Marketing Plan Archives – Page 2 of 2

June 27, 2017January 13, 2018

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 that That 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 More When 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.

We 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.

Have 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!

June 13, 2017January 13, 2018

Which is Better? Online vs. Print Advertising

Advert Spending By Media Type — Source: OnlineMarketingTrends.com — As Projected for 2015 & 2016

“So, which is better, online or traditional advertising?”

A client recently asked me just that question. The answer, however, is not as straightforward as you might think. So in a twist of tradition, here is the ‘meat’ of my answer: “Advertising success depends on two factors:

Who is the target?
and
What are your goals?”

Let’s break down these two components…

Who is the advertising target?

Often overlooked, ‘knowing your target’ is a crucial piece of an effective sale conversion strategy.

“Everyone should want to buy my [widget/service]!”, a client told me once; and while potentially true, research shows that timing & relevance are a much bigger factor in making a buying decision. Crucial pieces of effective sale conversion strategy rely on saying the right message at the right time. As such, knowing your target and their buying cycles tends to lead to a significant lift in success when it comes to any advertising.

Demographics are a huge aspect of knowing your target

Today’s ability to track age, gender, location, how they saw your advert, how long they stayed, did they share it, etc., are at the core of the advantage of digital advertising. In fact, “Direct Response Marketing” techniques are heavily invested shopper data in an effort to ‘personalize’ the shopping experience for each individual.

What are your advertising goals?

Today’s goals seem different, but they’re not. In fact, the goals have not changed until the last 20 years. It is still all about the conversion of the audience or “target” — are you seeing the tie into the first advertising component above?

So, what did traditional advertising discover that digital ads still need to work on?

In short, ‘message effectiveness’. Tradition advertisers recognize that the timing at which their ads display — and the core of the offer — must be in alignment with the awareness level of the target. While simple messages like “free trial” and “try it now” are synonymous with today’s advertising, traditional adverts, traditional methodologies tend to focus on an awareness level that works off the brand awareness level — and consequentially, the true reason people buy — how the experience made them feel.

Today’s conclusion to this deep advertising question

I could probably write 10 more blogs on this subject and only scratch the surface, but the bottom line is, both types have their place. A wise marketing mentor taught me a lesson that I will never forget: “Never put all your eggs in one basket!”.

June 9, 2017January 13, 2018

Message From The President — June 2017

This Month’s Topic: “What is the #1 plan to create content?”

President’s Message for June 2017

I cannot remember ever being a fan of doing anything that does not have a clearly defined methodology and plan — it is just my nature.

It is my belief that without a plan, not only will your execution be scattered, so will your results.

This is not to say that I was not horrifyingly bad at writing content, I just did not understand how important the nuances of the plan are.

DON’T GET STUCK IN ONE MODE
The plan to do something — anything — is a double-edged sword. You ultimately get driven by your successes and pushed down by your failures. This psychosis is a uniquely human paradigm as if an animal in nature hesitates or worries too much that its methodology is wrong, it goes hungry — at its core, survival is a matter of trial and error.

That said, the other side of that sword is, without the patience & due-diligence needed to create your overall plan, rushing through something without a plan can often be [its] undoing.

OH YEAH, THERE IS A PLAN — HAVE PATIENCE
So why am I talking about animals, isn’t this blog post supposed to be about having a content plan? It is, however, I propose that the more we can be in tune with the natural instincts contained within our human DNA, the better we can define and identify the methodologies that work best for each individual.

As such, it is well known that successful people make lists and within the bigger picture — and truth of the matter — is these lists are mini-plans.

Planning works in many ways, accurately presented in this quote from time-management-guide.com:

“Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If you do it effectively, you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal. A plan is like a map.”

Okay, that’s nice, but what is the #1 way to create content?

Be the resource your customers really need!

8 Tips to help plan and make your copy easy to read:

Use short paragraphs – four sentences max;
Use short sentences – twelve words on average;
Skip unnecessary words;
Avoid professional jargon and use common/layman language;
Avoid the passive tense
Avoid needless repetition;
Address your web visitors directly. Use the word “you”;
Shorten your overall post-length — keep it 300 – 1000 words.

Here are a few links to get you started if you are stuck:

Get this month’s free download: “Content Marketing For Dummies” from Kudani.

PLEASE NOTE: In this book, take a look at the PICASSO content marketing framework created for use with KudaniCloud software. This share is not to sell you on KudaniCloud software. I do not use KudaniCloud software and this share is not an endorsement of KudaniCloud software.

May 26, 2017January 13, 2018

How Is A Scientific Marketing Plan Developed?

A scientific marketing plan starts with an observation.

For example, analyst company Intellidyn recently gathered data about thousands of North Americans. From this data, the company realized that people over the age of 64, married couples, ex-military individuals, and farmers are highly likely to want to travel to Asia. Because of this information, a vacation package company marketed their Asian vacation packages to those who fit this profile, and saw an increase in their sales as a result.

5-Step Marketing Plan — Image Source: LinkedIn.com

Once an observation is made, the hypothesis can be created from this information.

For example, online companies such as Amazon.com collect data about what individuals look at online and what they purchase. They then make a hypothesis about what that person is likely to purchase in the future. If a customer searches a book by a certain author, Amazon.com considers it a strong possibility that they might be interested in buying another book by the same author and suggest more books by that author to that person. This is where “Personalized Marketing” comes into play.

Personalized marketing is the ultimate form of targeted marketing, creating messages for individual consumers. That said, it is most often an automated process, using computer software to craft the individual messages, and building customer-centric recommendation engines instead of company-centric selling engines.

Companies then experiment based on their observation and hypothesis. For example, a phone company might analyze user records and see that households with heavy phone use between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. are more likely to have teenagers. The company can then launch a marketing campaign to those homes, advertising a special deal on additional phones and lines for the home.

Once just a search engine, Google is now the current king of scientific marketing.

There are an average of 4,717,000,000 searches performed on Google.com every day (c. 2016), up from 9,800 during 1998, Google’s official first year.

Nowadays, much more than just a search engine, Google offers a variety of analytical tools for companies to see, understand and act upon data about their website, online advertising, mobile applications, websites, and social media networks.

Google data analysis tools includes tracking and reporting anything from how many people download their mobile app to how many of their online customers make purchases. These reports also incorporate information about social media usage and online keyword searches.

All of this data mining and reporting allows companies to gather valuable information about their audience and make targeted business decisions based on this information.

See JetPack, StatisticBrain and Google Analytics.

Tag: Marketing Plan