Happy New Year!

Blue Dog Marketing wishes you a very Happy New Year!

3 Tips to a Better Website

3 Tips to a Better Website

Having a website is an important part of your marketing plan. However, developing a website sometimes seems complicated and overwhelming. Here's a few tips you should follow to create a website that's easy to use and will keep your clients coming back.

1) Include contact information on every page. Be sure to make it easy for clients to contact you either by including an e-mail address, phone number or a link to a contact form on each page of your website. People are lazy. If they want to contact you and can't easily find your contact information, they'll leave your website.

2) Make sure everything works. If you include links or videos, be sure to test them and make sure they work. People will make assumptions about the quality of your business based on your website. Don't lose business because your website doesn't work properly.

3) Update your content. Be sure to provide fresh, updated content to your blog on a regular basis. When it's obvious new blogs haven't been added for several months, that creates a bad impression. New, fresh content will not only keep your customers coming back, but it will also help improve your search engine ranking.

Merry Christmas!

Blue Dog Marketing wishes you a safe and happy holidays! Merry Christmas!

Is A Brochure Right for Your Small Business?

Is A Brochure Right for Your Small Business?

Back in the 1980's-1990's Brochures were a hot marketing tool. Everyone was using brochures. Times have changed! Once the Internet became a creditable form of marketing, people have limited using brochures and some businesses have stopped using brochures forever. Why?

Just because you have a website or blog doesn't mean you should stop using brochures as a marketing tool to grow your business. Brochures can entice your targeted market to visit your website or blog.

Design your brochure to entice people to include a strong call-to-action, what you want them to do. If you are selling a product and your brochure is a tool you'll use to initiate the sales process. Add pictures, and a price list. If you are sponsoring a workshop or seminar, a brochure is a great way to get people to register for your event. Brochures are great for one time only events or a series of events. Below are a few more ideas to get you started on using brochures in marketing your business:

1. Don't use colored paper! Use off white or white and add color to the font used for the title and through pictures.

2. Be Creative and add graphic art and pictures.

3. Know how you are going to use the brochure. Will it be to sell a product? Promote your business in general? Or to offer a seminar, training or workshop?

4. Will your brochure be two fold or tri-fold?

5. Be sure to include the name of your company, your logo, contact phone number, and the purpose of the brochure.

6. You can use a brochure to introduce your company to the reader and describe specific products or services you have to offer. Make this information interesting to entice the reader to read on and not trash your brochure.

Cause Marketing: How Giving Back Can Be Profitable

Cause Marketing: How Giving Back Can Be Profitable

Cause Marketing is Good For Both Your Cause and Your Company

Cause related marketing, or "cause marketing" as coined by American Express with their campaign in the '83, continues to be a powerful marketing strategy. Cause marketing is a strategic marketing partnership that couples a brand or company with a social cause or cause-related organization for mutual benefit. It attracts consumers to a company or brand that patronizes a specific cause. This strategy has the potential to alter a consumer's choice environment and boost its public relations.

In cause marketing, marketers implement a charity into their advertising campaign. They raise a charity's awareness and gain a profit from their perceived elevated social responsibility. Benefits from this partnership include increases to revenue, visibility of the cause's message, and volunteers.

81% of consumers want to support a company's cause related product. A staggering 85% of consumers have a more positive opinion of a company that supports a cause, and 80% are more likely to switch to similarly priced brands.

This past fall, Blue Dog Marketing helped a client, trü salon, with cause marketing their participation in the American Cancer Society’s ‘Making Strides Against Breast Cancer’ walk. trü salon offered massages for a donation at the Park Avenue Festival in August. During October, the month of the walk, they held promotions in the salon to raise funds. They also had a large team participate in the walk. This is cause marketing. It’s part team building for the company, fun for the employees, raises awareness in the community, and, through marketing, raised name recognition for trü salon.

How are you giving back to causes through your company?

You Really Do Need a Marketing Budget

You Really Do Need a Marketing Budget

The mantra in business today is to do more with less. That concept carries through to marketing. There are many ways to spend your marketing dollars that may or may not achieve the results you are expecting. Here are several ways to increase the likelihood you will have an effective plan.

Be clear on what you are trying to accomplish
One of the keys in marketing is the return on investment for the money spent. By having clear, specific, measurable goals you will know if you are getting the right results. Many make decisions based on their "gut" feeling and never really know if they are spending wisely.

Concentrate on promoting what you do best
A small business can provide a wide range of services to their customers. That's doesn't necessarily mean they are great at all of those things. Promote the services that you are the best at doing and prefer to do.

Budget for outside support
While it is tempting to "do it yourself" to save money, the use of experienced professionals can save time and money if utilized properly. Someone who is skilled at developing web sites, for example, will know the pitfalls to avoid and how to make your site effective. Technology and analytics are available to experienced people to assist you with evaluating results to ensure your budget is spent wisely.

Plan for the unexpected
You cannot anticipate everything, good or bad, which impacts your practice. Be flexible and ready to react to changes. If your marketing plan brings in a large increase in customers, can you add staff to meet the demand? What happens if you have big promotion planned and there is a period of terrible weather than keeps everyone inside? Have some alternative plans in place to deal with the unexpected.

Regularly review your results
Most small businesses plan their budget annually, but it’s best to review the results monthly. That will allow for changes to build on what it working and possibly drop what is not. It is best to set aside time to do your review so it does not slip through the cracks.

Marketing your small business takes not only a solid budget, but a plan to implement and review it as well. Getting the most of the money you spend is key to achieving your goals.

 

Tips for Writing a Basic Marketing Plan

Tips for Writing a Basic Marketing Plan

Do you have a current marketing plan for your small business? Or do you keep putting it off because it seems overwhelming or you’re not sure where to start?

Creating a marketing plan is the best way to keep yourself on track to grow your business and obtain new customers. A marketing plan is also a great way to help you manage your time and energy by directing your day-to-day marketing activities.

A marketing plan doesn’t have to be daunting or time consuming to create. And a simple, easy to follow plan will help you stay more focused.

Here are five tips for creating your marketing plan:

Who is your ideal customer?

Determine who your ideal customer is. Identify who you want to attract to your business is essential to a successful marketing plan. Think about your current customers. Why do they need you? The more specific you can be, the easier it will be to create the right message and strategies to reach them.

Your goals

What are your goals? Again, be specific. How do you want to reach your prospective customers? Once you’ve reached them, what do you want them to do? You need to include a “call to action” in each contact with prospective customers. A “call to action” is the action you want them to take, such as signing up for your newsletter, visiting your website, or registering for a special offer.

Your prospective customers must get to know and trust you before they will do business with you. Think about the step they will take to trust you and become your customer.

How will you reach them?

Now you know who to target and what you want them to do, how will you find them? Are they on social media? What activities do your potential customers participate in?

Plan your budget

Your marketing dollars should be wisely spent. Determine how you will spend them. Social media, emails, newsletters, blogging and a website are some examples of where you can budget your marketing dollars.

Create a strategy

Plan your strategy. What is your message to potential customers? What are their pain points and how do you solve them? Why should they work with you and how will they benefit? Use the answers to these questions to formulate your strategy. Create an elevator pitch, business cards and website around these questions. Include calls to action in all your messages.

Track your responses. If you’re not getting the response you want, it might be time to re-evaluate what you’re doing.

Decide on 6-8 avenues to focus your marketing efforts on so you have an ongoing plan to continually reach your prospective customers.

Still need help writing your marketing plan? Give Blue Dog Marketing a call. We’d be happy to help you grow your business.

3 Reasons You Need a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a well-prepared document detailing how you will sell your products and services to your potential customers. Here are some reasons why you need a marketing plan.

Brand Recognition

Your brand is very important in helping you sell your products or services. Your marketing plan will guide you on the best way to make your brand known. To do this, you need to focus on the type of customers your business is meant for.

Timeline Gets Established

Your marketing plan should give you direction in what you what to do within a specified period of time and milestones that should be achieved when that period is over. Using the right marketing technique that will have a direct impact on your effort is the best way to proceed.

Have a Marketing Budget

Don’t overspend. A marketing plan will ensure that you properly invest your money in appropriate marketing avenues. Marketing is an investment, but it shouldn’t be overly expensive. Budget your money and stick to it.

A marketing plan helps keep you on track for the year. It directs you, and your dollars, to the correct avenues that will allow you to reach your potential customers and grow your business.

If you need help creating a marketing plan for your small business, contact Blue Dog Marketing. We’re here to help you succeed!

 

 

What Is a Marketing Plan?

 

What is a marketing plan and how do you create one? Your marketing plan will help you assess customer demand, discover distribution channels and pinpoint the best ways to market your business.

Before starting to write, you need to do some market research. You can hire a firm to conduct your market research or do it yourself. Through this research you'll learn about your competitors, customers, market and your product. Your goal is to know as much as possible about your product's world. Once you understand that, it's time to work on your marketing plan.

What is a marketing plan? A marketing plan is the road map to how your product will move out into the world. Not only will it lay out what you want to accomplish, but it will also explain how you plan to achieve your goals.

Your marketing plan will consist of 9 parts:

Executive summary: Your summary should contain the most important points from each section, capture the reader's attention and be polished to perfection.

Company: This is where you explain what your company stands for. Use it to introduce yourself as owner and outline your company's goals and values.

Product: Tell the reader about your product, including what makes it unique, superior or more in demand than your competitors' products. Back your statements up with hard facts.

Customers: Use this section to describe your target customers. One of the easiest ways to do this is simply imagine your ideal customer. Describe her life and what she wants from a product like yours.

Competitors: This section outlines who else is trying to reach your customers and what competitive advantages they have.

Delivery: How will your customers acquire your product? Will they buy it in a retail store, order it from a catalogue or buy it directly from you online or in person?

Reach: Here is where you explain how you will reach your customers. Plan your budget for each medium and how much time you will spend on each.

Handling challenges: New business challenges arise all the time, but if you're prepared you can overcome them. Outline some roadblocks you could face and how you will handle them.

Pricing: This section lets you explain your product pricing strategy. Outline the cost of your product, your profit margin and your retail and wholesale prices. If your price is higher or lower than others in your niche, explain you rationale.

Your business plan will change with the life of your business. As customers' tastes change, new competitors enter the market and old ones retire, you'll need to update your plan.

Choose a refresh date 6 months in the future to evaluate your plan: what worked, what didn't and what new directions do you want to take.

Now that you know what is a marketing plan I hope you'll start writing your own. While having a plan won't guarantee sales, it will help you set yourself up to meet your goals.