Answers to Your Top 14 Questions About Marketing

May 30, 2019

Digital marketing. Websites. SEO. Social media. The number of marketing tools at your disposal are seemingly endless and can be overwhelming rather than empowering.

If you’re among the overwhelmed, you’re not alone.

In fact, over the last 20 years, our clients have asked us a lot of questions – and many of the them have been the same.

So our team sat down and answered the most common questions we’ve received to provide you with the knowledge needed to boost your marketing efforts and your confidence level.

Table of Contents

1. Why do I need a marketing plan?

2. What should my top marketing priority be?

3. What advertising vehicles do you recommend?

4. Why does my website need SEO?

5. What social media platforms should I be on?

6. Do I need to do paid social advertising?

7. How do I make changes to my website?

8. How much does it cost to get a new website, run paid ads, have monthly SEO management, etc.?

9. How do I know if my website or marketing materials need to be redesigned?

10. When do I need a new logo?

11. How quickly can you get my project done?

12. How quickly can I expect to see results from traditional and digital marketing?

13. How do I get more leads?

14. What’s the return-on-investment for marketing and advertising services?

Questions About Marketing

1. Why do I need a marketing plan?

One-off marketing such as a direct mailer may yield results. But any rewards you reap will pale in comparison to the results of campaigns run across multiple platforms over extended periods as part of an integrated marketing plan.

That’s because customers often need a variety of touch points with your company before they choose your product or service. Your marketing plan defines all of those touch points so your target audience recognizes you and finds you – no matter which platform or device they’re on.

Additionally, a well-developed marketing plan makes the most of your budget and allows you to set measurable goals for your campaigns. Otherwise it may be difficult to tell if your marketing is actually getting the results you want.

2. What should my top marketing priority be?

To have a healthy website.

Your website serves as a virtual storefront. Your marketing efforts promote it and drive customers there. So it needs to look good and function well.

An audit reveals the hidden and visible issues affecting your company’s rank in search results and provides a priority list of needed fixes.

If you forego an audit and your site is in poor health, money spent on advertising may be a waste. Not only does a poorly designed and technically inferior site reflect poorly on your brand, but customers also will leave if they can’t find what they’re looking for.

This can hurt your company’s website even more since time spent on a website can improve your conversion rate.

3. What advertising vehicles do you recommend?

It depends on who your audience is and where they spend their time.

For example, while podcasts, TikTok and messaging apps are among the trending vehicles for reaching customers, they won’t work if your prospective customers don’t listen to podcasts or use apps like Messenger or TikTok.

We typically recommend search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) as part of a well-developed marketing strategy, as well as paid social ads. However, traditional print, out-of-home and broadcast also can effectively reach audiences for certain clients.

Talk to your marketing team or agency about new opportunities for your company, and ask questions about emerging trends that interest you. Even if they aren’t right for your business, you will learn more about the strategy and positioning of your brand.

Questions about Websites & Digital Marketing

 4. Why does my website need SEO?

Because your customers won’t be able to find your website without it.

Search engines use the keywords, quality content, tagging and other search engine optimization (SEO) practices to understand what is on your website. This helps the search engine know what queries are best answered by your website.

If a search engine can’t look at your website and grasp what problems your business solves, it won’t serve your website high in search results. And if your website is appearing on page 10 of Google or Bing, customers won’t find you when they search for the product or service they need.

Monthly SEO management changes all of this with relevant new content and continuous optimization of the current content on your site. It also keeps you on top of the latest changes from search engines, which allows your website to be more easily selected as a result to a customer query.

5. What social media platforms should I be on?

The right social media platform for your business depends on where your target audience lives, breathes and engages.

If you have inspiring or engaging images, and your ideal customer is in the 25-34 age-range, Instagram would likely be the best choice.

If you make quality how-to videos, then YouTube, which also is the second-largest search engine, is the natural choice.

But before you jump headlong into any platforms, consider the amount of time you have to dedicate to content creation, posting and engagement. Multiple platforms may be a good fit for your business. However, if you only have time to manage one platform well, it’s better to do that than to manage two platforms poorly.

6. Do I need to do paid social advertising?

Yes. A lot of success on social media comes from creating quality content for your audience. But paid ads provide a bigger boost that allows your content to reach more people quickly and easily.

Additionally, the constantly changing feeds of different platforms have made paid social ads a must to even reach your followers.

The good news is that 50 percent of Gen Z (18- and 19-year-olds) and 42 percent of millennials (20- to 36-year-olds) think social media is the most relevant channel for ads. This means if you create the right type of campaigns, your content will enhance the social media experience of your customers rather than interrupt it.

Learn more about paid social advertising and how to get started here.

7. How do I make changes to my website?

It depends on the changes that need to be made!

You can usually make minor changes or additions, like revising an address or posting a blog, on your own.

That’s because many agencies and developers – including Fresh – use content management systems (CMS) like WordPress to create your website. This type of system allows for easy access and editing even if you don’t have web development experience. All you need is a simple training session with your agency or developer to get started.

However, your agency or developer should handle more complicated modifications, like a popup or the integration of Facebook events into your website. Depending on the original agreement, they may submit a new quote based on the changes requested.

One side note: You should add content regularly to your site to maintain a healthy presence. Search engines look for new, fresh content when evaluating where to place your site in search results.

8. How much does it cost to get a new website, run paid ads, have monthly SEO management, etc.?

The cost of any project depends on the amount of time that will be invested into the project, and the type of work being done. For example, at Fresh we charge more per hour for creative services, like logo design and branding, than we do for the research we conduct to learn about your target audience prior to developing the creative.

After we have a phone call or a meeting with you, our team will put together a quote based on the amount of time and the type of work that will be needed to complete the project. We also consider revisions and unforeseen project details when preparing the quote.

There may be times, however, when work requested falls outside of the original work detailed in the quote. If a website project expanded from 10 pages to 50 pages, we would quote the additional pages because of the additional work involved.

Questions about Design

9. How do I know if my website or marketing materials need to be redesigned?

If you haven’t had a new website or marketing materials for a few years, it’s probably time for a redesign.

A new website and updated marketing materials keep your brand cohesive across your advertising campaigns. They also allow you to incorporate new design elements and to improve your website’s functionality based on new tools that are available.

Remember, you want to communicate that your company is up-to-date and trustworthy both online and offline. A difficult-to-navigate website or marketing materials that look outdated will do just the opposite.

10. When do I need a new logo?

You should plan to redesign your logo and update your graphic identity if your name, service or product offerings have changed, or if your current logo was not professionally designed.

If none of those things has occurred, it’s still a good rule of thumb is to refresh your logo at least every 10 years.

Even large companies like Shell and McDonald’s, which have extremely recognizable logos, modify their logos to maintain an updated, current look. (Take a closer look at the evolution of some famous logos over the years here.)

Questions About Our Results

11. How quickly can you get my project done?

For current clients requesting help on a smaller project — like creating a brochure or a last-minute ad placement — our team prides itself on responding within one business day and providing the requested service within 2-5 business days.

If you’re a new client, we’ll create a timeline for your project after the quote has been approved. Our quotes include built-in time for revisions. However, the schedule sometimes shifts due to the volume of revisions requested. If that occurs, we stay in constant contact with you to communicate timeline adjustments and plans for moving forward.

12. How quickly can I expect to see results from traditional and digital marketing?

It depends on what results you want to see.

If you’re hoping for an increase in clicks to the website through digital marketing, results from SEO, SEM and social media ads can show up within 3-6 months of implementation. If you’re hoping for more leads from your website, it may take 6-12 months of digital marketing depending on how many competitors are vying for the same spaces, the budget and the health of your website.

For traditional marketing – including print, TV and radio – results can be more difficult to attribute. However, traditional advertising is still trusted more than digital advertising. In one survey, more than 50 percent say they “often” or “always” watch commercials from companies they’re satisfied with. Additionally, half of people also read the print ads they received by mail, and 48 percent read print ads that were picked up in-store.

The best way to determine when you’ll see results is by having an honest conversation with your agency about what you want from your marketing. This helps the agency track and communicate the results that matter to you.

13. How do I get more leads?

One great way to generate more leads is to run well-targeted pay-per-click and social ads, and to implement an SEO campaign. This will keep your company in front of the right customers so that it’s front-of-mind when they’re ready to purchase.

However, it’s important to remember that marketing is a journey. Factors like how competitive your industry is, the types of digital and traditional campaigns being run, and your marketing budget all affect how many leads you get and how quickly you get them.

That being said, if you haven’t gotten credible leads from your website or marketing in the last 6 months, it’s most likely time to adjust your strategy and approach.

14. What’s the return-on-investment for marketing and advertising services?

This depends on your goals. We live is a world where ROI is easier to calculate than ever before. However, understanding your goals is the first step to accurate ROI.

For example, we could track the SEM for an e-commerce website to determine how many purchases were made from the campaign and how many purchases were assisted from the campaign (i.e., a customer interacted with the ad but purchased at another time). This would allow us to compare the amount of money being spent on the ads with the amount of money being earned through the purchases.

Because all websites are not e-commerce, though,  ROI can become more difficult to track. But it’s not impossible.

The good news is if we know what your specific goals are, we can provide a detailed account of how your money is being spent, where it’s earning the most bang for the buck and how you can work toward success with your ads.

We’re here to answer questions.

Understanding advertising and marketing can be daunting. But it doesn’t have to be paralyzing.

Partnering with an agency that’s willing to answer your questions can go a long way toward demystifying marketing. And it can help you learn about how it works so you can approach marketing with more confidence and knowledge.

Your marketing can be successful – you might just need a helping hand.

Have a question we didn’t answer? Send it to our marketing team here.

 

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