Julia Cook, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Scorpion, has been heading up their innovative marketing team for eight years. She is passionate about helping business get the best service and the best results possible through innovative marketing strategies.
Why Business Owners Should Invest in Marketing
You’re not going to grow without marketing. Julia emphasizes that while word of mouth is good, that’s only a small fraction of the people who need your help. Remember: you are the best answer to the question that many people are asking.
It’s easy to confuse marketing and sales. Think of marketing as the driving force behind your sales. Marketing is for your past clients, existing client base, and future clients.
The beauty of today’s digital and internet marketing is that it allows you to position your business so that you’re right where the customer finds you when they need you.
Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing
Julia explains that while print ads, billboards, and TV and radio ads have their place and are widely used, they are no longer the most effective strategy for marketing.
Where are your customers? Look at your surroundings. Where is everyone’s focus? Their digital devices: phones, laptops, and tablets.
9:28 “This is where advertising is operating at the most efficient level… at the digital level.”
Digital marketing allows you to place your ads where people are actually looking when they’re in their time of need.
SEO: Search engine optimization. SEO helps your website show up organically when someone makes a particular search. This is a long-game strategy that has serious rewards but takes time and consistency.
PPC: Pay per click. PPC is when you pay for space at the top of the search engine results page. This is not organic, but can help your business appear more often to your target customer, and assist your business while SEO builds momentum.
These are two very different terms; however, they work together to achieve a goal: making your business and services discoverable to your customer.
When your customer sees your business popping up again and again in their search for a service or product, there’s a psychological reinforcement of trust. This helps your customer remember you and understand that you are there to help them solve their problem.
Marketing is truly part science, part art: from strategy and data to the human psychology behind colors, shapes, and language, each piece works in tandem with the other. This is why it’s vital to invest in an innovative marketing strategy for your business.
The quality of your marketing is reflected by the quality of your leads.
22:00 “There are so many different ways to make sure that your marketing is as good as it possibly can be and you absolutely should spend time doing that because your return will be better… The better you know yourself as a business and the better you’re able to put that out there, the better you’re going to get back from your advertising.”
