Take Your Small
Business Marketing to the Next Level in 5 Easy Steps
We can all agree
that the year 2020 was unlike any other.
It was a trial by
fire for many businesses. Some people ascended to the top and made record
earnings. Others drowned and never came back.
What makes
certain businesses flourish while others failed in the same industry?
How are business
owners faring today – in a “new normal” market – among those who survived and
even prospered amid adversity?
Do they have
faith in their ability to face new problems and plan for the future?
Call Rail
surveyed 600 small business owners in the United States in the summer of 2021
to determine the current state of marketing in this rocky "new
normal" period, yielding a powerfully insightful look at how marketing
agencies can fulfill new needs and goals of small businesses in a post-pandemic
era.
Important Findings
·
Eighty percent of firms claim they're completely operational again, with
the majority citing a complete recovery from the pandemic.
·
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are seeking for marketing
agencies to help them boost their post-COVID activities by 94%.
·
96% are willing to increase their marketing budget and pay their
agencies extra for their services.
The data from
Call Rail reveals a unique possibility for marketing firms and small businesses
to collaborate and develop long-term strategies to address future difficulties.
For a more in-depth look, read the entire report.
Marketing for Small
Businesses: What the Future Holds
All of the
business owners that took part in the Call Rail study employed fewer than 200
people. COVID-19 had a negative impact on 56 percent of respondents'
businesses, while 11 percent reported growth and 33 percent said the pandemic
had had no effect.
The future
appears to be brighter: 80 percent of respondents believe their company has
fully recovered from the epidemic, and 71% believe their company is currently
positioned for long-term growth and success.
What do the
majority of these companies have in common?
You guessed correctly,
it's a marketing plan.
Only 3% of the
companies polled said they don't have a growth strategy in place. The remaining
97 percent have a strategy in place for at least the next six months.As part of
their core approach, respondents cited the following marketing strategies:
·
57 percent of marketers use social media.
·
OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE COMPANY: 49%
·
Email marketing has a 43 percent success rate.
·
35 percent on the blog
·
32% of people subscribe to the newsletter.
·
Landing pages created specifically for a campaign: 29%
·
28 percent of reviews and testimonials
·
26 percent referral program
·
Technology for customer relationship management (CRM): 20%
·
Paid search, often known as pay-per-click (PPC), accounts for 17% of all
searches.
·
15 percent for SEO (local search optimization).
·
Because of financial restrictions, timing constraints, and a reliance on
word-of-mouth advertising, there was no marketing at all: 6 percentage points
·
1 percent for other
Small businesses might
benefit from a strategic partnership with a marketing agency in five ways.
After more than a
year of lockdowns, mask laws, restrictions, and consumer apprehension, most
businesses are finally going in the right direction.
Consumer
confidence has been stable, and there are encouraging signs of a revival in
discretionary spending.
However, despite
the upbeat outlook, the market remains shaky and vulnerable. Nobody knows what
the future holds, especially given the ongoing possibility of new case
outbreaks and more contagious variations.
Businesses
haven't yet made it out of the woods.
Marketing firms have a
great chance to become a significant strategic partner for small businesses by
assisting them in navigating these difficult times and developments.
Here are five
reasons why a small business owner should work with a marketing firm:
1. Free up time
and resources for the company.
Time and funding
were the two biggest hurdles for business owners in creating a marketing plan,
according to the CallRail survey:
·
44 percent of respondents indicated they were pressured for time,
overwhelmed with running their firm, and lacked the financial resources to hire
someone.
·
74% stated they'd prefer spend their time on essential business
obligations rather than marketing.
Many entrepreneurs
have a do-it-yourself mentality and try to do too much on their own.
A marketing
agency brings more experience to the table while also freeing up an owner's
time to focus on other vital duties that may have slipped between the cracks.
2. Keep an eye on
trends and make recommendations based on your past experiences.
COVID-19 was a
huge hit on the market. Most businesses had no idea what to expect and were
left floundering as they tried to negotiate the new market.
While a
professional marketing agency would face the same obstacles, they would also
have the benefit of years, if not decades, of marketing knowledge to guide them
in making strategic judgments.
During the
COVID-19 epidemic, 81 percent of small business owners felt that having a
marketing strategy was crucial to their company's success. A long-term
experience-based strategy can be the difference between survival and
extinction.
Businesses are
missing out on money if they don't focus on smart marketing.
3. Save money on
payroll while gaining more resources
67 percent of
those polled indicated they wished they had engaged a marketing firm instead of
employing internally.
One prevalent
misperception is that employing in-house saves money and meets a pressing need.
But that doesn't account for the additional costs of recruiting, onboarding,
training, and ultimately retaining the employee, which include things like
health insurance, matching retirement plans, vacation and sick days, payroll
taxes, life insurance, disability coverage, tuition reimbursement, and so on.
When everything
is said and done, the cost of employing a new employee is typically 1.25 to 1.4
times the base wage range, plus the time spent training and familiarizing the
new employee with the company.
What happens if
the employee decides to leave? A significant investment has been squandered.
Even if an
outside marketing agency appears to be more expensive based on their hourly
fee, it is frequently a more cost-effective choice than employing in-house, not
to mention the extra benefits of having a professional team on call with a
plethora of additional resources and manpower.
4. Bring the Marketing
Strategy into the 21st Century
We work in a
fast-paced environment. New apps, trends, SEO upgrades, and best practices
appear and disappear on a regular basis.
Is it possible
for small business owners to stay on top of everything and maintain high
conversion rates?
In addition to
more typical outbound marketing approaches like commercials and PPC ads, a
modern marketing plan employs inbound marketing techniques like high-performing
web content.
Keyword research,
graphic design, multichannel campaigns, social media, call volume, email, and
everything in between are all part of today's marketing plans, all leading up
to data measurement and analysis.
To be successful,
the individual in charge of marketing activities must be knowledgeable about
the latest marketing tactics. What worked a year ago, or even a month ago,
might not work today.
5. Take a look at the
long-term results
According to
CallRail's survey, 71% of respondents thought their company was currently
positioned for long-term success and growth. However, 25% of respondents were
unsure about their company's future. And 4% admitted that their company would
eventually fail if it remained on its current path.
Building and
maintaining a firm necessitates a long-term strategy as well as the flexibility
required to deal with short-term issues.
Marketing
agencies add impartial, independent assistance to a company's strategy. In
order to make informed judgments, they look at the broad picture and analyze
the market niche to see what competitors are doing and where the industry is
headed.
They also provide
crucial analytical data that allows small businesses to better understand and
target their audience, determine which marketing initiatives were successful,
and plan future campaigns based on past results.
Small Business Marketing
with CallRail: The Right Tools & Resources
As the
post-pandemic marketing landscape recovers, many small business owners are
revisiting their marketing methods. In the future, 94 percent stated they were
very or somewhat likely to use a marketing firm or professional.
It is critical
for agencies to understand what their customers require in order for those
partnerships to succeed.
Following a bad
experience with a marketing firm, small business owners indicated the following
areas for improvement:
·
55 percent are assisting in the improvement of customer service.
·
51 percent vetting and recommending new technology to help the company
expand
·
43 percent of marketers and salespeople want to improve their workflows.
·
Contributing to the refinement of the value proposition: 40%
·
Increasing the company's ability to track leads: 38%
·
Going above and beyond the call of duty to aid a company's understanding
of its customers: 29% of the population
·
Providing the means for the company to better handle leads: 29% of the
population
·
Including company enhancement services as add-ons, such as sales
training or brand coaching: 25%
·
enabling the company to engage with leads more effectively: 9%
Agencies who can successfully identify and resolve
these pain points for their consumers are well positioned to become a valuable
asset that can aid their small company partners in both short- and long-term
survival.
The majority of
small business owners (96%) are willing to pay more for extra services.
In order for a
firm and a marketing agency to work together successfully, analytics are
essential. Not only does data fuel targeted marketing strategies, but it's also
essential for demonstrating to a client how much ROI they're getting out of the
connection.
Call Rail
provides a number of tools for tracking analytical data, which is essential for
calculating ROI and designing campaigns.
·
Call tracking: Find out which ad, campaign, or keyword prompted a caller
to contact your company right away. Call monitoring software allows you to
track the performance of your marketing initiatives so you can figure out which
ones are producing results and which ones aren't. Measure both online and
offline marketing assets, such as social media postings, emails, PPC
advertisements, and so on.
·
Lead Center: With so many channels for customers to use, it's becoming
increasingly difficult for small businesses to keep up with the influx of
leads. The Lead Center on Call Rail streamlines the procedure. Incoming,
current, and recent chats, emails, phone calls, and texts are all filtered into
a single inbox. You'll see a timeline of a customer's experiences with your bra
every time they contact you.
·
Conversation Intelligence: Highly efficient AI-powered software analyzes
your calls and provides recordings, transcriptions, and actionable insights so
you can troubleshoot common website issues or other problems, compile
frequently asked questions, improve your service, train your staff, and get
more bang for your buck with your marketing budget.
·
Form tracking: Track which ad or keywords resulted in a lead hitting
"Submit" on a contact form to monitor your ad campaigns and
illuminate your lead activity. All of your touchpoints are kept in a unified
chronology. Form Tracking will show you all of the steps a lead took, such as
clicking on an ad, downloading a report, submitting a form, and calling your
customer service number.
