Vista Today, &Marketing Helps Local Professionals Grow Their Business In Chester County

by Rajat Kapur | Nov 18, 2018 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

Vista Today, &Marketing Helps Local Professionals Grow Their Business In Chester County

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A capacity crowd packed the auditorium of the Chester County Economic Development Council for the first-ever “Growing Your Business in Chester County” seminar, co-hosted by Ken Knickerbocker, the publisher of VISTA Today, and Rajat Kapur, the Managing Director of &Marketing.

Knickerbocker and Kapur led the more than 50 attendees, which included local Chester County business owners and sales professionals, through a series of hands-on exercises to help them better develop and execute a modern, localized strategy focused on their company’s uniqueness, and provided tips and tools on how to best do that within Chester County.

Marybeth DiVincenzo, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of the Chester County Economic Development Council, offered an overview of the resources CCEDC has for local businesses. John Durso, Senior Vice President of First Resource Bank, discussed how his bank has become a pillar of the community through providing unparalleled services.

The seminar ended with an engaging panel discussion that included Knickerbocker, Kapur, DiVincenzo, Durson, and Brandon Steiger, the founder of 2120 Creative, and enabled attendees to ask questions that related directly to their businesses.

Main takeaways from the session include:

Embrace Chester County’s Uniqueness: From its business climate to its demographics, Chester County is fast-growing and unique within the Philadelphia market. Use those differences to develop and deliver a message for your business.

2. Embrace Your Company’s Uniqueness: Once you understand your target customer’s needs and pain points, develop a message that emphasizes your company’s uniqueness in addressing those needs. That is not always easy!

3. The Digital Revolution Is Real: As we approach 2019, your website, marketing plan, and outreach should reflect the way people want to be reached – not what best suits your business.

4. Prioritization Is Essential: There are too many “tools” today for a small or medium-sized business owner to master. Therefore, understanding which ones will have the biggest impact on your target customer is essential.

5. Work Smarter: Learning some tools, tips, and hacks makes life easier and can save valuable time and money. The group shared several of these in the session, and thus increased everyone’s knowledge base.

“I was born and raised here, and the seminar reinvigorated my excitement for Chester County,” said Jen Minicozzi, a Sales Associate who works in marketing and business Development for Pillar Real Estate Advisors. “It brought to light a lot of the positive of Chester County that you don’t think about every day. Just being in that room with that collaborative vibe – everyone was there to help each other.”

About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.

Putting 2018 in the Books and Setting the Foundation for Your 2019 Marketing Strategy

by Rajat Kapur | Nov 14, 2018 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

Putting 2018 in the Books and Setting the Foundation for Your 2019 Marketing Strategy

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Fact: 93% of marketing leaders are under pressure to deliver measurable marketing ROI. So, given that 2018 is almost over, it’s likely that you’re facing some tough questions. With less than two months left, it’s time to evaluate where you stand vs your 2018 goals and determine how you can finish strong. Of course, the next step is to set a plan to set your organization up for success in 2019.

“Strategy without Action is a Dream. Action without Strategy is a Nightmare”

— JAPANESE PROVERB

Review your 2018 Goals and Determine Your 2019 Plan

November & December are ideal to review the previous year’s results and look forward. Here are a few questions to ask as you finish 2018 strong with an eye towards building a good foundation for 2019:

How did 2018 results compare vs your original goals? Where did you meet or exceed your goals? Where did you fall short?
Where could Marketing provide the most overall business impact?Marketing leaders at small and big companies don’t live in a silo. Reviewing the overall goals for the company, and consider where Marketing can make an impact. If it’s a goal to generate new business, how can Marketing align with sales to create an effective lead generation strategy? If a company goal is to recruit and hire new talent, how can Marketing work with HR to create interest in the company and open positions? If its to increase innovation, how well is marketing providing data and insight to market and customer trends? The more closely aligned Marketing is to overall business goals, the more valuable your department becomes.
What were the root causes of your successes or shortcomings? This provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate and update marketing tactics. What drove the most engagement with your audience(s)? What tactics missed the mark? (Website analytics, Paid search, email marketing, social media; or was it offline activity such as Trade Shows or Direct mail?) Taking a hard look at what tactics you implored to reach your audience and measure it up against the goals you laid out for the year.
Which audiences/segments engaged with you the best? Least? Can you break down your success or failure to a specific segment? Industry? Demographic? Location?Determining who within your target audience will convert most helps shape not only your targeting but also your overall positioning and marketing efforts
Are you using data to the best of your ability to gain audience insights and accurate reports? It’s no secret that Marketing has difficulty presenting the value it creates, but now more than ever, a deep dive into your analytics (online and offline) can paint a full picture of how you engaged your target customers and how interested your audience was in you, your content, ads, etc.

It’s no secret that Marketing has difficulty presenting the value it creates, but now more than ever, a deep dive into your analytics (online and offline) can paint a full picture of how you engaged your target customers and how interested your audience was in you, your content, ads, etc.

Get Outside Perspective As You Prepare for 2019

As you’re going through your 2018 plans, sometimes an outside, unbiased view helps tremendously. &Marketing can provide an Initial Marketing Analysis that will:

Evaluate your current SEO presence: For the key terms that you believe are most important to your business, where do you rank? Do you only rank high for your own company name and a couple of key executives? This data provides a baseline view of how the digital world sees your company.
Evaluate your website and social media:
- Your website is your digital business card. How well is your website communicating your company’s message? Provide valuable information to help buyers choose you? Or is it full of dated information and broken links?
- Your social media presence. Do your key platforms communicate your message? Are they regularly updated? Do they link back to your website?
Identify key opportunities: What are some ‘low hanging fruit’ that you can easily execute? What are some longer-term options?

To get started, we’ll spend 20-30 minutes to understand your business, and within about 1 week, we’ll provide an unbiased analysis that reviews your website, your social media, and your competition. No strings attached, no commitments! For more information, click below.

IMA

About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.

Designing & Launching A Customer Advisory Council [Free Ebook]

by Rajat Kapur | Nov 5, 2018 | Insights, Marketing Planning & Execution

Designing & Launching A Customer Advisory Council [Free Ebook]

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In a dynamic, complex business world, many leaders are asking how they can improve true customer intimacy and better understand the direction of their industries.

One excellent way to solve these issues is through a Customer Advisory Council.

A Customer Advisory Council (CAC) is a method for drawing deeper, more unfiltered insight into the wants, needs, and opinions of customers and prospects. A CAC creates formal and informal interactions of a company’s top customers or prospects to provide a platform for them to deliver open and honest feedback.

The specific elements of a Customer Advisory Council, such as format, style, length, and location, are entirely dependent on an individual company’s objectives and resources.

&Marketing has extensive experience in creating, planning, and facilitating Customer Advisory Councils for small companies through global conglomerates in a variety of industries. The goal of this eBook is to provide a framework for companies considering launching their own Customer Advisory Council.

In this free eBook, you will learn:

The benefits of hosting a Customer Advisory Council
Why your customers should participate (What’s in it for them?)
Where to start: How to launch a customer advisory council, including the format, invite lists, and setting an intriguing agenda.
How a successful customer advisory council works: dos and don’ts

“Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”

— WAYNE GRETZKY

Launch My Advisory Council Ebook

About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.