5 Marketing Companies' Secrets to Online Success

Marketing companies that help companies succeed online in a competitive market have quite a few trade secrets that help them achieve success quickly. They won't reveal everything unless you're a client but do you want to know a few of their secrets?


#1 Quality AND Quantity

Not only do you need high quality material to market with but you need a lot of it. A steady stream of fodder for search engines is good but it has to be good fodder. Your audience is insatiable as well. Provide plenty of quality information to them and you'll hold onto their attention for more than a nanosecond.


#2 Know Your Audience

Companies that take the time to understand their audience can market effectively to them. Marketing companies do research to find out what their client's customers want. That way they can appeal to them. When marketing online, people have the attention span of a gnat so it's imperative that you know how to find them, how to help them find you, and how to talk in a language they understand and want to speak.


#3 Use Effective Online Tools

There are dozens and dozens of tools that you can utilise in online marketing. Organic search engine optimisation tools, tools to help you execute an effective search engine marketing / pay per click advertising campaign, and tools to converse with your audience via social media. Marketing companies know which tools to use and how to put them to good use.

#4 Think Ahead

Not only do you need to appeal to your customers now but you'll need to stay ahead of them so you can be ready to present them with effective marketing material tomorrow, too. Timing is everything in marketing, especially online marketing. Market research, competitive analysis, and staying ahead of trends is vital.


#5 Provide Value

Marketing firms work to help clients demonstrate value. Today's consumer is very value-driven. They want to know what's in it for them and marketing companies help companies define their unique selling points and their value added proposition continually so that customers will want to do business with them. In a day and age where brand loyalty is harder to come by than ever, whatever you can do to appeal to your customers and prove you're a value-driven company will benefit you today and in the future. You'll benefit through direct sales, repeat sales, and word-of-mouth referrals, too.

How a Marketing Agency Can Make More Clicks Count

Are you anxious to get more clicks on your small business website? The web can kick your sales up a notch but mere traffic won't necessarily do it alone. Do you want to make sure that those clicks count? Consider getting some help from a marketing agency that is experienced in helping you to increase your conversion rate. It takes more than website traffic to make an online business site successful.

Clicks & Conversion Rates

Clicks are good. Conversion is better. In other words, all the clicks in the world won't help your business if no one buys from you. Your internet marketing strategy should encompass more than getting traffic. It should work on getting targeted traffic and then converting them from a browser into a buyer.

Developing a Marketing Strategy

Web marketing is about more than just traffic and the right strategy can help you achieve your desired results. Most entrepreneurs and small business owners have trouble doing this on their own. Running a business is time consuming and making time for marketing isn't easy. That's where getting help from a consultant can come in and make a dramatic difference.

Marketing companies can work closely with you to develop a website marketing strategy that transforms your website from a brochure into a sales tool. They can do this through a multi-faceted approach that includes some of the following attributes:

• Analysis of your existing website (if applicable). A few tweaks and adjustments could make a difference in your search engine rankings and in how our visitors react to your content.
• Research into your market. A marketing agency will look at your industry and your competitors. Business intelligence gathered will provide valuable info that could help them help you make subtle or maybe even major changes that could boost conversion and click through rates.
• Split testing. If, for example, a website re-design is warranted, split testing may be done to analyse reactions from your visitors. When tests are conducted it can be easy to see which ad or which landing page could make more sense. Results can be evident fairly quickly, allowing you to reap benefits of that redesign quickly.
• Proven marketing techniques that insert a prospect into a sales funnel. The prospect very often exits that sales funnel as a client.

A marketing agency can look at raw data and make sense of the statistics and the graphs. Their analysis could turn that data into an action plan that reaps substantial benefits in the area of getting more traffic and converting more traffic into sales. Consider talking to a consultant to find out what they can do for your business and your online success.

Top Tips to Try Before Hiring a Marketing Agency

If you have a small business that is just getting started, there are a few things you can do before you retain the services of a marketing agency to help you in the marketing arena. With a few right moves, you can get started on a positive note with a basic game plan set in place before turning to a professional firm for additional guidance.

Define your Customer and Communicate Effectively
Don't fall into the new business trap of not knowing who your customers are. It is important to identify your target market through effective due diligence such as market research and the ability to fulfil a particular need that may not be totally taken care of by your competitors. It is important that you find a way to stand out from your competitors such as superior customer service.

Brainstorm on paper to ensure you are projecting the right message to your potential customers. A marketing agency will often have new businesses do a SWOT analysis, evaluating their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat factors that might impede business operations.

Spell Out Benefits and Features of your Products and Services
It is important that you present the most pleasing features of your products and services. However, it is equally important to support those features by advertising the benefits the customers will reap if they use your products over a competitor's. Why would your products and services be better?

Follow-through is an additional feature of promoting your business. Once you have attracted a potential customer to use your product or service, speak with them about their needs and how you can meet those needs. Even if you cannot close the sale immediately, it is important to follow-through by calling or emailing them. This action shows that you care about them as a customer and illustrates that by going with your company, customer service will be excellent. Follow-ups are the key to sales conversions down the line as well as positive word of mouth to new, potential clients.

Maintain Marketing Momentum
It is important to structure your marketing budget in such a way as to keep your company brand name in the public eye year round. Many new businesses have a huge marketing push only to run out of advertising dollars before year end and then experience stagnant sales. For this reason, internet marketing can be helpful through the use of blogging, banner ads, website-only specials and email marketing to existing customers about special sales.

While you can definitely succeed without the help of a marketing agency, it is important to allocate a portion of your budget to hiring one, even if it is to just check where you are in relation to promotions, advertising and industry placement. Having a marketing professional assess your business and present suggestions for improvement is important to your overall, long-term success.