If there’s one thing a small business owner should know the importance of, it’s branding. Unfortunately, it’s also true that if there’s one thing small business owners often get wrong, it’s branding. Branding and marketing your small business is incredibly important, and one of the earliest tasks you will face as a small business owner. However, it’s also an incredibly delicate process; and if it’s done incorrectly in the early days of a business’s life, the business can be destroyed before it even really starts. Branding lets potential clients, customers, and investors know who you are as a small business owner, what your goals include, and what sets your company apart from others. It’s such a remarkably detailed and important task that there are companies specifically set up to market other businesses, and nothing else. Many small business owners find it better to leave marketing to professional ad agencies, rather than doing it in-house; and with good reason. Not only is marketing easy to get wrong — it’s also very time-consuming. Outsourcing your marketing to ad agencies takes a lot of work off of your plate, and in many ways it’s also more cost-effective than handling marketing yourself or hiring a specific employee to handle marketing. Let’s look into why so many small businesses are turning to advertising firms to handle their marketing strategies — and how those marketing strategies can transform your small business.
Advertising Your Small Business: How Much Does It Cost?
Many small business owners know that starting a small business costs money. But much of the money they consider in advance include the funds involved in hiring employees, getting the small business off the ground, and renting facilities for manufacturing and inventory. What many don’t think about is how much needs to be spent on advertising. The more you know about this in advance, the more you can plan and the easier it will be to allocate the right amount of money for hiring advertising agencies when the time comes. In total, 2015 saw $180 billion spent on advertising. With 59% of CMOs seeing display ads as part of a good strategy, marketers like ad agencies will spend almost $24 billion on online display advertising in this year alone. This may sound intimidating, but remember that it’s representative of a market as a whole. The ad agency you work with will require a certain amount of money, of course. But if you choose the right marketing strategies, you can be sure to see a return on your investment. And the right marketing strategies are most effectively utilized by professional ad agencies.
Marketing Strategies: What Is Right For Your Small Business?
There are many ways through which you can advertise your small business. In the past, people relied on more traditional advertising methods — from print ads to billboards. The fact is that the world of advertising has transformed in recent years, becoming more dependent on the digital world. Some businesses have moved forward with this trend; others have not, often to their own detriment. It’s estimated that only 8% of companies have email marketing teams. This is despite the fact that email is often rated as the platform with the highest rate of return on investment of an digital marketing strategy. Of course, email isn’t the only digital marketing strategy you should utilize. It’s also important that you take advantage of social media, a marketing strategy that can do a lot to change the way that your business is perceived.
Digital Marketing: What’s The Advantage?
So, why do we take advantage of digital marketing? For one thing, many people now spend a large amount of time online, enhancing your chances of being noticed as a business. Furthermore, marketing on social media platforms and through email allows you as a small business owner to target the clients that you want. This elevates your chances of success, and for that matter your chances of not only getting but keeping clients.