How far are you willing to step ahead of the pack to push your business brand to the next level? We meet with local businesses every day wanting to know how to surpass sales goals, increase brand recognition and drive market share. Business owners are passionate about their business. But often they choose to follow in the footsteps of competitors in hopes that they will be just as successful or even more successful utilizing the same marketing tactics.
Are you ready to commit to standing up and doing something unique or different to take your market share to the next level? Do you want to march with the crowd and grow proportionate to your peers or do you want to push out in front as the market leader? Are you willing to risk the unknown by being first or would you prefer to slide in with what’s tried and true?
When Facebook first hit the scene, the guide book on how to create the world’s largest social media network had not yet been written.  You can see from this chart the stronghold Facebook has maintained over all competition combined by being there first.

How different might the landscape look if Twitter or another company had been on the scene first? For local or regional businesses, beating the competition might be as easy as emulating what is effective for national businesses but being first in your local market to take advantage of the opportunity.
Take a risk in 2017 and move your marketing beyond your competition and being first to find the right formula to ignite sales growth. Here are a few ideas that might help give your business the boost it seeks:

1. If you have a service business, try a little less PPC. Yes, we are an advertising agency telling you to try a little less pay per click advertising. Be strategic about it. If you participate in a SEO plan or otherwise find yourself at the top of the three pack for local search – cut back bidding on your own business name and let your maps position or organic ranking carry your business. Take the extra dollars and invest it into your proactive marketing mix that actively pursues and persuades new customers. This gives you the chance to trade in bad media spend for good proactive media spend. On average only 6% will click on ads, 3-pack maps and high rankings can carry the heavy lifting for your business allowing your media budget to focus on customers unfamiliar with your brand.
2. Retailers quit re-marketing unless you implement a dynamic re-marketing approach. Re-marketing is extremely popular with both regional and local businesses. Every client or prospect we meet wants to put up one ad to all visitors of their website to re-target them back to the home page. This is NOT attractive to your prospective customers. The average consumer will spend 2 seconds or less on any given website. If you are an auto dealer and a customer was checking out a 2017 Ford Focus in a specific color and trim on your website that is the exact ad you need to re-market back to them to be effective in making a conversion. Re-marketing isn’t just advertising. It’s a part of the continued sales process. It’s allowing your advertising to begin overcoming objections and helping move the consumer closer to you in the consumer sales journey. A generic ad re-marketing to the home page is a waste of your media dollars compared to the potential of a real connection with a prospect and the specific merchandise they were considering on your website. Take the prospect to a discounted landing page with special deal pricing just for them. Get your prospect to call in or out to the showroom. Home pages of websites don’t sell cars or other retail products.
3. Another opportunity is to maximize your media touchpoints in tandem. Television, print, radio, digital and other marketing all works together. Your marketing plan should look across multiple touchpoints and how you are engaging customers from brand recognition through consideration, choice and acquisition. Marketing budgets should be fluid across all media and pliable to follow the path of your prospective customers.

Get excited about carving your own path and moving ahead of the pack. Being first can make the difference you are seeking for your business in 2017.

Krush is a full-service advertising agency in Oklahoma City. We specialize in brand development, graphic design, media planning, performance tracking, print services, SEO, social media, video services, as well as website design and development. Our focus is to grow your brand and your bottom line–we are your strategic marketing partner! Check out our portfolio of work and contact Krush today!