Marketing Your Business Is Like Farming

Marketing your business is like farming — planning, patience, and diligence, will bring your reward. 

Marketing Your Business — Content Marketing Banner

While physical marketing still exists, content marketing is how marketing predominantly happens today. So in marketing your business, you must plant the seed for your ideal customer to see; then maintain the best practices available regarding landing pages & content; and last but not least, stay on task to navigate the natural disasters.

This process is crucial to the results that most are looking to achieve. In fact, the parallels between marketing and farming are almost identical.

“Many people hope that inbound marketing will provide a quick fix for their marketing and sales goals; however, like food, it takes time for potential clients to be ready to buy.” ~ Lydia Di Francesco — Marketing and Brand Awareness Expert

So “How do I start” you may be thinking… simply read on.

The Start Of Marketing Your Business — Plant Your Seed

“Prospects go through stages. Your job is to nurture them like a plant as they move from seed to seedling, to healthy, full-grown, productive, and alive.” ~ Pamela Wilson — Author of Master Content Marketing

Marketing Your Business — Digital Marketing Is Like Farming
SOURCE: topdogsocialmedia.com

As with any business, you must start somewhere — marketing your business in today’s business landscape is no different.

Planting the seed that you are an expert or have the best widget is a process. You must create a way for the message to get to the intended target (i.e. advertising, emailing, etc.), develop compelling content (e.g. a strong benefit-driven message), and enlist a capture mechanism to get gated material.

Maintain The Best Practices Available in Marketing Your Business

“The right sales and marketing strategies play an essential role in the success of your business. Developments in technology have opened up entirely new ways to market and sell products and services. Best practice now involves harnessing the power of the Internet, email and mobile telephony to increase the effectiveness of getting products and services to the customer.” ~ Info Entrepreneurs

Marketing Your Business — Middle of Funnel MethodologyDiscovering what works for marketing your business can be a challenge for many small businesses.  The resources mixed with the budget are often limited; and then there is message creation, timing insight, and the whole ‘what do I do now’ factor. These all play a part in the development of a concise plan and knowing these will help you succeed with marketing your business.

That said, this mid-funnel methodology is broad in scope and often is different for each business. So rather than drone on, I recommend you allow me to talk to you about it at no cost to you.  Set a chat time in 3 clicks via my online calendar.

Stay On Task And Navigate The Natural Disasters

“The best way for your business to cope with a natural disaster is to have a plan before it strikes. Time and clear thinking are luxuries in an emergency situation, which is why it is so important to be prepared.” ~ Government of Queensland, Australia

Marketing Your Business — Business Crisis AheadAnd while [they] are talking about getting your business ready for a natural disaster such as flooding and cyclones, the methodology is the same. 

The reality, not every campaign will work out. There will be some trial and error in the beginning, but this information is super valuable when you go to develop a strategy and business plan that will be the ruler by which you can measure your progress. This plan is the sailing plan by which business owners navigate economic trends, industry forces, natural disasters and other variables.

Have You Heard Of Marketing Your Business With Inbound Marketing?

If you have not been under a rock for the past 5 years, surely you have heard of “inbound marketing”.

In summary, it is the act of setting in place a system that approaches the potential customer with engaging content and compelling CTA’s (calls to action) and drives a potential ‘ideal client’ to your proverbial business doorstep.


That all said, the timing must be right! Download our free guide to help you deliver the right message to the right target at the right time.

Other Services – In Case You Were Not Aware

There are many “other services” that come up in daily conversations, yet do not get discussed in depth until your challenges are fully discovered.

These “other services” encompass the solving of those challenges — looking at the bigger picture — of doing business in the digital age. Things such as site & transaction security, domain routing, and system & process development (systems that make your business run smoother), are just a few of the ‘bigger picture’ challenges that Cortex Marketing is adept is providing a solution for.

Things such as site & transaction security, domain routing, and system & process development (systems that make your business run smoother), are just a few of the ‘bigger picture’ challenges that Cortex Marketing is adept is providing a solution for.

That said, the lack of discussion for “other services” is almost always because many of our clients already have the foundation established for their business — their branding components, a basic online presence, and a general plan of what their business is all about — and they simply need help establishing specific marketing strategies, plans, and components needed to deliver a better return on their investment.

You Have Choices

“You do other services? I did not know that!”

Of the many “other services” we provide, only a general few are entered into the mix until we know your goals and progress through the discovery process. I did not know thatThat pathway is rarely pre-determined as there are too many variables to solidify those needed components until a plan is being put together.

We provide you with a strategy, designed to achieve the goals you lay out to us, At that time we develop a plan that puts in place the mix you need to get the result you want.

Our 360º Success Team

While delivering a full-service solution — part of the way Cortex Marketing has always brought solutions to the business world — this year we created the 360º Success Team to solve our clients’ issues regarding bigger IT & system solution needs.

The key to our team’s success is how we emphasize creating a solution-based environment where people actually want to be. We believe our corporate culture is a crucial component to achieving success for our clients.

Together Everyone Achieves MoreWhen you engage with Cortex Marketing, we have the strategists, copywriters, designers, programmers and IT specialists, all to ensure that your goals are always maintained and looked at with the latest fresh eyes. This gives us a unique perspective and provides you with what we believe is one of the best customer-service experiences in the entire marketing industry.

The bottom line is that you deserve the results you desire.

If we have fallen short and not delivered the best service on the market, we have failed in our goal. As such we offer this guarantee:

“While we cannot guarantee advertising results, we do guarantee our services. It is as simple as this: “If you are not satisfied, we are not satisfied. — We will do whatever possible to correct any issue, then attempt to exceed your future expectations. 

5-Star ServiceWe know the value of our clients and recognize that without them, we would not exist. We offer a service with integrity,  a culture where we LOVE what we do, and unparrallelled five-star customer service — and for these reasons, we make our bold guarantee: “If you are not satisfied, we are not satisfied!”

So if at anytime you are not satisfied with any part of your experience with us, please give us an opportunity to correct any issues and exceed your expectations in the future — we will make it right even if you are asking for your money back!” ~ William S. Dickinson, President and CEO Dickinson Enterprises, Inc.

‘Our other services can wait’ is our philosophy — your primary goals are our top priority.

Other ServicesHave you ever worked with a company that is always trying to upsell you? Everyone on our 360º team has, and that is what drives us crazy too! Within our culture, we simply want to fit you into the best long-term solution first and foremost. And if we can provide you with advice, coaching, and/or development of other services, we want you to know that you can also trust us with the following business solutions:

  • Website Development (WYSIWYG platforms, WordPress, Custom Programming in Python and HTML5)
  • Landing-Page Development
  • Social Media Development
  • Conversion Marketing Copywriting
  • Website and Marketing-Campaign Analytics
  • Simple and Complex Marketing Campaigns
  • User-Based Technology Guidance (MS Office, Adobe Creative Cloud, G-Suite)
  • Custom Programming and Technology-Based Process Development (systems to make your business run smoother)
  • System Administration (email, network admin, system hosting)
  • Server set-up and Management (database, SQL, JavaScript, etc.)
  • Business Graphics / Graphic Design (logo development/design, business cards/envelopes/letterhead, etc.)
  • e-Commerce Solutions
  • And more… basically, anything to do with marketing and selling yourself online!

Conversion Traffic: The Top 10 Ways To Get Better Results

So you have visitors and it is just not converting; maybe you are simply not driving the right conversion traffic!

Conversion Traffic“Getting traffic to your website is great, but if that traffic doesn’t convert, it’s almost useless.” ~ Jayson DeMers — Founder and CEO, AudienceBloom

Keeping Up-To-Date On Conversion Traffic ‘Best Practices’  Is Not Easy!

It is essentially true that technology has a six-week cycle and that new ideas are expanding at a rate that is nearly impossible to keep up with without doing continual research.

Traffic Conversion

This week in doing such research specifically on Conversion Traffic, I came upon a great 2015 blog post by Jason DeMers, the Founder | CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based SEO agency. He’s the author of the ebook, “The Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Business Online”. In his post, he has listed the top thirty-nine best practices for increasing your conversion traffic in “39 Quick Ways to Increase Your Website’s Conversion Rate“.

And while his post is now a few years old, many points on that list cannot be improved upon. So in an effort to inform you — while still maintaining some level of brevity —I will list myTop-10 from his list. So with full credit to Jason for creating this, here are my choices from his list of thirty-nine:

1. Include as few fields as possible.

When asking for information in an email opt-in form, ask for as little information as necessary. Here’s an example of how using one additional form field decreased conversions by 11 percent.

2. Add a guarantee.

Include a no-questions-asked refund policy on all purchases. This reduces risk, and increased sales will usually more than make-up for any returns.

3. Use tangible action verbs.

When testing out different calls to action, try using action language that spurs visitors to take action (for example, “grab yours,” “reserve your seat”)

4. Use testimonials.

Testimonials reduce risk and provide social proof. Use them on product landing pages as well as on your email opt-in landing page.

5. Clearly-state the benefits of your product or service.

Listing the features of your product is important, but it’s even more important to tell potential customers exactly how your product will help them or solve their problem.

6. Pay careful attention to your headline.

Your headline is perhaps the single most important element of your landing page. Brainstorm at least 10 possibilities before choosing the strongest one.

7. Keep conversion elements above the fold.

Opt-in boxes and other conversion elements should be above the fold for optimal results.

8. Use video to humanize your brand.

Include a simple video on landing pages to show there’s a real person behind your brand.

9. Create dedicated landing pages for pay-per-click ads.

If you’re using AdWords or another form of PPC ads, be sure to send these visitors to a dedicated landing page (not your home page!).

10. Incorporate strong calls to action (CTAs) into every piece of content on your site.

Let your readers know exactly what you want them to do next, whether that’s click a button, read a blog post or fill out a form.

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