Marketing is a critical component of business success, especially small businesses. Small business owners are typically experts in their field, who were brave enough to step out on their own. As a small business owner, most take on multiple roles in the beginning. They focus on their expertise and the service they provide to their customers (what they’re great at)… they also find that their responsibilities include: administrative duties; billing/invoicing; payroll/HR; property developer — and marketing. It’s challenging, exhausting, totally rewarding, and A LOT of work! (I understand this myself as a small business owner.)
Eventually, small business owners grow their business. They hire administrative professionals, HR, and other providers who help their growing business. So, why do most stop at hiring marketing professionals? Maybe some have experience with the ‘all-in-one’ online presence/SEO expert who made big promises but underdelivered. Or, maybe the Owner found ways to educate themselves and a little free time to do pieces on their own like online posts, advertisements, websites, etc. Or, it could be the fear of the unknown results and what it will take to realize true results for their organization. It could even be a result of good business… ‘business is great, why should I bother?’
Owners are capable of finding ways to market themselves through self-taught marketing tasks or investing in a few dollars’ in advertisements, but they’re missing the key element of looking at their business strategically. This is where a good marketing consultant partner can help provide guidance and direction! A marketing consultant can help business development strategies and marketing plans to help guide the owner to make the best decisions with their marketing dollars. Ultimately getting more bang for their buck!
Effective marketing planning leads to budget considerations, client-specific marketing campaigns, and various tasks that are geared toward generating results for the business and, ultimately, the bottom line. A good marketing consultant partner can demonstrate not just tasks and actions to create company awareness, but the results they set out to achieve, typically demonstrated through ROI (Return on Investment) reporting.
By investing in a marketing consultant partner for your organization, you can step back and get a broader perspective of your business. Working with a marketing consultant, they will create a blueprint, of sorts, to follow. A marketing ‘blueprint’ which is specific to your business that helps you analyze and understand the following:
– Who you are as an organization and who you want to become.
– What elements lie within your strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats that can benefit you and your clients
– Who your competitors are and why
– Who your target audience is, their demographics, and where to find them
– What business and marketing goals your organization would like to achieve
– How to generate a budget for marketing and business development
– What strategies or campaigns can be created to help you achieve your set goals
This ‘blueprint’ is a living/breathing plan that gives the owner and the consultant a way to remain focused on the goals and the defined tasks. It becomes an easy-to-reference guide which covers the following, the blueprint:
– Reminds the owner of their best opportunities for business growth
– Helps you keep on budget
– Establishes marketing tasks and timelines
– Measures success
To help settle any fear, a good marketing consultant partner should provide scheduled feedback on the success of various activities. One way that Pixels and Ink Studio provide this is through generating quarterly or bi-annual ‘Return on Investment’ (ROI) reports. This document shares specific details for marketing tasks performed, including Google Analytics, social media, and online analytics, mailer/advertisement campaign (both digital and physical) measurements to help owners feel confident about their investment.
So, the short and sweet answer is… a strategic approach to marketing can prove fruitful for your organization. By hiring marketing consultant partners, like Pixels and Ink Studio, we have the knowledge to help develop your specific ‘blueprint’ that will help you: set goals for your organization, create a marketing/advertisement budget and set a plan for marketing success. All while providing reports that demonstrate the return on your investment, and – ultimately, free up more time for you to focus on what you do best.
