Mid-Missouri Marketing Resource Blog

The St. Louis Cardinals aren’t just another local sports team, they’re a historic part of the community and as a local business, associating your brand with the Cardinals and their iconic team is a great sports marketingstrategy.

In this blog we’ll talk about how to associate your brand with a professional sports team like the Cardinals, and discuss eight reasons why doing so can make a major impact on your marketing ROI.

The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on your business’s growth. What were the highlights of 2018? What would you like to improve on? Where would you like to grow in 2019?

Today’s consumers interact with brands through many channels. So how can you be sure that your message will be heard? The answer is simple: integrated marketing. However, a successful integrated marketing approach involves much more than blasting your message across every available platform. In fact, this can be counterproductive due to several factors, including over saturation, low impact, low quality, and cost.

If you’re running a business, an annual marketing plan is critical to continuous growth. It not only provides a clear strategy and plan of action for the entire year, but it also helps you outline goals and benchmarks, manage your budget, and identify the best tools and tactics and keep your team accountable.

Print advertising can be an effective medium to include in your marketing strategy. In fact, a recentFedEx survey found that 4 out of 5 small business owners feel print helped them stand out from the competition. Other reports revealed that print ads have70% higher recall when compared to digital, while82% of people trust print ads when making a purchase decision.

Many business owners overlook what is perhaps the most effective marketing tool within their organization: their staff. While brands spend a significant portion of their funds on social media advertising, many individuals who are ready to make a purchase are more likely to look to their personal network for recommendations - which includes your employees - than trusting the word of even their favorite brands.

Your marketing budget is an important aspect of your business. It ensures that your marketing dollars are spent wisely and in the appropriate areas. When you begin calculating your budget for the year ahead, it is best to start early – as early in the fourth quarter as possible - to determine what tactics you should incorporate to see measurable results. Below are a few best practices for effectively calculating your 2019 marketing budget.

With 84% of hiring managers turning to social media in their recruiting efforts, along with 79% of job seekers who rely on various social platforms, it is clear that social media plays an instrumental role in the recruitment process.

We recently discussed why magazines outperform newspaper ads. But magazines can do more than beat it’s print counterpart. They also offer an edge that digital alone can’t — even in this device-driven era. While that may surprise you, the truth is that magazines are timeless and effective marketing tools that continue to reach targeted audiences. That’s why we’re debunking a common myth regarding local magazine advertising.

We know how difficult it can be as a retail business owner to decide where and how to spend your precious marketing dollars. The marketing landscape is more complex than ever before and choosing the right marketing mix can sometimes feel like it will make or break your business. One channel that has passed the test of time in delivering marketing ROI for retail is local print magazine.