Mid-Missouri Marketing Resource Blog

Select an image, create a caption, include a link, click “Publish,” and drop to your knees and pray something happens.

Unfortunately for many of today’s business owners, this sequence of events sounds all too familiar. That’s because social media marketing is still a hazy area to many businesses. This is usually due to difficulties creating content, insufficiencies in page monitoring, general misunderstandings regarding relevant tracking metrics, or a deadly combination of all three.

With all the focus on acquiring new customers, it can sometimes be easy to overlook the value and importance of your current customers. However, for any company that depends on a recurring revenue stream or repeat sales, determining the lifetime value of a customer is one of your most important metrics. Calculating lifetime value (LTV) and comparing it to the cost of acquiring a new customer provides valuable insights about how to allocate your sales and marketing budget to increase ROI.

You spend money, time and a lot of effort on your marketing, but you aren’t getting the results you want. Is it the ads that are underperforming, or it your sales team losing the sale?

There are very few more time-tested forms of advertising than radio jingles. A short, simple, catchy slogan or tune that plays throughout the day demands our attention and provides a fun, memorable touchpoint for brands.

But what are radio jingles? The “1-877-Kars4Kids” jingle is a perfect example. Anyone who’s heard the commercial can’t help but remember the phone number. It’s a short, distinct spot featuring a chorus of children singing “1-877-Kars4Kids” with the call to action of “donate your car today.” It’s not a complex tune with a lengthy message, just a catchy jingle that’s hard to forget. Jingles can even last for generations, just take the “I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Weiner” song that both children and grandparents can sing along to.

It doesn’t take long to feel thoroughly inspired when listening to CNBC’s “The Profit” star, Marcus Lemonis, talk about business. He is an absolute wealth of information and has a proven track record of success to back up every piece of advice he offers. It seems that this entrepreneur could whip a dying business into shape, even in his sleep.

Developing a marketing plan takes time. Everything from the timing to each ad’s placement needs to come together strategically in order to deliver solid ROI. But there’s one thing that shouldn’t get left off of the list: advertising creative. Using bad ad creative is a fast way to undermine an otherwise successful advertising strategy. Today we’ll cover four tips to help you use winning creative.

Marketing ROI is more than just industry jargon, but the term is tossed around as though it’s just another buzzword. Of course, the process of measuring your marketing return on investment is among the most complicated pieces to determining your budget and efficacy; 43% of marketers say that proving the ROI of their activities is a top challenge. The question is, how do you beat this ROI puzzle, and where do you start? There’s plenty of marketing ROI tips that will certainly help improve your process and accuracy, but there’s one thing you absolutely need to do first: define what ROI means for your company specifically.

Holiday marketing budgets are a tremendously important piece of your overall marketing strategy. During the holidays, sales numbers go way up as consumers purchase gifts for their family, friends, and even themselves. Most companies expect this holiday sales boost and do some preparation, including traditional marketing activities like dropping prices and adjusting ad campaigns for holiday shoppers.

It can be all too easy to make misguided assumptions about any particular audience, especially one that can be a caricature in pop culture, like country music fans. That might mean you haven't even considered the question, “Should I advertise to country radio fans?” But the truth is, not only should you ask that question, the answer is a resounding, yes! In fact, according to Brandon Gaille, there's about 100 million listeners, and country music is the top format across the U.S.. In fact, according to the CMA, 42% of adults in America listen to this genre daily. In today's post, we'll take a brief look at the five biggest reasons this audience in particular can be valuable to your business.

Oh, childhood…

There’s nothing quite like the nostalgia of a good ol’ peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We’re pretty sure this sandwich is the most comforting food ever. Perhaps you can relate, but for us, middle school lunches were never quite complete without a PB&J packed. Even though some days we maybe envied the cool kids who had lunchables, PB&J was then, and is now a classic.

Whether you prefer creamy or chunky peanut butter, grape or strawberry jelly, and white or wheat bread — PB&J hits the spot every. time. And while other duos have tried to pair together just as well, nothing quite comes close. (Remember Britney Spears and K-Fed?) That is, until now.