This is Why It’s Time to Change Your Piecemeal Approach to Marketing
August 22, 2017
A Marketing Campaign Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand…
…to paraphrase of Abraham Lincoln. He was right about the United States as it faced the slavery crisis, and it’s just as true concerning your small business marketing.
Here is a story we hear all too often at Marketing 360®…
She has different consultants doing her SEO, PPC, and social media. Each has their own strategy, plan, and pricing. Each is on their own page, which is not the page Sara needs them to be on. She’s considering hiring another consultant to manage these three, so she actually has an idea of what’s being done.
Her hope is that this “manager” can bring these three together so they might share ideas and work more closely together, but she’s not optimistic. Every time she speaks to one of them, they just want to stay in their silo and increase their rates.
This is an example of a marketing campaign divided against itself. Different vendors with different agendas, unprepared and often unwilling to communicate with each other. They want to stay within their specialization and not have to worry about what another, outside company is doing.
Even when Sara does try to coordinate things, that effort itself is so time-consuming that it’s hard to get into the details of the actual marketing strategy.
This cannot stand.
The Piecemeal Problem
Sara’s problem is not just the frustration about how her digital marketing is being executed. She has a strategy-level problem that affects her results, even if her separate consultants do great work individually.
The problem is that while digital marketing has separate tactical areas, they need to operate under one business strategy. And in fact, with things like PPC, SEO, and social media management, tactics should support each other.
PPC calls to action and keywords can be used as targets for SEO. And social media amplification of content is a now an important SEO tactic. It’s a fatal mistake to run an advertising campaign and not have the landing page design match the message of the ads.
It’s a huge disadvantage for Sara to outsource these campaigns to different vendors who are unprepared to communicate with each other. Simply put, they aren’t doing their jobs. SEO and PPC campaigns working in their own bubbles is an unacceptable disadvantage. A designer who isn’t in on the advertising strategy can’t match their designs to the ads that bring the traffic.
Business owners like Sara get backed into a corner. They can’t afford to hire in-house marketing and don’t have the time or knowledge to execute it themselves. Then, they end up piecemealing the cheapest vendors they can find for their different marketing needs.
Sara needs an agency that handles digital marketing comprehensively.
All-in-One, All-for-One
We helped Sara out of the corner she was backed into. Our single interface marketing software is a miracle compared to duct taping Facebook, Google Analytics, and Adwords together. She uses the platform to assign tasks to designers, writers, and video production.
Now Sara has one person, her marketing executive, managing everything for her. One person to talk to in one place instead three, each doing their own thing.
But the best thing is the results. When we analyzed her PPC advertising, we uncovered several high-value search terms she wasn’t optimizing for in her SEO. Those turned into a series of high-quality blog articles and videos that got some nice attention on social media. In less than six months, we’d increased her conversions by 33% and lowered her cost-per-acquisition by 18%.
Her marketing reports are consistent and easy to understand. She can view it all on the Marketing 360® interface:
Here’s how it works:
Today’s digital marketing is a team effort that works best when tactics and execution come together to support your overall goals. It’s simply become too competitive – even in small markets – to outsource campaigns to varied, small-time consultants. If your digital marketing service can’t help you develop an overall strategy and manage all the main execution, walk away. Whatever they say they can save you isn’t worth it.
Is Marketing 360® right for you? Learn more about our plans and pricing to find out (it only takes one phone call!)
Get Plans and Pricing Below
Get the know-how to get ahead
Get business, marketing and sales tips written by experienced industry practitioners. 100% free. Cancel anytime.