Marketing

[facePuncher7]

I know near nothing about marketing, but it's become apparent that we're going to need to do it to grow the business. Thus far everything has been word of mouth and old contacts.

A bit daunted by the idea of throwing a bunch of money into an industry I have no experience with - could anyone give some information/experience with marketing campaigns and how they went down, if they paid off etc.

 

[TheTickG]

Why do you think you need marketing now as opposed to before?
What are you trying to achieve?
Who are your potential customers?
What do they think about your product/service?


I'm answering your question with a bunch of questions. But, you should have some idea about this before you throw money anywhere.

 

[zapataxiv]

sex sells
and get some leg breakers for when it doesn't

 

[Contempt]

I know near nothing about marketing, but it's become apparent that we're going to need to do it to grow the business. Thus far everything has been word of mouth and old contacts.

A bit daunted by the idea of throwing a bunch of money into an industry I have no experience with - could anyone give some information/experience with marketing campaigns and how they went down, if they paid off etc.

Just hire lots of hot, semi naked chicks to sell your product. You'll be fine.

 

[hohner]

Probably depends on what industry you're in.


That said, a nice pair of knockers will sell anything to anyone.

 

[Travis Alexander]

Your question is far too broad to give any actual constructive information on. What I will say is I do a tremendous amount of marketing for my companies. We have a very high PPC spend (pay per click) as well as a very high SEO spend (search engine optimization). Between PPC and SEO we are well into 6 figures monthly. Although my industry has some of the most expensive key words on the internet. We also put money into social media ads but it is substantially lower than PPC and SEO.

What are you selling? A product? A service? What is it you are trying to achieve? You should provide some information otherwise it is impossible for anyone here to genuinely give you constructive input.

 

[Tone C]

Just write your number on the bathroom wall again.

 

[tomjones]

Digital marketing campaigns can achieve great results.

 

[Diogenes of Sinope]

I think it depends on the type of business. are we talking a small business in a town square. or some sort of tech startup?

Also your website and SEO is very important.

 

[Fedorgasm]

The biggest mistake I see people make is they try to go cheap and hire an amateur.

There are tons of nerds that claim they know about PPC and SEO but most of them don't.

So hire a reputable company even if it costs more.

The other thing you need to know is your budget and target. I would come up with these before meeting with a marketing company. Something like "I'm willing to spend x dollars to gain y new customers by this date"

That will give the marketing company some targets to hit. They might try to negotiate your targets and that's fine. You can adjust them if it makes sense. But if you let the marketing company come up with their own targets they might sandbag you or overcharge.

Also, talk to 3 marketing companies before picking one.

If you're a really small business you can do some of this yourself without hiring a firm. Just let us know more about your customer base and we'll try to help.

 

[Diogenes of Sinope]

The biggest mistake I see people make is they try to go cheap and hire an amateur.

There are tons of nerds that claim they know about PPC and SEO but most of them don't.

So hire a reputable company even if it costs more.

The other thing you need to know is your budget and target. I would come up with these before meeting with a marketing company. Something like "I'm willing to spend x dollars to gain y new customers by this date"

That will give the marketing company some targets to hit. They might try to negotiate your targets and that's fine. You can adjust them if it makes sense. But if you let the marketing company come up with their own targets they might sandbag you or overcharge.

Also, talk to 3 marketing companies before picking one.

If you're a really small business you can do some of this yourself without hiring a firm. Just let us know more about your customer base and we'll try to help.

I second this. If you have the budget

 

[Osculater]

Make tik tok videos of your business with dance routines and retarded stunts

 

[blitzk]

Marketing usually works if done right. But in order to do it right, you need to take many many steps (focus groups, surveys, client listening sessions, research, business plans, etc.). Granted, most businesses can't afford to do all that, so many companies end up cutting a lot of corners and the results are often underwhelming. I should say though, that sometimes even with all that, there is a chance that your product or campaign doesn't work, but the risk of that happening diminishes considerably when you do your due diligence and prepare a well thought out marketing strategy.

For a small to medium business Marketing is necessary but also kind of a risk investment (assuming it takes a good chunk of their capital), but the less time/effort/resources you invest in marketing, the bigger the chances of it not working. So if you're going to do it, hire an expert that knows what they're doing and that understands your business and knows your industry.

 

[tomjones]

I know near nothing about marketing, but it's become apparent that we're going to need to do it to grow the business. Thus far everything has been word of mouth and old contacts.

A bit daunted by the idea of throwing a bunch of money into an industry I have no experience with - could anyone give some information/experience with marketing campaigns and how they went down, if they paid off etc.

What's the business?

 

[facePuncher7]

What's the business?

Remote employment for technical services - AEC and software dev primarily.

 

[facePuncher7]

Why do you think you need marketing now as opposed to before?
What are you trying to achieve?
Who are your potential customers?
What do they think about your product/service?


I'm answering your question with a bunch of questions. But, you should have some idea about this before you throw money anywhere.

Why do you think you need marketing now as opposed to before?
Company grew organically to start with, but has hit a wall due to the niche we started with. Want to expand outside that niche.

What are you trying to achieve?
Simply to scale up the operation and broaden the scope of services we provide.

Who are your potential customers?
Any company that sells technical services and doesn't require staff on site.

What do they think about your product/service?
Eeeer.. I have no idea

 

[kahiljabroni]

Most vague OP ever. It was written as if we all know you, your industry, and the trials and tribulations of your company. Based on that alone you should hire a professional asap

 

[robby71]

Circling back to this thread even though it’s a bit old. I ran into the same issue recently: how to get started with marketing without wasting money. I’ve tried a few different approaches, and what worked best was focusing on local SEO and narrowing down the target audience. If anyone’s still checking this thread and facing a similar challenge, this breakdown of a structured campaign might be helpful. It’s written for medical practices, but the ideas around visibility and conversion apply to pretty much any service business.

 

[Other]

Marketing?

Ask Chinese restaurants about marketing.

 

[William Huggins]

Marketing?

Ask Chinese restaurants about marketing.

First you skin and boil stray cat and dog..... Then profit??