7 Signs You Need A Strategic Marketing Consultant

Marketing, Strategy

7 Signs You Need A Strategic Marketing Consultant

When starting your own business, you tend to wear all the hats for a while. If your business was a TV show, the opening credits would look something like this:

  • CEO, starring you
  • Human Resources, starring you
  • Finance, starring you
  • Marketing, starring you

However, there comes a point in time when you’ll need to bring some guest stars to your show. Outside help will help bring your company to the next level, especially around marketing strategy.

But when is the best time to bring in marketing support? We broke down the top 7 signs you need a marketing strategy consultant to help get you started.

 

You’re stuck in the mud

When a business becomes stagnant, it may be time to call in a marketing pro. Sure, whatever you’ve done for marketing in the past may have worked for you. You might have even seen steady growth in sales based on doing things the way you always have. But what happens when your growth hits a plateau? You may have a great group of regular clients or customers but still are finding it hard to reach even more people.

A marketing strategy expert can help you advance your business and find a way to reach a whole new group of people.

 

You’re tapped out of ideas

When you first launch your business, you are full of enthusiasm and excitement, and you have a plethora of ideas for how to get your message out into the world. But once you’ve been open for a few years, some of those ideas may become stale. Or new trends emerge that you don’t know how to tap into in a way that works best for your business.

A marketing strategy expert will be able to view your business with a fresh set of eyes and find a way to bring their unique perspective to your potential customers.

There’s just no time

Running a business is more than a full-time job. It often takes up most of your waking hours. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the everyday tasks of making things work and keeping your customers happy. But, doing things like social media and marketing is often put on hold, even if you know that it’s very important.

An organization that neglects its PR and marketing will see very little growth, if any. A marketing strategy specialist is the best way to delegate a very important part of your operations while you can focus on the tasks you do best. It’s a win-win decision.

Less marketing experience, more problems

You may have someone on your team who can make you a nice-looking website or social media account, but that is no match for having someone in your corner with extensive marketing experience to bring your business to the next level.

A marketing expert will help you figure out:

  • How people see your business
  • Why people chose you
  • Why some people did not choose you
  • What the latest marketing trends are
  • What marketing trends no longer work
  • Where you might be able to find new clients
  • What your competitors and others in your industry are doing

Most importantly, a marketing strategy consultant will help you build the best plan catered to your business.

You’ve tried all the things

When a business opens, it’s easy to throw your marketing strategy in hopes of drawing in as many potential customers as possible. Many create social media accounts on every platform, place advertising in several venues, and try several different things on their website. You do get business from these efforts, but which ones are working? Which ones aren’t?

A marketing strategy specialist will help you narrow down your plan so that you are investing your time and money in a way that will bring in the most business.

Marketing is an afterthought

Look, we’ve all been to those Facebook pages or Twitter feeds of businesses that haven’t posted in months, even years. Or worse yet, websites with events or blog posts from five years ago. These kinds of things beg the question in our customers – is this business even open? Do they have time to provide me with the kind of service that I need?

Outdated content looks unprofessional. With someone on your team who makes sure you have fresh and evergreen content; this will not happen. Your marketing strategy specialist will make sure your customers know exactly what to expect from you when they check out your online presence.

You need the money!

It may sound strange to say that spending money to hire a marketing strategy specialist helps with your lack of budget for marketing but hear us out.

Here are some ways that it can help you save money in your pocketbook:

  • By outsourcing your marketing, you are paying for their specific service and don’t have to pay other fees that would come with having an in-house marketing team, such as full-time salary and benefits. With an outsourced marketing team, you negotiate by hours or project, which makes it much easier to work into your budget.
  • A marketing strategy specialist will help you target the best strategies that will get you the most bang for your buck. You won’t be throwing money at advertising that does not work.
  • The endgame of every marketing professional is to bring you more business. And more business means more money in your pocket. Sometimes, even though your budget may be tight, you can’t afford to not invest in your marketing.

Are any of these signs listed above speaking to you? If so, it’s time to take the next step in making your business successful and hire a marketing strategy specialist. They will not only bring in more customers but help you take your company’s brand to a whole new level.

Luckily, we can assist with this! Our team of experienced marketing and brand strategy specialists is here to help grow your business and maximize your success.

The importance of digital marketing

The importance of digital marketing

Marketing, Strategy

The Importance of Digital Marketing

hands holding phone

When you think of traditional marketing tactics, you might imagine billboards, TV and radio commercials, and paper handouts — which are great for some businesses, but can be expensive and not reach a very wide audience.

Chances are if your brand or business has any kind of marketing strategy, you’re already incorporating digital marketing of some kind. Digital marketing is everywhere, but knowing how to strategically incorporate it into your marketing strategy will be the key to reaching your marketing goals this year.

Here are some of the key digital marketing tools that your business should be using in 2022:

Web-based advertising

Businesses can run advertisements on platforms like Google and Facebook, which can be more attention-grabbing and reach a much wider audience than traditional advertisements on a billboard or in a newspaper. The ads can be specifically targeted to your desired audience and will link directly back to your social media or website, offering an efficient pipeline for interested potential customers to find out more about your business.

Email newsletters

Email newsletter marketing is a great tool to reach your customers at regular intervals with business or product updates, critical information, or engaging content. Most email marketing platforms can offer you an insight into new customer leads and outline what content is being clicked on by readers.

Social media

Social media is key to a successful digital marketing strategy and can be used to accomplish many different marketing goals. You can use social media platforms to get new information to your customers, reach new audiences, network, and promote your business’ style.

Using social media from a business marketing standpoint also offers helpful analytics and insights that you don’t see on your personal social media accounts. You can see how many people viewed your post, how they’re interacting, and what time you should post in order to best reach your target audience.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is all about ensuring your website is found by users looking for information through search engines. Search engines use keywords and phrases from web pages to offer users relevant information and results.

Optimizing your content for search engines shouldn’t be a guessing game. With tools like Google keywords, SEMRush, and others, you can uncover how to angle your website’s pages towards potential future customers.

If it sounds like your business would thrive with some new digital marketing tools and tactics, it’s time to revamp your marketing strategy with professional help. Our marketing team puts strategy at the forefront of all we do, and we can help your business find even greater success in 2022.

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In Strategy We Trust

Marketing resolutions you should adopt

Marketing resolutions you should adopt

Marketing, Strategy

Marketing Resolutions You Should Adopt

On the eve of every new year, we make resolutions that will drive us towards our goals in the months to come. While many of us may give up on our promises to only eat salad early on in the year, keeping your promises to your business can make the difference between growth and decline this year.

 Many businesses throw marketing to the wayside and don’t understand how strategic marketing resolutions can truly propel your brand’s success. Whether it’s January first or the middle of August, it’s never too late to adopt a marketing resolution so we’ve rounded up some common goals and the resolutions you can adopt to make 2022 your brand’s best year yet.

Goal: Gain a social media following
Resolution: Stay consistent with social media

The secret to a top-tier social media strategy is no secret: it’s all about consistency. This means interacting consistently, posting regularly, and taking the time to create unique and memorable content for your audience. It can be time consuming, but the increase in engagement and conversions is worth it.

Goal: Get your brand recognize
Resolution: Maintain brand consistency

Brand recognition takes time, effort, and- you guessed it- consistency. It’s important to know your brand’s identity inside and out so you can build upon a solid foundation. Keeping your logo, brand colors, and style the same while you build your brand will help your audience build recognition.

Goal: Spend marketing dollars more wisely
Resolution: Set a marketing budget

While you can do all your marketing yourself, it can be a time-consuming endeavor if you already have a full schedule running your business. Your marketing dollars can be spent on social media management tools like Hootsuite or Sprout, improving your ad visibility on Google and Facebook, and/or hiring an outside marketing team to help you meet all your marketing goals.

Goal: Increase conversion rate
Resolution: Regularly analyze marketing data

To increase your conversion rate, start by collecting as much marketing data as you can so you can analyze your strengths and weaknesses. If you understand where your website visitors are clicking on your website, you can learn where they are when they decide to leave your website and focus on creating new content, landing pages, and calls to action that keep them interested. Make sure that you’re collecting enough data to make informed decisions — 10 page views or a week of social media engagement is not enough.

Goal: Generate new content
Resolution: Start a blog

Starting a blog for your business’s website can have numerous benefits for your brand. A blog offers your audience a glimpse into who you are, your expertise, and can act as a conversation between you and your audience. You gain credibility with your audience by writing about your products and services. Plus, blogs are a wealth of content that you can share over time on your social media accounts.

Whatever marketing resolutions you choose, sticking to them all year round is the key to helping your brand grow and reaching your goals. With consultation services, marketing campaign assistance, outsourced marketing, and so much more, the marketing professionals at Hoyden are always here to support your marketing goals and help your brand have its best year ever.

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Back to basics: The 4 P’s of marketing

Back to basics: The 4 P’s of marketing

Marketing, Strategy

The 4 P’s of Marketing

Product

Price

Place

Promotion

At Hoyden, we like to say that marketing doesn’t have to be complicated… But it should be strategic, smart, and intentional.

Complex marketing tactics implemented by an inexperienced team can lead to jumbled messaging, confused customers, and low brand awareness. If your team is bogged down with overly complicated marketing, it might be time to get back to the basics.

Simple marketing begins with the 4 P’s, which come from the “Marketing Mix”— a model businesses use to capture their unique selling points in order to create a strategic marketing plan.

Product

What do you sell?

 

“Product” doesn’t always mean a physical object that you sell. For many businesses, your products are your services, your information, or yourself.

A product is a solution to a problem. It meets the needs of a potential customer, whether that need is software development or information about local real estate properties for sale.

You know your product like the back of your hand but you also need to know what makes your product unique so you can tell potential customers not only why they should buy it, but why they should invest their time to learn about it. You need to be able to explain why your product should be chosen over every other product like it.

Price

How much do
you charge?

While “price” may seem like the simplest marketing “P”, determining the right price for your product or service can be tricky and may fluctuate as your business grows and evolves. You want to attract buyers who may already be using your product from a different business but you still want to make a reasonable profit and give your business the opportunity to grow in the future.

When deciding the price of your product, you should assess supply costs, competitor pricing, and how much profit you need to make to sustain your business and potentially grow in the future. You should also consider how much you would be able to offer for a discount during future seasonal or promotional periods. If your initial price is too low, you won’t be able to generate excitement with discounts.

Place

Where can your customers go to find
your product?

 

Unfortunately, your customers aren’t going to come to you, begging to give you money. Understanding the unique facets and niches of your target market is the first step to reaching them.

Here is what you should know about your audience:

      • Age range
      • Gender
      • Geographical location
      • Education level
      • Interests/hobbies
      • Unique qualities that make your product of interest to them

“Place” will be where and how this target audience can get your product. Many products and services are completely advertised and purchased online, and thus require a strong digital presence with social media, an impressive website, and eye-catching advertisements. Others have storefronts and must consider display design and in-person sales teams.

Promotion

How do your customers find out about you?

 

Effectively promoting your product is often where businesses struggle. Your promotion should reach potential customers and tell them not only why they need your product, but why they should buy it from you. This is where every piece of your marketing puzzle comes together.

Your promotion should be strategic and thoughtful. It should reach your target audience, tell them the problem your product will solve, and explain exactly how to get it while working in the confines of your budget and advertising space.

Why does this matter?

 

Marketing strategies can often get complicated with intricate plans, ambitious timelines, and complex advertising schemes. At the end of the day, a great marketing plan requires a simple but strategic approach with a deep understanding of the basics.

 

If you’re looking to get back to basics with your marketing or need a hand as you launch your new brand, the brand strategists at Hoyden are here to help. We offer a unique and in-depth discovery session that will help you discover your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, target audience, competitors, and so much more.

 

Learn more about our process
In Strategy We Trust
Wow your CEO with a strategic marketing plan

Wow your CEO with a strategic marketing plan

Marketing, Strategy

Wow Your CEO with a Strategic Marketing Plan

No matter what business you’re in, implementing a strategic marketing plan can boost your sales, drive your website traffic, or grow your brand’s social media presence. Without a strategic marketing plan, all your marketing efforts (and money) are spent hoping for a marketing win while you miss opportunities for consistent growth and leave your brand subject to threats that can damage your image.

 Your brand isn’t the same as it was a year ago and your marketing plan should grow and evolve with your business. If you’re ready for a refresh, here are the first steps to developing a strategic marketing plan:

Analyze your current marketing situation

While your current marketing plan may be working just fine, there’s always room for improvement. Get objective about your marketing situation, even if that means being critical of your own work.

If you’re struggling to analyze your marketing objectively, try making a list of your brand’s:

Strengths: How is your marketing successful?
Weaknesses: Where is your marketing not getting results?
Opportunities: What opportunities can your brand take advantage of?
Threats: What outside influences may hurt your brand?

Strengths and weaknesses are internal to your brand while opportunities and threats are external. Understanding your current marketing situation will help you move forward with a strategy.

Set a goal

Your goal should focus on your weaknesses or address an upcoming opportunity or threat and have a great impact on your brand. Your goals will drive all your marketing efforts and give each step of your marketing plan a concrete purpose, so make sure you set a goal that’s:

Specific
Measurable
Realistic
Time-bound

For example: Increase our website conversion rate from 13% to 17% within the next 6 months.

Not: Get more followers on Instagram.

Conduct market research

Market research is an opportunity to learn more about your audience, your competitors, and the trends that can affect your brand’s success. Tailor your market research to your goals — use it to find what type of content, products, or information is most and least successful amongst your target audience. Then, you can use that data to influence your marketing strategy.

Develop a tactic

Now that you have a specific goal, an understanding of your current marketing plan, and data from your market research, you’re ready to develop a strategic marketing tactic.

Developing a smart, effective, and budget-friendly marketing tactic can be overwhelming. Depending on your goals, your tactic may mean focusing on a new audience, exploring a new topic, or rebranding your business altogether. Your new marketing plan should include specific actions you’ll take, a timeline, and a budget.

Assign roles and responsibilities

Executing a marketing plan is no easy task and the more help you have, the better. Including your team in your marketing strategy will lead to more ideas, more content, and more confidence in your brand’s future. Your coworkers are your greatest brand ambassadors so their buy-in to your brand and your goals is essential for success.

Follow through

Strategic marketing is a continuous process that requires consistent effort.

The job isn’t done with a website refresh, new social media content, or a catchy new advertisement. For long-term success and brand growth, you need to track your data and monitor your feedback, all while continuously adjusting your marketing plan based on the information you receive.

If all of this sounds like too much to handle on your own, it might be time to ask for help. Hoyden offers project-based, month-to-month, and consulting services to help you develop and implement a personalized marketing strategy based on your brand, your goals, and your budget. 

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6 Branding ideas you should avoid

6 Branding ideas you should avoid

Branding, Strategy

6 Branding Ideas You Should Avoid

Not all that glitters is gold, so the saying goes. Many companies feel this when they put time and money into rebranding, yet it’s still not connecting to customers. Then they are stuck trying to figure out what went wrong. Deciding to rebrand your company is an important step in growing your business and building trust with your audience. However, a few missteps in the process can have you throwing a lot of time and money at something that will not achieve your goals.

Going in without a plan, trying to copy other brands, or doing an incomplete job can bring even the most well-intentioned projects down. To help you steer clear of these missteps, we’ve compiled a list of the top 6 ideas to avoid when it comes to rebranding your company.

Imitation is not flattery

When you are prepping for a rebrand, the easiest place most people go for ideas is their competition. If their branding is working for them, why not try something similar?

But there is a problem with that line of thinking. If both of you look the same – why would people buy from you over them? Especially if they have already built loyalty through their brand. An important part of rebranding is about setting yourself apart from your competition and letting potential customers know why you are unique.

It’s not just about you

You’ve put a lot of hard work into your business. Sometimes even your heart and soul. You may be the face of your organization, but one common mistake in rebranding is making it all about you.

Branding is all about how you appear to others and building loyalty. And while you may love your products, what you love about them might not be what someone else does. The reasons you need it might not be the same for everyone else. There are so many types of people in the world, and you could miss out on a lot of potential customers by basing your branding just on your preferences.

Sometimes, it can be tough to connect with a potential customer from a different demographic or lifestyle than yourself. Some of these areas include:

Age
City vs. small town
Parent vs. non-parent
Single or married
Working, retired, stay-at-home
Type of career

Brand experts can help you do consumer research so you can build a brand that will appeal to a wider audience, especially ones that are not exactly like you.

Another thing to consider is the possibility that something else could attract potential customers beyond your profile. What brings someone into your business may not be the years of experience and talent you possess, but a unique product you offer that they can’t get anywhere else. Making it all about you narrows the number of people that you could potentially reach.

It’s not just about a logo

When some hear the word rebranding, they often think about just getting a new logo. However, the logo is only a small piece of the larger brand picture, which also includes every touchpoint with your audience, including your employees and the mission of your company.

Rebranding is not “just” anything, and part of the process is making sure every element that represents your business is of the highest professional quality to draw in new customers.

Sure, your niece’s boyfriend may be great at computers, but that doesn’t mean he should be in charge of designing your logo. There are so many things that can go wrong in this scenario. Here are a few examples:

They could produce something that you don’t care for, but you may be reluctant to express your opinion because of the personal connection, or because they are doing it as a favor or at a discount. No one wants to be using a terrible design on their marketing materials with a phony cringe-hiding smile on their face.
You could run into legal issues if they use artwork or even fonts without paying for them or making sure they are free to use.
You have limited possibilities based on their skill, rather than being able to find a designer that suits your vision.

It’s okay to ask for help

One big thing to avoid when rebranding is being closed off to outside opinions. You are an expert when it comes to knowing about your business. But what about how others perceive it?

While it’s hard to bring in an outsider, a brand expert can help you in ways you never knew you needed.

Here’s what a brand expert brings to the table:

Years of expertise on rebranding – what works and what doesn’t
Knows the right questions to ask to reveal the heart of your business
Can find the strengths of your business and identify your mission
Discovers weaknesses in your brand and has a game plan for improvement
Has tools for testing brand awareness
Brings knowledge of the latest tools and trends for creating and promoting your brand

Though it may be tough to hear, an outside expert is not emotionally attached to branding that was in place in the past and can provide an unbiased opinion on what can be kept to tweak or what needs to be let go.

Your website is too basic

One mistake that people make while building their business’s brand is thinking that their website just serves the purpose of people finding them online. They create something with just a plain landing page and basic information, not putting a lot of thought into it.

Keep in mind that your website is the first thing people often visit before setting foot in your business or reaching out to you for more information. Your website is a salesman for your services and products, and it’s important to think about what impression that salesperson is giving.

When you hire and train an employee to represent your business, you train them on the way they should treat customers and give them all the important information they need to know to make the sale, and your website should be the same way.

Some things to consider for your website:

Does it look professional and welcoming? Or is it poorly designed or plain? The look and feel of your website will impact a visitor’s impression of your business.
Does it have all the information your potential customer needs to make a decision? Look beyond just your contact information and hours. What can they expect when they come into your business?
Are your business’s unique qualities, products and mission accurately represented on the site?

A brand expert can help ensure your website is an accurate reflection of your business and attract customers.

Writing your own content

Creating content to promote your business is more than just listing your features and benefits. Sometimes people may not even know that they have a need for your product – how will you let them know?

Most people look for a brand, product, and service first. Then they will focus on what features and benefits set you apart from the competition. An important part of rebranding is being customer-focused in your messaging. A brand expert will help you get in the mind of your potential customers and help answer the question – what problem are they having that we will solve for them?

For example, a cell phone company may really focus their messaging on their family plans, knowing that many parents are faced with the problem of their bill going up once their teenagers are added to their plan.  This marketing message helps bring customers in, and then you can sell them on your benefits and features.

Brand experts bring experience in finding the right message for your business. They know to produce clear and concise content to promote your brand.

You’re the expert at what you do, why stretch yourself thin doing something that is not normally in your wheelhouse? Bringing in a branding expert helps to ensure your business makes the best impression it can, which provides a huge return on your investment.

If you are ready to discuss what rebranding could look like for your business, we would be happy to offer you a free consultation.  You can learn what the project could look like, how long it will take, and what research will be done.

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