Imagine you’ve spent days, or even weeks working on a complex puzzle. Your family members have been taking turns at the table, trying to complete the image, and as you draw nearer to completion, you might announce you’re not doing another one of these for a very, very long time.
Then, when you’re within ten pieces of being finished, you realize one is missing. After everyone has crawled around, searched under all the couch cushions and checked the box one, two, three times to be absolutely sure there’s not a piece lodged in the corners, you find yourself with nothing left to do but give up.
It’s annoying, but there’s nothing lost but a few hours of your time and the satisfaction of completing a puzzle. But if you’re missing a piece of the marketing puzzle, you may be losing out on opportunities and ultimately dollars.
To help you make sure you’ve got every piece of your puzzle in place, here are some of the most common pieces of the marketing puzzle that tend to get lost. You’ll want to check to be sure you have the following:
Geniuses: You’ve been meaning to get up to speed on search engine optimization (SEO), but it’s a complicated topic and sometimes it seems as if Google is releasing new search algorithms just to mess with you. If only you had someone that could be designated as your SEO genius.
Did you know that SEO specialists can be outsourced? From optimizing your website to keyword strategies and accessibility, these are the pieces of the marketing puzzle that can keep your brand from flourishing on search engine results.
Strategists: Many companies like yours have some good marketing practices in place, but they’re missing the strategic approach that pulls it all together. From your brand messaging, look and tone to the overall goals you are trying to achieve, this piece of the puzzle leaves a gaping hole in your marketing if you don’t have it.
Social Butterflies: Every organization seems to have that one employee who is so extroverted that they get tasked with everything public-facing, from interviews to product unveilings. And you’d be tempted to put social media on their list as well, but you know they don’t really have the time to dedicate to it while managing their other responsibilities.
Some marketing teams offer a wide range of social media support. They can handle anything from helping you brainstorm posting ideas to completely managing your entire social media strategy. But leaving social media unattended is something you can’t do. It leaves a hole in your strategy and causes you to miss opportunities.
Correspondents: Despite being a bit of a dinosaur in the digital marketing world, email remains a fantastic way to increase brand awareness and generate leads.
You may have a lot of questions about how to best connect with your audience or what kinds of subjects tend to be most effective. You might be wondering if you should use email to run promotions, or if there’s a better alternative.
These questions all make sense, and they are part of the reason why a lot of companies struggle to get an email campaign going. Outsourcing your email marketing to a marketing agency is a great way to get access to expertise in email campaigns.
Networkers: The missing puzzle piece for some companies is simply who they know. You may be ready to try video marketing, but have no idea how to get started.
You want to include a live event in your marketing strategy this year, but you don’t have enough familiarity with the best ways to draw a crowd.
Your company needs new branded shirts and other merchandise, but you don’t have time to explore the options available online.
Finding this information is time-consuming and can cause even the best marketing intentions to stall out. When you work with a full-service marketing agency, you quickly find that their connections are one of the biggest benefits of the partnership. They know what you need, they have an idea of what it will cost and they know how to get it.
You’d never enthusiastically start working on a puzzle that you knew was missing pieces. Nor should you jump into 2024 with an incomplete marketing strategy. Not sure which pieces you’re missing?
Contact us at SJC Marketing and let’s grab coffee. We’ll talk over your current strategy and see whether we can contribute any additional services to complete your vision for a fantastic year.