-acquaint ourselves with the real objectives that matter, train our employees for excellence, and be ready for a long-term commitment.

If you need help with getting your marketing updated with the latest trends, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.

Marketing is more likely to succeed when it’s based on a strategy. Your brand strategy can change depending on the channel, audience, and key performance indicator (KPI) you’d like to achieve, but core principles of branding should carry through from one campaign strategy to the next.

Laying the groundwork early is crucial to the success of your brand’s marketing. Without knowing your foundational beliefs, your messaging and designs will often be based on examples from others, or on unsubstantiated guesswork. That lack of clarity can make any marketing effort more likely to under-perform.

Consider the questions below:

What is your brand’s mission?

What are your values?

Who is your audience?

What is your brand’s story?

What goals do you want to achieve?

What is the promise you make to your audience?

What is the unique value that only your brand can deliver?

By answering these questions, you can form your brand’s foundation and begin building an identity with confidence.

Your mission is the reason your brand exists. It’s why you created your small business or joined your team in the first place—and it’s the reason you continue to roll up your sleeves and put in the work. As you look for opportunities to scale and reach new customers, your brand’s mission is the objective you set out to accomplish—and the action it takes to achieve that objective.

Your brand values are the ideals that consistently guide your brand’s actions— no matter what future direction your brand may take. Values often stem from goodwill efforts to make an impact and improve the customer’s overall well-being. Brands often have three or more values that guide them.

Your audience is the group—or groups—of people you aim to serve with your brand’s offerings. If your brand offers more than one product or service, you will likely have multiple audiences to target.

Your brand is your company’s identity.  It not only is what makes a memorable impression on consumers but it allows your customers and clients to know what to expect from your company. It is a way of distinguishing yourself from the competitors and clarifying what it is you offer that makes you the better choice.

So make sure your branding is a perfect reflection of what your company stands for.  Leave it to the experts at Areca Marketing, LLC to help you make the right impression, the first time!

If you need help with getting your marketing updated with the latest trends, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.

In this article, we’ll cover the pros and cons of hiring an agency versus doing marketing yourself, and give you an idea of the cost differences as you consider both options.

Let’s talk about the benefits and drawbacks of both doing it yourself and hiring an agency.

Doing Marketing Yourself: Pros

• You have complete control over every aspect of the process. You control the voice, the tone, and the style of your campaigns. You have oversight of all steps in the process, as they happen (not when they are complete). This means you can always change the strategies or direction of the campaign anytime you want to. You can make decisions more agilely because the communication chain is shorter.
• You have access to every piece of your marketing process. While using an agency, you won’t have access to every tactic or process, because some partners choose to hide some of their marketing techniques. Otherwise, what would you pay them for? The point is that they save you the headache of thinking about marketing processes.

Doing Marketing Yourself: Cons

• It takes time to understand and master the moving parts of a marketing campaign. There is a learning curve that requires a time investment, as well as a period of trial and error.
• You are limited by your knowledge and experience of marketing. You may neglect other areas of your business because of the significant time and energy required in marketing.
• It may take longer to get results compared to when you’re using a marketing agency. Agencies are more knowledgeable, and they’ll have at least two to three people working on your campaigns. For that reason, you’ll see results more quickly.

Now let’s take a look at some pros and cons of hiring an agency.

Hiring an Agency: Pros

• You get a team of specialized experts working on your behalf. You don’t have to go through the headache of hiring an all-star marketing team; the agency will provide that for you. Plus, your in-house marketing team may learn a thing or two from the marketing agency.
• You’ll see results quickly. Hiring an agency saves you time because it already has a system in place that they’ve used to get results for other clients.
• You get more time to do actual revenue-generating activities. Marketing is a long game. By delegating marketing, you get to focus on the more crucial and immediately beneficial parts of your business.
• You’ll see better results. Marketing agencies have access to valuable tools and resources, which increases your chances of getting better results. Additionally, it may cost you thousands of dollars if you decide to purchase these tools.

Hiring an Agency: Cons

• Digital marketing agencies aren’t as agile. It may take longer to make decisions because of the long chain of communication.
• Agencies are costly. Hiring an agency can be a significant monthly expense.
• You don’t have much control in the marketing process. For example, you just can’t decide to change or terminate the process overnight.
• You run the risk of the relationship not working out. This can cost you significant amounts of time and money.

What does it cost to hire an agency for marketing?

Every marketing campaign is different depending on the service or product being promoted. 

Putting together a one-month marketing campaign will require that you put in over 40 hours of work in-house, or spend close to $6000 to hire an agency to do it. Remember that in-house marketing teams may not have the necessary expertise to undertake some of these tasks. You should take into account hours of research and training for your team members, which will elongate the process.

You now have a good sense of what you can and cannot sustain and what you need to meet your performance goals. Trust your intuition and know that any decision you make can be changed to reach and exceed your marketing objectives.

If you need help with getting your marketing updated with the latest trends, give us a call.  We work with your business to make sure you are utilizing the resources and tools to head into the future of innovation! 

Check out our RESOURCES and BLOG pages for articles and papers on various marketing techniques and processes.  Learn how we can help you with your marketing efforts.