Category: Lead Generation

What is Conversion Rate Optimization?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the continuous effort to improve the website visitor experience in a way that the visitor converts to a lead and eventually a customer… my definition.  Unbounce defines it as “the practice of continually improving your website or landing page’s capacity to convert visitors into leads or customers.”  We believe that engagement data drives CRO.  Understanding where your website visitors come from and the level of engagement they have guides you to making the appropriate changes to improve usability and lead generation.

Before you can begin improving your conversion rate, be sure to understand what your objectives are (and the difference between marketing goals vs. objectives).  Once the objectives are determined, you can create what Google Analytics refers to as goal completions.  These goal completions should track the objectives you want website visitors to accomplish, and can be used as marketing KPIs.

B2B marketing strategies will have different objectives and goals from those of B2C companies.  Each objective should have a corresponding Call To Action that leads to the Goal Completion.  Most companies, regardless of type, will have at least 2 of the following five goal completions.

5 Main Types of Goal Completions

1. Phone Calls

Getting website visitors to make contact via phone call is a primary objective for most businesses.  Depending on your business, you may accept different types of calls.  A B2B company like GoDaddy will have phone call options for sales, support, and billing.  Alternatively, B2C companies may have options to call for an appointment or a quote.  Either way, talking to the website visitor is the objective, and a successful phone call is the goal completion.

2. Contact Form Submissions

Form submissions are used all over the internet.  Everything from quotes, credit applications, surveys, questionnaires, and even polls allow users to input and submit information through a form.  The objective is to gather contact and other desirable information.  A successfully submitted form is the goal completion.

3. Online Purchasing

E-commerce is a huge endeavor and is constantly growing.  The objective is rather simple – sell products and receive payment for those products.  With so many options for selling items online, there could be countless paths to accomplish the objective. Is this a tangible item?  Does this item require shipping?  Is it downloadable?  Will it be picked up?  Is this a subscription service?  Regardless of how you get to the objective, the goal completion should be triggered at the point of successful payment.

4. Email Subscriptions

Email marketing is still a very effective way to nurture generated leads into paying customers.  This requires a constant effort to increase the size of your mailing list.  Getting website visitors to subscribe to your mailing list is the objective.  The goal completion should be triggered after successful opt-in.

5. Get Directions

All brick and mortar businesses should offer an easy way to get directions to the location.  Usually, the objective is to increase foot traffic and visitors to the physical location.  As the website visitor, the goal completion is triggered when the user clicks “get directions” or a link to a map listing.

A familiar understanding of the sales process will help determine what objectives should actually be goals.

What Is Needed to Improve the Conversion Rate?

For businesses with a lower value product offering, it may not take much to improve the rate at which website visitors convert.  It could be as easy as having a better-looking website.  However, in more competitive industries, selling products with more value requires constant optimization of the website to improve the conversion rate.

First, determine what factor has the most influence on the purchasing decision.  If your company provides a specific service, it could be the locality of your business is the main selling point.  Are your prices competitive? Do you offer any incentives or guarantees? Are you aware of any advantages of your product compared to the competitors?  What sets your company apart from the other online competition?

Second, analyze the current level of engagement happening on the website.  It’s imperative to the success of the marketing campaign to know the source of your website visitors and what they did while visiting the website.  Are they coming directly, organic search, paid search, email, social media activity or referrals from other websites?  Are they using a desktop or mobile device? What area of town were they located when visiting the website?  What other pages did they view?  How long did they stay on the website?  All of these questions help you determine how best to present your information.

Depending on your objectives and goals, you’ll need to make adjustments to the website.  It’s the answers to these questions, along with analytical website data, that allows for effective conversion rate optimization.

What Adjustments Help Improve the Conversion Rate?

There are several items, both on-page and off-page, that should be done to provide some immediate improvements to the conversion rate.  The most important thing to remember is that there must be continuity.  The experience the user has from search, ad-click, and landing page should be consistent.

The keyword or phrase searched should appear in the ad text.  The ad text should also reference the objective.  After the click, the landing page should reinforce what they searched.  The Call To Action on the landing page should compliment the objective mentioned in the ad.

Perhaps you’re a car dealership who wants more foot traffic or a construction company who wants more phone calls.  You have available sales reps who need leads.  Your dealership is targeting internet users looking for “small SUVs.”  The construction company is targeting internet users searching for “commercial office build-outs.”

In these examples, the dealership writes ads that include the phrase, “small SUVs.”  The ads also include the CTA, “Come Test Drive Today.”  The construction company created ads that include the phrase “office build-outs,” and the CTA was “Get A Quote.”

The car dealership spent lots of money on pay per click ads driving traffic to their website.  The traffic didn’t convert, and there were no goal completions.  After reviewing Google Analytics, they learned most of the paid traffic “bounced” after landing on the homepage.  There was not an increase in foot traffic.

The construction company invested in social media marketing ads.  The campaigns received lots of views and likes.  However, they didn’t receive any quote form submissions.  A review of their Analytics highlighted that landing page had a high bounce rate and most of their social media traffic doesn’t convert well.  Their email traffic had a much higher conversion rate.

This is why data drives conversion rate optimization.  With this analytic data, the car dealership was able to make key adjustments to the website that would improve the conversion rate.  The home page was designed to present more information about the dealership.  They assumed it would be the best landing experience until data proved otherwise.  They changed the ads to land on a sub-page exclusive to small SUVs.  A button that said, “Schedule Your Test Drive” was added to the new landing page.  They also adjusted the ads to only show during the available test drive times.  After 30 days of paid traffic, the dealership had much more online engagement, but more importantly, website visitors began scheduling appointments for test drives.  Goals completed.

The construction company made viable changes also.  They created a page dedicated to office build-outs and embedded the quote form on that page. They also repurposed the social media ads and formatted them to be sent in a mass email.  The email was sent biweekly, and the construction company quickly noticed the improvement.  The first three days after each email send generated several online quote form submissions. Goals completed.

Other Conversion Rate Improvement Opportunities

Whether you sell products or provide a service, there are certain elements that increase the users level of trust, which leads to more conversions.  In online advertising, trusting the brand plays a huge role in lead generation and client acquisition.

Building that trust quickly and establishing credibility is key to company growth. Take advantage of other chances to build credibility and improve conversions.  This can be done by adding the right graphics and messaging to the website and landing pages.  Add elements like Google Reviews, Yelp & Angi (previously AngiesList) badges, secure website seals, relevant certifications (license #, Bar Certification, Master Electrician, etc…).  Phrases like “free shipping” and “limited quantities available” help to improve the conversion rate on e-commerce websites.

Optimization is constantly and strategically adjusting something to make it better.  Therefore, proper optimization of your website conversions should yield not only more goal completions but also better quality goal completions.

Do you have a website that gets traffic?  Does that traffic become quality leads?  Do you know the percentage of website visitors that actually complete goals?  If you don’t know or are unsure of how effective your website is at converting visitors to leads, contact MARION today. A member from our marketing company in Houston will be happy to speak with you.

Tracking the effectiveness of your marketing is important, but many small and mid-sized businesses don’t know where to begin. Which marketing campaign effectiveness metrics are a true indicator of your marketing performance?

To begin improving your business marketing, you need to identify and track the right marketing metrics and KPIs. These will vary depending upon your business type, your marketing goals, and the strategy and marketing activities you put in place.

What Are Key Performance Indicators in Marketing?

Marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable metrics used to measure marketing effectiveness across all channels. Marketing metrics are numbers that help you track performance and progress of certain marketing and business initiatives. Not all marketing metrics are key performance indicators for your business.

Marketing KPIs Vs. Marketing Metrics

It can be a bit confusing to differentiate the two, but KPIs are distinct in that you select certain measures that indicate the success or shortcomings of your marketing efforts.  Each KPI should measure a specific objective over a predetermined period. Marketing metrics do not possess any specific characteristics and are not specific to a given amount of time.

You could say every KPI is a metric, but not every marketing metric is a KPI.

How to Choose the Right Metrics

Naturally, most marketing teams would like to measure as many key marketing metrics as they possibly can, but sometimes tracking too many can be a bad thing.

A dilemma that many marketing teams face isn’t so much which marketing performance indicators they need to track, but more so what they need to eliminate from the equation altogether. Tracking everything can waste time and cloud the real goals and objectives of your marketing campaigns.

Selecting the most vital marketing campaign metrics for your business can be a real challenge. Ultimately, the right marketing metrics are those that bridge the gap between marketing and the goals of the company.

You need to keep these three core considerations in mind as you’re selecting the right metrics to track for your business:

• What is the purpose of the metrics you’ve selected?
• Who will see and use that information?
• What decisions will be made based on the information you’re tracking?

There are also considerations you need to consider at the executive level:

• Does the information presented provide an insight into what works and what doesn’t work?
• Do the metrics display how marketing is impacting business outcomes?
• Do the metrics display the financial value and effectiveness of marketing?

Before deciding on the marketing campaign measurement metrics that you need to track, you must first understand your company’s most critical business outcomes. If you’re focusing on rapid growth, you’ll need metrics that accurately display customer acquisition and growth.  If one of your critical outcomes is increasing revenue, then your marketing department needs to focus on metrics that measure qualified leads.

In addition to focusing on the true needs of your business, each of your metrics should be significant and meaningful.  As you’re choosing the metrics to measure marketing performance at your business, you may be tempted to focus on what’s most comfortable to measure. However, it isn’t about what’s easy — it’s about what’s best for your business.

Choosing Marketing KPIs and Metrics that Affect Decision Making

Key performance indicators for marketing departments should always be selected based on the impact they will have on your business objectives and should never be dismissed due to emotional decisions.

Let’s say you’re tracking return on marketing investment (ROMI) and you realize the company can save money by reducing the size of a bloated marketing department or advertising budget. That may be the best decision for the business, but the actual act of discontinuing certain employee or vendor relationships can be very hard. Some people may decide to omit or devalue marketing efficiency metrics like this to avoid making difficult decisions.

However, all metrics should be used as a tool for decision making. You should look at your metrics objectively. Select marketing performance metrics that will drive action and ultimately help your company succeed.

6 Marketing Metrics Examples Your Business Should Be Using

Every business is different, but you’ll find there are certain KPIs for sales and marketing that are universal. Let’s look at the following marketing KPIs list for a better idea of what you should be tracking at your organization.

1. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Customer lifetime value should be one of the core metrics for any marketing plan. Understanding the total value a new customer is expected to bring to the company throughout their relationship with you is crucial information and helps guide appropriate sales and marketing investments decisions.

LTV measures the amount of gross profit generated by a customer over the entire time that they do business with you.  You can calculate this using one of the following equations:

• Revenue per transaction x Gross Margin % x expected number of transactions over the course of their relationship
• Revenue per subscription period x Gross Margin % x average length of retention (subscription periods) for a typical customer

Reaching out to your current customers is one of the best ways to enhance customer value, and it has a variety of beneficial effects for your business:

• It will keep your customers happy
• It can help to reduce churn
• It can increase the lifetime value of your customers

2. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

This metric gives you insight into how much it costs your company to acquire a new customer.  You can easily calculate this using the following formula:

• Total marketing dollars spent on customer acquisition / Total new customers acquired, calculated over a given period (e.g., monthly, quarterly).

Depending on how deep you want to go in assessing your client acquisition costs, you can include all sales and marketing costs, both fixed and variable inclusive of payroll, or subsegments of these such as limited to all marketing expenditures (see # 5 below).  Either way, set yourself a target such as having a CAC of $450.

Understanding the relationship between LTV and CAC (e.g., LTV divided by CAC) is one of the most important metrics for your business, providing not only insight into how effective your spending is, but giving you information to determine how much you can afford to spend on customer acquisition.

3. Web Traffic

If you’re utilizing an inbound marketing strategy, you need to measure the number of users that have visited your site.  There are several KPIs you can decide to use, from Total Visits by unique users to your website or specific page, to the specific traffic sources that are driving them there: Direct (typed your URL into their browser), Organic, Referral traffic, and Campaign, such as pay-per-click advertising or email links.

There’s a good chance you’ll be focusing heavily on acquiring organic traffic, which is the free traffic that you acquire through good SEO (search engine optimization) practices.  There’s no specific equation to measure organic traffic, though you can look at absolute numbers, the percentage of total visitors, and page views or rankings.

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Whether you use a KPI or metric for your marketing team, make sure to keep track of the effectiveness of your SEO strategy, as well as the keywords you’re using to draw in customers.

For help from an expert SEO agency, contact MARION today.

4. Lead Conversion Rates

It’s one thing to attract prospects via your marketing team — it’s another to close them with your sales team. Ultimately, you will want to measure the number of leads that are converted into sales; as a KPI, the Lead Conversion Rate can be calculated as:

• (# Leads converted to Sales/Total # of Leads) * 100

In doing so, you’ll want to look at marketing qualified leads (MQL), and Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) and the conversion rates between the categories

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) are individuals who have been deemed ready for the next step of the sales process or more likely to convert to a customer compared to other leads. This is based on what pages they have visited and what actions they have taken.  For example, someone filling out a form download an e-book, signed up for your newsletter or engaged with your business content in another way might qualify as an MQL.

Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) are leads that someone has vetted, perhaps members of your marketing and sales teams, and deemed ready for the next stage.  These could also be someone who requests a meeting while providing certain qualifying criteria or that your sales team has already contacted or has scheduled for an appointment.

5. Inbound Marketing ROI

As far as management is concerned, this is likely one of the most important metrics for your business.  Inbound marketing ROI is significant because it helps you to ascertain whether your current inbound marketing methodology is making or losing money.

No one wants to continue feeding money to a marketing campaign or activity that’s losing your business money. Therefore, return on investment is a fundamental metric to measure, because it can determine whether you move forward with a particular marketing activity or completely shut it down.

Calculate your inbound marketing ROI with the following equation:

(Incremental Sales Growth – Marketing Investment) / Marketing Investment = ROI

6. Social Media Traffic

While most every business needs a social media presence and should have some metrics in place, there is an increasing number of industries where a comprehensive social media marketing strategy is essential for success and may warrant a Top 6 KPI.

There are a variety of metrics you can measure when it comes to determining the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy.  For most companies, it’s best to avoid becoming fixated on vanity metrics such as new followers, and instead track Key Social Metrics that measure the impact of your social media efforts on other marketing channels. This can include referrals to your website, the number of referred visitors who convert after they get to your site, or events users take to interact and engage with your company.

Breaking down the specific role the various social media channels can play for your business will help you focus your efforts while helping to determine metrics or KPIs that can help drive improvements when needed.

What Marketing KPIs will you track for your business?

This list is by no means all-inclusive, but it should give you a general idea of some of the most important marketing metrics and KPIs you should be tracking for your business.

If you’re not sure how to monitor marketing performance by keeping track of top marketing metrics, we’re here to help. MARION is an integrated marketing agency dedicated to helping small to medium businesses grow their influence online. Our team of internet marketing strategists and graphic design experts is ready to help you every step of the way and ensure you’re tracking of the right metrics to improve your marketing campaigns.

Contact us today for more information about our marketing services.
 

With so much competition out there, staying on top of SEO statistics for your business can mean the difference between being seen by your ideal customers or falling into search engine obscurity.

Google claims to make an average of three updates per day. If you don’t keep up with search engine statistics you may end up irrelevant.

Thankfully, our team at MARION has assembled a list of the most recent SEO stats for 2020. We’ve found stats that range from organic search statistics to search engine optimization facts. Let’s take a closer look at 12 SEO statistics for your business and why they matter.

The Effect of Page Length on SEO

The following SEO facts about web page length tells us that bigger really is better for search engine optimization.

1. A study found that long-form content received more shares than shorter form content

Buzzsumo and Moz examined more than 1 million articles and identified the trend that all articles that spanned 1,000 words or more received more likes and shares overall. That means one thing for your business — if you create longer posts filled with valuable information, you will likely be rewarded with likes and shares.

2. The average first-page result on Google contains 1,890 words according to Backlinko

In other words, quality matters more than quantity. The longer your content, the more likely it will rank well. That means providing as much value as you can for your visitors. Remember that your visitors are almost always looking for something specific. Go above and beyond when it comes to addressing searcher intent, and giving your customers what they’re searching for.

How Your Competition Is Approaching SEO

These two statistics will give you some insight into how your competitors are using SEO in their overall marketing execution.

3. 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority according to HubSpot

Marketers have been refocusing their efforts on improving their search engine rankings as opposed to focusing on other digital marketing strategies. There’s a good chance your competitors are focusing on improving their rankings as well. That means you need to refocus your efforts if you don’t want to be outranked (and outgrown) by your competitors.

4. In a survey by MarketingDive, more than 82% of internet marketers say that SEO effectiveness is on the rise while 42% say that SEO is significantly on the rise

Digital marketing is no longer as shiny and new as it used to be just a few years ago. Now, companies are getting better at SEO. That means if you want to stay competitive in 2020, your SEO strategy needs to be better than your competitor’s. Start with an SEO site analysis, and take it from there.

The Importance of Local Search

Do you know how many people search for businesses online right before making a local purchase? These local online search statistics may motivate you to implement local SEO best practices as soon as possible.

5. Google searches ending in the phrase “near me” have increased twofold over the past year according to Search Engine Watch

Local search statistics should mean a lot to local business owners. With an ever-increasing number of people searching for local services everyday business owners need to refocus their efforts on strengthening their local SEO tactics to make sure they’re at the top of the search engines when customers search for local services.

6. 72% of consumers who performed local searches visited a store within five miles according to WordStream

As far as local SEO stats are concerned, this is especially important. That’s because an overwhelmingly large number of people are taking action after searching for local services. Once again, if you have a local business you should focus heavily on local SEO.

Why Your SEO Tactics Will Need to Evolve

Tactics do not transcend time. Use these two stats to help shape the tactics that drive your small business marketing strategy.

7. According to Web Strategies, the average firm is projected to spend 41% of their marketing budget on digital marketing. By 2020 this rate is expected to grow to 45%.

Digital marketing has proven time and again that it has become the undisputed king of marketing overall. With online ad banners and search engine marketing on the rise, it’s no wonder that so many businesses are expanding their marketing budgets significantly.

8. Updating old blog posts with new updated information (and images) and republishing them can increase organic traffic by as much as 111% according to Backlinko

If you have a blog full of archived blog posts with outdated information, a great tactical move would be to update your old posts with new content and images. It’s a great way to drive organic traffic, and it’ll give your SEO a boost.

Trends That Will Affect Search Rankings

Take a look at the following four trends that will have a huge impact on your organic rankings.

9. 50% of search queries are four words or longer according to a study by WordStream

Users rarely type in single keywords when they’re running a query on Google. Most users are searching for long-tail keywords. For example, “SEO services in Houston” would be considered a long-tail keyword whereas “SEO” would be considered a head keyword. Keep this in mind during your keyword research and optimization endeavors.

10. Google receives over 63,000 searches per second on a daily basis according to Internet Live Stats

Typically, your ideal customer likes to feel that they’re in control of the entire buying process. Therefore, when you rank well you make it easier for them to perform research on your business. With so many people running searches on Google you can rest assured there are plenty of people looking for the services you specifically provide. Now it’s your job to make it easy for them to find you.

11. In 10 countries, more people perform Google searches on their handheld devices than they do on computers (according to HubSpot)

It’s no big surprise that the world is going mobile. Practically everyone has a cell phone or tablet, so if you want to stay competitive, you need to make sure your website is mobile friendly. Contact MARION for more information on how our responsive web design in Houston can help you!

Keep in mind that mobile devices vary in size which means your website needs to be able to adapt to various screen sizes. Lastly, paying attention to mobile SEO stats will allow you to spot trends and jump on opportunities when they present themselves.

12. According to NetMarketShare, more than 79% of all global desktop search traffic was run through Google. The remaining search traffic went through Bing at 7.27%, Baidu at 6.55% and Yahoo at 5.06%

It’s one thing to rank well on search engines such as Bing or Yahoo, but if you don’t rank well on Google, your target customers might never hear of your brand. Therefore, staying aware of search engine stats will allow you to stay ahead of your competitors.

Lessons to be learned

There are a few principal takeaways you can glean from the various SEO facts and figures in this article.

For one, when it comes to content marketing, long-form posts tend to rank better in search engines than shorter posts. That means you should focus on creating beneficial information for your audience that’s full of useful information! Make sure your content planning calendar is consistent enough to build a loyal following.

Marketers are also substantially increasing their marketing budgets. If you want to stay competitive, you’ll likely have to do the same. Finally, mastering keyword research and optimizing your business blogs will help you rank better.

If you’re looking to improve your SEO to stay competitive, you’re going to need a top-notch team that knows what they’re doing to help you get the job done. MARION is a full-service marketing company that has an experienced team of SEO professionals on hand to help you significantly improve your search engine ranking.

We understand what it takes to rank on the top, and we offer SEO services that reflect our expertise. If you’re tired of lagging behind your competition and you’re ready to get to work contact us today.

Marketing has always been an integral part of a business’ success. Therefore, it’s no surprise when we witness the continuous changes and developments that are taking place in the world of marketing. For a business owner or small business marketing manager, it’s important to ensure that sufficient attention is paid to the response generated from different advertising efforts.

To make things easier, Google has come up with different benchmarks that you can keep track of to measure the quality score for your paid search engine marketing efforts. Many companies today use these benchmarks to gain clarity about their position in the market as compared to that of the competitors’.

Google Ads Benchmarks & Their Significance

Google uses a Quality Score Formula to determine the ranking of each ad. Keeping track of your quality score can help you improve your overall marketing efforts and focus them on areas that are generating conversions.

Knowing the key performance indicators in the form of benchmarks provided by Google can help businesses compare their standing in the market and spend both money and effort on marketing techniques that are working.

Some of the most important benchmarks that you should be keeping track of are:

• Average Cost Per Click (CPC)
• Average Cost Per Action (CPA)
• Average Conversion Rate (CVR)
• Click-through Rate (CTR)

You can use the information derived from monitoring these benchmarks to devise a Google Ads Strategy which will significantly improve your overall marketing performance. It’s strongly recommended to seek the help of professional marketing agencies like MARION. With so many metrics to keep track of, many businesses fail to identify the exact cause of their less than average benchmark performance without the help of pay per click services expertise.

What is an Average CTR?

One of the important benchmarks requiring your attention is the Average Click-Through Rate (CTR). The click-through rate on Google Ads reveals exactly how many of the people that see your ad actually end up clicking it.

CTR is an important benchmark since it gives your business a clear idea about the performance of your ad’s positioning, use of keywords, and imagery. Moreover, while a basic CTR only tells you about the number of clicks for every ad, Average CTR calculates for you the number of clicks as opposed to the impressions of your campaigns.

What is a Good CTR for Google Ads?

There is no single click-through rate that you can regard as ideal for every type of business. That’s because a good CTR varies depending on the industry you belong to, the type of business you have, and your future goals. However, you can find out how good your Google Ads click-through rate is compared to that of your competitors with the help of free tools.

Average CTR Across Industries

As mentioned earlier, the average CTR will vary for a particular business on the basis of the industry it belongs to. However, the average CTR is generally around 1.91% for a search ad, and 0.35% for a display ad. Recent figures shared by WordStream show the following:

How to Improve Click-through Rate in Google Ads

To improve the response that your ad gets from the audience, you need to incorporate some of the techniques that help gain more attention from your target audience. These include:

• Making sure that the ad copy is relevant to the interests of the target audience. To come up with such a message, you will need to get to know your target audience first. Identifying who you are targeting and formulating a message according to their needs will help your ad gain more attention.
• Adding the review extension to your ad can also boost response. This is because most of the customers today make purchase decisions based on the reviews they find online. Incorporating a review extension will not only increase the trust factor but also generate a higher response.
• Coming up with a message that does not only focus on making a sale but rather uses softer communication methods goes a long way in boosting your average CTR. It has been witnessed that ad copy that “talks to the customer” is more likely to get a response than one that clearly states the importance of making a sale.
• Keywords hold immense importance in the creation of a compelling ad copy. Simply stuffing keywords into your ad will not do the trick. Instead, you will need to creatively use one strong keyword that will help you get the right attention. Attracting the right traffic will increase the likelihood of a response as well.

The importance of a good average CTR cannot be doubted, but there is a possibility you achieve a high click-through rate with an incredibly low number of conversions. The main goal of every business is to increase the number of customer conversions, so it’s essential to focus on the overall ability of your ad to generate the right response through these clicks as well. A good average CTR is only achieved through improving the quality of your message.

Bottom Line for Your Average CTR in Google Ads

The easiest way to improve your average CTR is to increase the quality of your ad. Rather than focusing too much on the CTR that you are getting, it’s more productive to spend time looking for ways to improve the performance of your ad. For this purpose, get help from companies that provide specialized digital marketing services, like our team here at MARION.

MARION helps you boost your performance and improve your overall Quality Score by investing in the right online marketing efforts.

Contact MARION today and find out how our experienced team of Houston web developers, SEO experts, and marketing specialists can help you grow your business.

Houston, Texas is a big city, and it’s one of the most competitive markets in the country to run a small business. Houston is home to more than 100,000 small businesses. With so much competition, finding loyal customers can be a real challenge.

If you’re looking for marketing strategy help in Houston, this advice from the MARION team will come in handy. We’ve been providing marketing strategy in Houston for 40 years, and we’re sure you’ll find the following six methods helpful.

6 Marketing Methods for Small Businesses in Houston, TX

Let’s look at small business marketing strategies that work in Houston, TX, and how you can implement them for your own company.

1. Local social media marketing

When it comes to small business marketing ideas in Houston, TX, social media marketing should be the first thought that comes to mind.

If you’re operating a small business, you’re going to need a significant digital presence to promote your services and let people know you can solve their problems. Once upon a time, businesses could pick and choose whether to maintain a business web presence. Today, it’s a necessity.

Social media marketing is one of the most popular marketing strategy examples in Houston, TX, because of its usage rates. Due to the sheer number of people who use social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (amongst others), implementing a digital marketing strategy is more important than ever. There are several examples of the benefits of social media for business.

Facebook’s hyper targeted ad platform is one great example why your Houston small business marketing should include social media. These ads allow you to target your ideal customer based on city, income, interests and more.

For example, you can create a Facebook ad that targets “seniors who live in the Houston area who make more than $100,000 a year.”

Once your ad has been accepted and approved, the only people who will see your ad will be the customers who fall within the above parameters.

No matter what social media platform you use, there are potentially millions of customers who live in Houston who can be reached through the power of social media marketing.

2. Traditional marketing

Though online marketing has certainly taken the limelight in today’s digital world, traditional marketing is still a viable option for many small businesses. Local marketing methods such as billboards, newspapers, television, and magazine ads are still great ways to reach out to the local community. With that being said, let’s touch on a few of the pitfalls of traditional marketing.

For one, traditional marketing can be costly. Facebook ads can be as cheap as $5 or less but are still capable of reaching thousands of people. In comparison, TV and billboard ads can run you thousands of dollars.

Furthermore, traditional ads run on cycles. Once your ad cycle has run its course, you’ll no longer be able to promote your business, and the good people of Houston will simply move on to one of your competitors. As they say, out of sight, out of mind. You’ll have to run an entirely new cycle to put your business back on the map.

Despite its pitfalls, traditional marketing is still used effectively by many Houston-based small businesses. When it comes to your business, do your homework and experiment to see which traditional marketing strategies work, and which don’t.

3. Content Strategy

If there’s one thing people want today more than anything else, its fresh content. We’ve been so inundated with a nonstop barrage of articles, videos, and pictures on social media that people have become addicted to a non-stop flow of new content. This is why a good content strategy is one of the best marketing methods for any small business in Houston, TX.

To market your business online in Houston, TX, you really should have a website. Starting a website blog that provides value to your customers is a great way to grab customer interest and establish yourself as an expert in your space. Even if you don’t have the bandwidth to manage your own blog, you can leverage content marketing services to help grow your digital presence.

Furthermore, if you employ a proper SEO strategy and put out engaging content while blogging for business, you’ll create a bond between your business and your customers which ultimately leads to more conversions down the road.

Due to potential reach and low creation cost, content marketing is one of the best marketing ideas for small businesses.

4. Email marketing

When it comes to email marketing, every guru out there is saying the same thing — there’s money in the list. A great digital marketing strategy in Houston, TX, is to create and grow an email list. It’s an effective tactic that thousands of businesses utilize to convert prospects into paying customers.

You can do this by issuing a newsletter on a regular basis. This may sound like a lot of work, but if you’re new to Houston email marketing, you can start off slowly by sending emails on a quarterly basis. Then you can bump it up to a monthly and even weekly email sequence.

It isn’t difficult to create an email list. If you’re building an email list strictly online, you can funnel prospects to a landing page on your website where you can request their email in exchange for something of value. If you’re not sure how to create the appropriate landing page, learn how to find a web designer that can deliver what you need.

For example: “Enter your email for a free eBook on how to grow your small business in Houston.” In many cases, customers will drop their email in exchange for a valuable piece of information.

If you’re running a brick and mortar shop, you can ask your customers for their email in person. In this instance, holding a raffle is a great way to incentivize their participation. For email marketing strategy help in Houston, contact MARION today.

5. Business Alliances

A great local marketing strategy in Houston, TX, is to build business alliances. Ideally, business alliances will lead to referrals for all businesses involved. Alliances are among the best B2B marketing strategies for companies that offer supplementary or complementary services.

A word of advice — you should never go into a business alliance with a selfish mentality. Try to give as much as you can and expect little in return. As a result, the other businesses in your alliance will likely try to benefit you as much as you benefit them. In the end, everyone wins.

6. Start a referral program

Speaking of referrals, starting a referral program is also a great business marketing plan in Houston, TX. Starting a referral program can be just as simple as handing a customer a business card and asking them to refer their friends.

You can also offer your customers incentives for referring a customer to your business. For example, a customer can receive 10% off of their next purchase if they refer a friend. You could then offer the same discount to the person who was just referred. The goal is to create a chain of customers who refer their family and friends, which translates to a constant flow of traffic for your business.

There are a wide variety of strategies available for marketing your small business in Houston, TX. We understand how difficult it can be to market a business successfully. Even if you possess marketing knowledge, sometimes it’s best to leave the heavy lifting to the professionals.

MARION is a full-service marketing agency that offers a variety of services including branding, web design, SEO, PPC and much more. As a Houston based firm, we know what it takes to make your company stand out from the sea of competition.

Contact us today to take your business to the next level.

If you’re a business owner, you know that it’s tough to reach your intended audience. Without a strategic advertising plan, you will never achieve sustained growth.

Because it’s such a complex and sophisticated industry, many developing businesses are not able to effectively maintain a productive advertising schedule. This is a major roadblock in the highly-competitive advertising space.

The advantages of using advertising agencies are vast, regardless of your company’s size.

Why Do Companies Use Advertising Agencies?

The advantages and disadvantages of advertising agencies are both important to consider before you commit. When you fully understand what an advertising agency brings to the table, you will feel more confident in your decision to move forward despite the associated hard costs.

Are your advertising campaigns generating leads? Download this free eBook with 26 of the best lead generation tips to improve your ROI today!

So, if you’re dragging your feet, wondering “why hire an ad agency?,” it’s time to analyze the pros and cons.

3 Pros of Using Ad Agencies

The advantages of advertising agencies can help kickstart or re-energize your business. By partnering with a credible marketing company, you will not only maximize your company’s exposure, but also enhance the overall productivity and growth of your organization.

Here are some of the main benefits associated with this type of long-term investment.

1. Expertise and Knowledge

There are certain aspects of your business that you should outsource, especially if you are not experienced in them yourself. Since marketing and advertising has the potential to offer a great return on your investment, this is an area that you should consider contracting to an experienced third party. Best of all, you will not need to waste any time training an employee (or yourself).

By contracting an agency’s starting lineup, you will gain instant access to your own team of experts. These teams tend to be made up of a diverse group of skilled specialists, allowing you to utilize various strategies and applications.

Tip: Some agencies may specialize in one key area of expertise, such as online advertising. That is why you should have a clear vision of what type of advertising you require before you select an agency.

Since advertising is such a multifaceted industry, it is best to work with an experienced team that has a track record of success. MARION is marketing agency in Houston offers a full range of services depending on your needs: pay per click services, SEO services, logo design, digital marketing and more. Our team can create and execute a marketing strategy that aligns with your unique goals.

If you’re ready to ramp up your business and optimize your marketing budget, please contact MARION for a quote.

2. Saves Critical Resources

Although you will need to incur third party marketing spend, you will be rewarded in terms of ROI. The truth is that a successful ad campaign takes time and energy — which small to medium-sized business owners don’t generally have.

You will also save money, which may seem counterintuitive. For example, instead of hiring an employee to assist with challenging or even mundane marketing tasks, you can work with an agency. This means that you will avoid hefty payroll taxes and health care costs.

The same cost savings can be realized even if you had previously taken on the role of CMO yourself. You will not need to purchase any software tools. With the time you save, you can focus on what matters most — your business operations.

Tip: Ask the agency you’re working with whether they can optimize your ad space or if they can get a discounted agency rate with your local radio, TV station or a publisher that matches your advertising goals. This can help you stretch your budget, providing an even greater ROI. If not, see if they can help elevate your next industry event (think trade show displays and the types of systems that will wow your target market).

3. Support Brand Development

Advertising agencies have the type of experience required to develop brand awareness. This is one area you don’t want to underestimate, as a clear brand identity and message is what will allow you to connect with your customers. Whether you need help with your logo or identifying your target audience, these are crucial steps that an agency can confidently help you with.

Tip: Although the whole point of hiring a marketing agency is to maximize your time and energy, don’t be shy about inquiring about certain components of your ad campaign. Agencies are unique in that they will likely find new ways to promote your brand. Which channels are most beneficial in terms of your advertising strategies? Your brand development strategy depends on the unique value proposition of your company!

Con of Using an Ad Agency

Of course, the main initial “con” is related to the question on everyone’s mind: How much does it cost to hire an advertising agency?

The answer to this question is not black and white, as there are many variables involved in terms of the scope of your plan. As stated by Forbes, there are three core elements in regards to branding in relation to your marketing strategy.

1. The visual aspect of your brand (your logo, website and marketing materials).
2. The messaging component (communicating who you are and what you do).
3. The positioning of your brand, which works alongside your core business plan and structure.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Advertising Agency?

Forbes estimates that an agency could charge anywhere between $10,000 and $50,000 for a full blow campaign. However, this is highly dependent on what you want to achieve. Some agencies will offer select monthly packages, which often range between $2,500 and $4,000 per month.

Although this may seem like a disadvantage in the short-term, this investment will soon transition into a significant ROI when you partner with the right agency.