Marketing Strategy Archives – Page 2 of 2

19 May 2017

3 Questions To Ask Before Cutting The Marketing Budget

By Doug Wagner|2017-05-19T12:49:17-06:00May 19th, 2017|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing|Tags: business, business advice, business growth, business strategy, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Results, Marketing ROI, Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing, Working on the Business|

Most starting and early growth entrepreneurs are focused on costs. Shifting your mindset about marketing budget can change your results dramatically. These 3 questions help you do that.

The First Questions People Normally Ask

If you own a business and someone says you should use some powerful integrated marketing software that costs $800 per month – what is your first thought?

If an online marketing firm comes to you with a proposal to increase traffic and lead generation from your website and it will cost $4,000 a month […]

15 May 2017

Get Serious About Defining Your Ideal Clients

By Doug Wagner|2017-10-18T16:52:05-06:00May 15th, 2017|Categories: Branding, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing|Tags: 80/20 rule, Brand Strategy, business, business advice, business strategy, Ideal Client, Ideal Clients, inbound marketing, marketing, Marketing Results, Marketing Strategy, Perfect Client, sales, small business owner, SMB, SME, Strategic Marketing, Target Market, Venn Diagram, Working on the Business|

One of the keys to strategic marketing is to make the best use of your limited resources for the greatest results. One of the most powerful drivers of marketing results is to define your ideal clients precisely.

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The best way to show how this works is to take you along on my latest journey to do just that for the online marketing services portion of our business.

A good strategy is just as much about what you will not […]

29 Mar 2017

If Marketing Is a Growing Asset, Would You Invest More?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-12T11:10:41-06:00March 29th, 2017|Categories: Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|Tags: business, inbound marketing, marketing, Marketing Assets, Marketing Services, Marketing Strategy, Oil and Gas, sales, small business|

For most Oil and Gas (O&G) service companies, marketing works like this. You put money into it, and if it works, you get some leads. Marketing is an ongoing expense instead of an asset. Stop spending, and you stop getting results.

Sales Assets

Sales work much the same way. The biggest difference is it is primarily composed of people. If customers are spending somewhere and you want more sales, you either motivate your sales team a little more or hire additional sales people.

There are two common types of sales people everyone talks […]

22 Feb 2017

To Win, Understand Your Buyers Better Than Anyone Else

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-21T16:33:38-06:00February 22nd, 2017|Categories: Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|Tags: adding value, Brand Strategy, business, business strategy, Buyer, Buyer's Journey, inbound marketing, inbound sales, marketing, Marketing Results, Marketing Strategy, sales, sales process, small business, Steps in Buyer's Journey, Vendor, Working on the Business|

Ultimately buyers are responsible for making wise purchases. However, they usually need help. That is your opportunity to guide them through the buyer’s journey.

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Buyer’s Perspective

When buyers don’t know how to differentiate their vendors or the solutions they provide, they focus on price.

It is easy to blame vendors for not making things clear in their marketing and sales literature. How many buyers know what questions to ask a supplier, so the important differences are evident?

To get […]

6 Sep 2016

How Does Your Value Stack Up In A New Market?

By Doug Wagner|2017-07-12T19:42:21-06:00September 6th, 2016|Categories: Branding, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse|Tags: adding value, Brand Strategy, business, business strategy, Creating Value, Entering a New Market, Existing Market, Expansion, Finding Clients, Market, Market Opportunity Assessment, marketing, Marketing Strategy, New Market, Oilfield Hub, Oilfield Pulse, perceived value, Products, Retail, Services, Target, Target Canada|

If you are unprepared or desperate, entering a new market can kill your business. Deep pockets won’t always save you either.

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Remember Target expanding into Canada back in 2013? They had deep pockets and resources. Then after a series of missteps, they pulled out roughly two years later, incurring financial losses in the billions.

Target Canada made a lot of mistakes starting with […]

15 Jul 2014

Managing Business Risk in the Dark Ages of Social Media

By Doug Wagner|2018-01-03T19:20:18-07:00July 15th, 2014|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|Tags: business, Business Culture, Business Risk, business strategy, Corporate Culture, entrepreneur, marketing, Marketing Strategy, small business, social media|

Back in the dark ages, villagers and townspeople would often react to a rumor and then take action swiftly to bring justice upon the presumed guilty party without waiting for the authorities to resolve it. The more emotionally attached people were to the crime, the less real or confirmed information they needed to follow the crowd and exact revenge.

Unfortunately two things were often true:

There was a […]

15 Nov 2013

Comparing Value in 2 Very Different Business Models

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-12T14:17:00-06:00November 15th, 2013|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach, Marketing, Sales|Tags: adding value, business, Go-Giver, Law of Value, Marketing Strategy|

I recently spent $900 each on two totally different purchases and it got me thinking about the value relative to payment. Essentially both complied with Law of Value (The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann) but for seemingly different reasons.
Dump truck and gravel business - small

The Gravel Drive

The first purchase was three big dump truck loads of gravel; roughly 30 cubic yards for our 200 yard long driveway. It was ¾ inch crush which means it had to be what is […]

24 Oct 2011

Start Your Engine of Growth

By Doug Wagner|2017-05-31T12:26:32-06:00October 24th, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast, Working on the Business|Tags: Brand Strategy, business advice, business growth, business strategy, business success, Engine of Growth, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Eric Ries, Lean Startup, Manifast, Marketing Strategy, SaaS, Software, Startup, Sticky Engine of Growth, Working on the Business|

We are in the midst of launching our new Manifast product. In fact we are committing to launching our MVP in November 2011. This has gotten me to thinking about marketing, sales and most importantly our revenue model. Do we have our engine of growth defined?

In “The Lean Startup” Eric Ries talks about three engines of growth for startups:

The Sticky Engine of Growth (customer retention (churn) is key)
The Viral […]

27 Jul 2009

Marketing Budget Allocation For Results

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-06T16:06:43-06:00July 27th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|Tags: business advice, Clients, Cold Calling, Customers, Entrepreneurship, Lead Generation, marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Budget Allocation, Marketing Strategy, Networking, Prospecting, Referrals, sales, small business, SMB|

As per the last two posts (The Value of a New Customer and Marketing Budget 101) I talked about one way of determining your marketing/sales budget.

If you want a simpler method, allocate a percentage of total revenue.

Now the question is where to spend your money for maximum effect.

There are basically four sources of future sales:

Existing customers,
Referrals (word of mouth),
Prospecting, cold calling and networking, and
New leads from marketing.

You will want to allocate funding (or effort) to […]