Marketing advisory offers support in all areas of marketing, although we typically focus on digital marketing. When you opt for a marketing advisor you will get a set of tools that give you insight into why your business is successful, how your business works, what to change to make improvements, when, and where to make these changes.
Our process mantra is to identify, analyze, and realize.
We do this through our use of investigation into the inner workings of your current marketing program (identify), measuring and documenting certain data points (analyze), and building a realistic yet ambitious plan of attack (realize).
Let me outline a few sample features or services you could opt for when we work together.
We consider the Marketing Advisory (or Fractional CMO) contract the premiere way to ensure success with our engagement. Here are some of the things you would get.
High-level features
- Providing direction for marketing goals
- KPI setup and measurement
- Evaluating existing efforts for effectiveness
- Balancing channel budgets based on ROI
- Integrating new efforts using traditional and digital methods
- Digital-only support available
- Sales and marketing pipeline alignment with integration guidelines
- Product / Services evaluation, surveys, and other research for better product uses
- Budgeting and forecasting marketing expenses
All Available Features
Marketing strategy
When we start the engagement with you, this is our plan of action that guides the rest of the engagement. There are parts of it that would change and adapt over time. This would fall under part of the “Realize” phase. Once in motion parts of it are cyclical and after we review the performance of campaigns, we adjust and move forward.
Customer profile creation
While it is usually pretty safe to assume what your typical customer looks like, this allows us to target your ideal customers on a range of factors such as ROI or Churn. You may have one type of customer identified, however, you could have more. It is also helpful as a benchmark for future types of clients which could help us target relationships in new arenas. As part of the “Identify” stage, we want as much historical data as you can provide. As part of the “Analyze” stage, we set up benchmarks and tools to measure this going forward. When we move on to the “Realize” stage, we cycle back to our benchmarks quarterly (or however long is necessary) to see who is interacting with the brand and at what level.
Customer journey mapping
As part of the “Identify” and “Analyze” stages it is important not only to know who your customer is but for this service, to know where you can communicate with them. More specifically, when and where do they reach out to find you? When and where do they consider you as an option to purchase? When and where do they find you when they decide to purchase? Believe it or not, you can figure this out to some degree based on the tools you are using.
Pipeline enablement and process auditing from Marketing to Sales
This is an in-depth look at how your pipeline works. Where the gaps are and what can be improved. We often use this as a time to unite teams and work together. NO TWO FUNNELS ARE ALIKE! Each person on the team has a role and it is important that everyone understands their role, those roles are translated into the tools and software that are used, and documented with clear KPIs set for each team. This is part of the “Identify and Analyze” phase.
Conversion optimization
This is a large generic term and can represent a lot of things. So we usually define it as ways that we can test to improve conversion rates of specific channels as well as their adjoining pages on the website. This is usually a “Realize” phase. Meaning that the campaigns must already be in progress in order to tweak them. Some examples of conversion rate optimization might be the use of pop-ups, live chat automation, autoresponders, or other tools that help you reach your intended target. It could also be something behind the scenes like email deliverability.
Channel optimization (PPC, SEO, Email, Etc.)
Like conversion optimization, channel optimization refers to the process in the “Realize” phase which continually monitors and improves the traffic and conversion rates of each channel or medium. This is not an exact science objectively since every strategy is different. What we do is look at the funnel for weakness and channels need to be worked on and what the ideal metrics and KPI’s are for them.
Budget allocation advisory and audit
Without a clear understanding of your overall customer journey, you can’t make informed decisions about where you should spend your money. This is because you need to establish some KPI’s based on who, what, and when you target your customers. Attributing a cost per acquisition to a customer profile helps to paint a picture of your overall margin (at least from a marketing standpoint). We can advise you at any stage of your marketing on how to set a budget, but we will want to come up with ways to measure costs.
SEO audit and advisory
An SEO audit can show you just how many improvement opportunities exist on your site. Our technique looks at factors that are known to affect the rankings of your website and perform an in-depth audit of every single page of your site. We look at the site architecture, we look at speed and usability, we look at keyword density, and we also look at your competition. Our advice on how to implement better SEO will depend on what we find because every website is different. We do this at any stage of your marketing but we would recommend setting up your customer profiles, customer journeys, and marketing strategy first.
Digital advertising (PPC) audit, advisory, and management
Our digital advertising package helps you make the most of your online advertising. We continually make sure that we are decreasing your cost per acquisition as much as possible, increasing your impressions, and increasing your clicks. Our goal is to give you the types of visitors that will be most likely to become customers. We do this at any stage of your marketing but we would recommend setting up your customer profiles, customer journeys, and marketing strategy first.
Email marketing audit, advisory, and management
Email is one of the most effective means of communication. This is because people want to get information from brands which they like. When you work with us, we use our established set of benchmarks as a guide to increasing your subscriber base, conversions from email as well as KPIs which improve your engagement all-around such as open rates and click rates. We do this at any stage of your marketing but we would recommend setting up your customer profiles, customer journeys, and marketing strategy first.
CRM audit, advisory, and management
When you have a well-defined customer profile, there is no better place to store customer’s data than in a CRM. This helps you actively view and manage the customers you have, build reports, and get insight into their behavior. This is a place for you to stay connected with your customers so that you know them as well as you possibly can. From there you can inform other parts of your marketing strategy using data that is accessible to you. From there we use these reports benchmarks for success. We do this at any stage of your marketing but we would recommend setting up your customer profiles, customer journeys, and marketing strategy first.
Marketing automation audit, advisory, and management
Marketing automation usually goes hand in hand with your CRM or Email Marketing system. It just depends on your setup. Marketing automation campaigns can be launched from any platform that you choose to work with. We will help you set these up, launch these, and monitor for success. We do this at any stage of your marketing but we would recommend setting up your customer profiles, customer journeys, and marketing strategy first.
Social networking advisory, audit, and management
As part of a healthy online presence, being active on social media is key for interacting with your audience. We use your customer profiles and customer journeys to see where these interactions are likely to work best. From there we set up a calendar that matches the frequency and rhythm of your audience. We will work with you to establish your following and focus your content to the right audience. We do this at any stage of your marketing but we would recommend setting up your customer profiles, customer journeys, and marketing strategy first.
Website audit and advisory
Websites are complex and complicated. We want to simplify that for you. The website audit takes a look at the technology that your website uses, the content on your website, and the analytics of how people use your website. There are always recommendations, but they depend on a number of factors. We do this at any stage of your marketing but we would recommend setting up your customer profiles, customer journeys, and marketing strategy first.
Not mentioned above are all the different technologies associated with typical marketing stacks. View a collection of our marketing technology services.
At BrandGrow, we help your business succeed by identifying, analyzing, and realizing your brand’s growth potential. Contact us today to learn how we can take your company to the next level!