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You know your company needs marketing, but where do you start?

Between web design, branding, SEO, social media, ad words, website creative content, email marketing, and website development, there are so many different aspects of marketing that need your attention. So where should you focus your marketing efforts?

Many companies recognize the importance of marketing but do not have the employee bandwidth, understanding, or time to dive into the vast sea of opportunities.

“Marketing isn’t JUST one thing. It’s everything.”

 The term “marketing” engulfs a variety of efforts and “everything” covers, well, everything. Are you feeling overwhelmed yet? Don’t be. Jump-start your marketing game plan with this list of efforts that your company should be engaging in.

Here’s EVERYTHING You Need to Know:

1. Branding

Maintaining your company’s vision lies in your ability to incorporate your messaging throughout every aspect of your company, from your social media networks, to your website, to your print material. Your brand is what differentiates you from your competitors. It’s how your consumers make an emotional connection to your company. One-way to ensure brand consistency is by hiring an all in-house agency. The advantages of hiring an all in-house agency are that all of your work will be handled internally by a set of experts that are familiar with your brand and will make sure to incorporate your branding into any service requested.

2. Marketing and Sales

 In order to connect with your audience you must:

Identify Your Audience: Who is your ideal customer or client? Who would be the perfect fit for your product or service? Consider demographics and psychographics.

Reach Your Audience: You can reach your audience through many different avenues such as:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): the process of increasing a websites visibility search engine’s organic results.
• Search Engine Marketing (Pay-Per-Click): Google Adwords, allows businesses to display ads on Google and it’s advertising network.
• Social Media Marketing: Allows you to gain your audience’s attention on a more personal level through interesting content and captivating creative. (See below to dive deeper into Social Media).

Nurture Your Audience: It’s important that once you connect with your audience that you continue to build a relationship with them. You can establish trust with your audience by providing them with valuable information through e-blasts, social posts, mailers, etc.

Between identifying your audience, reaching them, and building a relationship with them it’s easy to see there is a lot of time and energy that should go towards your marketing and sales efforts – not to mention a well-planned marketing budget. For a cost effective and highly efficient solution you should consider hiring an agency to manage some (if not all) of your marketing efforts.

3. Social Media

Social Media Networks not only allow your business to connect with your current community on a personal level but also allow you to reach a bigger audience. Social Media allows you to connect with a larger audience that can be defined by specific demographics and psychographics. A successful social media strategy requires consistent posts on each network, a media budget, daily ad management, and engaging content.

4. Website Development

Your website allows your consumers to reach you 24-hours a day. An effective website is more than just a flashy homepage – it should captivate your visitors attention and give them a reason to return. Despite a number of tools becoming available advertising the ability to “build your own website”, it does not necessarily mean you should. Your website must be responsive [Auto-scale to mobile devices], creative, unique, content-rich, easy to navigate, and user-friendly. Unless you know how to code in HTML 5 and CSS, and have an eye for design, it’s in your best interest to leave this effort to the professionals.

5. Creative and Design

From your logo to your web design, to your print campaigns and email marketing campaigns, creative and design are aspects of marketing that most efficiently communicate your branding. The more consumers expect to digest information visually, the more inventive you will need to be with your creative and design.

 Measure Your Marketing Effectiveness Today!

Regardless of what industry your business is in, it is essential to harness the power of marketing.