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What are the Key Questions to Ask Before Engaging a Marketing Consultancy or Agency?

What are the Key Questions to Ask When Assessing a Marketing Consultancy or Agency? What are the key questions to ask when assessing a marketing consultancy or agency for your business? Trying to decide and select the one best suited for the specific needs of your business is not easy. Yet, it is an important decision since you are entering into a relationship with the intent that it will meet your needs, be fruitful, align with your values and culture, and result in a win-win relationship. Key Areas to Assess Having interviewed many marketing consulting firms and marketing agencies during my tenure leading Marketing for businesses and for clients, my assessment process focuses on these three key areas: Does the firm or agency have the expertise (skills, knowledge, and experience) to serve my specific needs? If yes, how have they proven this to date? Is the firm or agency interested, enthusiastic and motivated by my business and the specific needs I am seeking...
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How To Master Your Marketing Funnel and Mix in 2022

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How To Master Your Marketing Funnel and Mix in 2022 How to Master the Marketing Funnel and Communications Mix continues to be one of the most pressing challenges frequently shared by clients. Knowing how to create a communications strategy and mix using the right content to be effective at each stage of the marketing funnel (referred to as the ATTRACT-ENGAGE-DELIGHT flywheel by others including HubSpot) across a mix of media and aligned to the right metrics to assess and manage the ROI is tricky for most businesses. It All Starts with the Right Strategy Before discussing or thinking about the content and media for each stage of the funnel or flywheel, we need to first and carefully think through the strategy that will inform these go-forward efforts. What are you really trying to accomplish: what are your defined goals and objectives, and how will the strategy help drive this? If a strategy pre-exists, we often examine it to ensure the right strategy is in pl...
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How To Get The Right Marketing Help You Need? Choosing the Best Option.

How To Get The Right Marketing Help You Need? Choosing the Best Option Between a Marketing Agency, Consulting Firm, Fractional CMO, or Direct-Hire Employee. You know your business needs help, but do you know the best option for your marketing needs? Many of us can identity that we need some help in our marketing department, where the challenge lies is figuring out how to get the right marketing help to best address these needs. With several available options, it can be difficult to choose whether a marketing agency, marketing consulting firm, fractional CMO or a direct hire marketing employee is the best solution. So, how do you get the right marketing help you need, and how do you choose between alternatives? Let’s explore the various options for getting your business the right help it needs by considering the alternatives and scenarios for each. Defining The Marketing Skills Needed The first step is to carefully define the marketing skills you actually ne...
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How to Optimize Marketing and Communications for Today’s Times

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How to Optimize Marketing and Communications for Today’s  Times How to optimize Marketing & Communications in today’s times is a question frequently asked by clients. Here is a snapshot of how I generally respond. In today’s (still uncertain) times optimizing Marketing and Communications is not a ‘nice to do’, it’s a ‘must do’. The lingering effect from COVID-19 and its variants has affected in some way most if not all B2B, B2B2C, and B2C markets, causing a shift in mindset of buyers. As with most change, opportunities arise, and learning how to optimize your Marketing and Communications to align to these opportunities is imperative. With 2021 still in a state of flux due to the pandemic and 2022 right around the corner, now is the time to craft your Marketing and Communications strategy and plan for enabling growth in the new year. Leveraging Today’s Market A year ago, I wrote a blog expressing the key sentiment “this too shall pass” relating to CO...
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Market Research: How To Conduct It Effectively

Market Research: How To Conduct It Effectively  Think you know your market? Think again! Market research conducted effectively bridges the gap between what you think you know, and what you will actually come to know through timely, effective timely research. It reduces risk and drives growth by providing you the knowledge your business needs to move forward. This blog focuses on how to conduct Market Research effectively.   Here goes… Keep Up with Your Audience Learning how to conduct effective market research is critical to marketing. Why? Because having a deep understanding of your specific market, your buyers, and the behaviors and influences associated with the purchase decisions of your target audience are necessary. This then allows you to adapt your marketing strategy to align with the way today’s buyers research, consider, evaluate, and buy products and services. My last blog covered the What, Why, Types and Applications for Market Research an...
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