Halfway There: Utilizing Mid-Year Insights to Achieve Your Business Goals

Are you achieving your business goals?

Every business has a set of goals that they want to meet each year. A smart way to determine if you are on track to meeting those goals is to evaluate your progress mid-year. By understanding where your business currently stands, you gain valuable insights that can help determine whether you should adjust your current marketing strategy.

In this blog post, we will discuss why it’s important to reflect on your business’s performance, and what you can do to efficiently restructure your marketing strategy and set yourself up for success in the second half of the year.

Focus on Performance

Take a moment to review your initial business goals set at the beginning of the year and identify any key performance indicators and metrics used to measure your progress. Now, compare that information to your current performance. Are you halfway to your goal? Do you notice any changes or drastic drops in performance? What about seasonal variations?

Evaluating performance helps to identify both the strengths and weaknesses within your business. It also helps you to understand what has worked well and what needs improvement. Having measurable data such as the success of marketing campaigns or revenue goals from the previous year helps to see how much has been achieved in that time. At Brand Ranch Media, we recommend looking at both month-over-month and year-over-year data comparisons to take seasonal variations into account. We also recommend taking a deep dive into your specific product/service lines to see how each of them are affecting the bottom line.

For example, if you’re currently at 20% of your goal, then you need to reach 80% of your goal in half the amount of time. Obtaining valuable data allows us to find where we can help you improve or capitalize on areas that you may not have considered.

Restate Your Business Goals

Restating your goals helps to remind you of what your business is trying to accomplish. We’re asking if your goals are attainable and what you need to do to reach them. This doesn’t mean you need to change any numbers or measurable amounts, but we should adjust goals to be in line with how much we’ll be doing in the next six months. By leveraging insights and analyzing data, we can also help you make data-driven decisions and strategically adjust your overall marketing plan.

Reset Your Motivation & Create a New Plan

Once you’ve discovered what may have caused you to fall behind, it’s important to ask what is and isn’t working. If you’re not halfway to your goal at this point, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get there. From here you can figure out what you need to do to get back on track. Remind your team about the incredible impact of success. Victory isn’t just about crossing the finish line; it’s about the feeling of accomplishment that comes with it.

Remember that you can’t expect to do the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result. If you want to make a difference in your performance and maximize growth for your business, your marketing strategies should reflect that. Don’t guess or make assumptions.

Creating a new plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It should be in line with your business goals and what it takes to achieve them. For example, we know that by understanding your best customers, you can connect with them. Which then leads to discovering different patterns that you can utilize within your marketing strategy.

Finish Off the Year Strong

As you make progress toward your business goals, it’s important to remember to stay true to your business’s vision and mission and let those principles guide your decisions.

Use the insights gained from your mid-year reflection to drive your actions and decisions. Celebrate your successes and keep moving forward with determination toward achieving your business goals for the remainder of the year.

If you’re wondering what you can do to achieve your business goals by the end of the year, Brand Ranch Media can help you. By resetting your goal, evaluating what works, and creating and then implementing a plan, we are sure to find the best possible way to help you succeed. We will identify strengths and weaknesses and help you completely redesign your marketing approach to help you reach your goals. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or use our contact form to start the conversation today!

4 Essential Marketing Strategies for Home Services

It’s becoming increasingly important for home service businesses to adapt their marketing strategies in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape. While it is true that word-of-mouth advertising can be successful for those in this industry, relying on that as the only method to attract new customers might not produce optimal results. In this blog post, we will explore four essential marketing strategies that home service businesses can utilize alongside traditional advertising to help boost brand visibility and drive growth.

Understand Data-Driven Insights

Gathering data before implementing any marketing strategies is crucial as it enables you to make well-informed decisions and understand the best course of action for your business. Data can be collected from various aspects of marketing, making it an incredibly valuable resource.

Whether you aim to better understand your target audience or determine the optimal placement for ads, reading and comprehending the data you have at your disposal can greatly help you in implementing effective marketing-driven decisions.

Identify Target Audience Pain Points

It’s important to consider factors such as location, age, and household income when determining your target audience. These demographics can help to provide insight when considering pain points and challenges, such as the time-consuming nature of home maintenance, difficulty finding reliable service providers, or budget constraints. By understanding the pain points and challenges that your customers face, you can position the products or services your company offers as solutions that address these specific needs.

This enables you to tailor your marketing messages and highlight the benefits that you’ll provide in resolving these issues, making your marketing strategies more compelling.

Utilize Marketing Platforms

Different marketing channels can be used for home services, but finding the right ones for your business can help to determine if you can reach your target audience effectively. Keeping an online platform, such as Google My Business, frequently updated can significantly increase your visibility and provide you with the opportunity to showcase your services and attract potential customers.

Creating content for relevant social media platforms can also help you engage with your audience on a more personal level. Sharing valuable content with your customers can help to build trust with them which in turn can expand into more potential business.

In addition to creating content, paid social advertising can significantly boost your brand’s visibility. By investing in advertising, your content can reach a wider audience beyond your organic reach. It’s a great way to make your presence known and attract new customers who may have not discovered your business.

Optimize Local Landing Pages

When optimizing a local landing page on your website, it’s important to remember that you want to provide the best experience to visitors. *(1) Including relevant business details on your page and implementing effective marketing strategies can be very helpful to those that are looking for a local service. By incorporating location-specific information, such as the areas where your services are available, you establish a connection with potential customers living in those neighborhoods.

Make sure that you avoid excessive repetition of keywords when writing for these pages. It can hurt your SEO performance and impact your site’s rankings. It also can make for an unenjoyable user experience. Once keyword stuffing is detected, it can also lead to a loss of credibility or even removing your website from search listings.

A helpful approach would involve finding keywords that align with what you offer and might be related to your local community and how potential customers can benefit from those services.

At Brand Ranch Media, we specialize in crafting effective marketing strategies that have helped our clients grow their businesses and become industry leaders. With our expertise and forward-thinking approach, we can guide you toward achieving your business goals. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or use our contact form to start the conversation today!

*(1) source – Search Engine Land

Top 5 Insights on the Future of Google Ads

The advertising world has been buzzing ever since the Google Marketing Live event showcased how Google plans to use AI to improve its marketing platform for businesses of all sizes. The event is broadcast every year to a worldwide audience of marketing professionals who are eager to hear about the future of Google Ads and Search. This year’s topics focused on AI, future improvements to Performance Max campaigns, and how to multiply the success of your Google advertising moving forward. It’s been almost one month since the 10^th annual event was held and we’ve prepared our top 5 insights on the future of search marketing and what it means for SMBs and advertisers.

AI Helps Advertisers Compete

There is a great need for AI in search marketing in today’s digital landscape. The average consumer journey has grown more complex in recent years where it is common for a customer to have 5 different touchpoints during the buying process. Google Ads AI tools are developed with three concepts in mind: to help marketers keep up-to-speed with competitors, reach customers at the right time, and drive better results.

In addition, privacy has become more important to users. This is the reason why Google has developed its new analytics platform, GA4. It will use AI to collect and report on website analytics that will help drive ad performance in a new privacy-centric environment.

Build a Solid Foundation

During the Marketing Live event, Google refers to “AI Essentials” which are the basic requirements needed to succeed with AI and Google Ads. These are divided into three categories, the first of which is “Foundation”. The foundational aspect strengthens measurement strategy with high quality data. This is accomplished with setting up the Google site tag, the setup of enhanced conversions, assigning values to conversions, and upgrading to GA4. By building a solid foundation, you will set yourself up for success in the future of advertising with Google.

Utilize AI-Powered Ad Campaigns

The second AI Essential is the utilization of AI-powered campaigns that automatically optimize performance in real time to get more conversions and value for your budget. This includes the combination of running simultaneous Search and Performance Max campaigns (Pmax), utilizing value-based smart bidding, and using a wide variety of creative inputs. Pmax campaigns utilize AI to combine multiple types of ad assets and optimized targeting to reach the right audience at the right time.

By introducing AI at the campaign level, campaigns can be launched faster as many of the previous manual tasks will shift to AI. However, marketers will still need to guide the AI in order to drive the best results.

Organizations Will Need to Shift Mindsets

The final piece to AI Essentials is the shifting of the mindsets of organizations in order to unlock the full benefits of AI. Brands and Agencies will need to become open to shifting budgets towards the biggest opportunities. Since AI is going to be doing a lot of the tasks that used to be manual, this will free up time for more experimentation in order to test, learn, and scale what works best.

Agility is going to be very important as workflow will become less siloed between data, budget, and channels. There are also going to be new campaign types being released, such as Demand Generation campaigns that utilize YouTube shorts, Discovery ads, and Gmail to reach lookalike segments of your first-party data.

First-Party Data Will Drive Performance

The majority of advertisers understand the importance of first-party data, however, less than 1/3 of them admit to using it. It’s for this reason that Google is going to make it easier to connect data sources, such as CRMs, to ad accounts. One of the final key takeaways from the Google Marketing Live event was that first-party data plus AI equals a winning Google Ads strategy. If brands and agencies don’t fully embrace AI and first-party data, they will most certainly fall behind and won’t achieve their desired results. AI-driven ad campaigns, such as Pmax, use first-party data signals to help supercharge and hyper-target those who are most likely to convert towards your campaign goals.

If you’re looking for a team of experienced marketers to guide you into the future of search engine marketing, Brand Ranch Media is a pioneer in driving successful AI-driven campaigns. We have been using AI marketing technology since its inception and have a strong track record of helping our clients grow. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or use our contact form to shoot us a quick message!

7 Reasons Why Brands Should Use Traditional Media

7 reasons brands should use traditional media

Advertisers are consistently trying to decide where to spend ad dollars between traditional media and digital media campaigns. Despite the growing influence of digital media over the past 5 years, traditional media via TV and radio still holds significant value for Houston brands. Here are seven influential reasons why brands should continue to use traditional media for effective marketing and advertising.

Wider Audience Reach

Traditional media platforms such as television, radio, and newspapers continue to have a broad and diverse audience base. In the Houston market we are looking at audiences of thousands of people for most off-prime programing, and prime programing on television is frequently in the hundreds of thousands. By utilizing traditional media, brands can tap into these established channels and reach a wide range of demographics, including older audiences who may not be as digitally connected.

Captive Audience

Traditional media often captures the attention of a captive audience. 31% of American households own four TV sets or more, and roughly 65% of U.S. households still pay for TV services. *(1) The typical American views around three hours of TV every single day. The majority is live programming. For example, television viewers may be more likely to pay attention to commercials during their favorite shows, live news or sports programing, while radio listeners may tune in during their daily commutes.

Radio reaches 89% of US Adults per 2022 Neilsen and Scarborough data, which shows average adult listeners spending about 7 hours and 40 minutes listening a week. *(2) Brands can leverage these captive moments to deliver their messages effectively and engage consumers who are less likely to actively seek out digital content.

Credibility and Trust

Traditional media outlets have built a reputation for credibility and trust over many years, often featuring expert commentary, opinion pieces, and interviews with industry leaders. By participating in these platforms, brands can position themselves as thought leaders and gain authority in their respective fields. This association with established media outlets can help strengthen a brand’s reputation and increase its perceived expertise and trust with their target audience.

Brand Awareness and Recall

Traditional media, with its broad reach and repetitive nature, helps in building brand awareness and recall. Television for example, has the advantage of combining visual and audio elements, creating a lasting impact on viewers and listeners. This can be especially useful for brands seeking to create a strong and memorable presence in consumers’ minds.

Local Community Engagement

Traditional media outlets often have strong ties to local communities. By using local newspapers, radio stations, or sponsoring community events, brands can demonstrate their commitment to the community and build goodwill. This localized approach can create a sense of belonging and foster brand loyalty among consumers.

Targeted Local Advertising

Local newspapers, cable television, and billboards are effective for targeting specific geographic areas. For brands focusing on local or regional markets, traditional media offers a targeted approach to reach potential customers in specific locations. This can be particularly beneficial for businesses with limited budgets or those operating in niche markets.

Integration with Digital Marketing

Traditional media can complement and reinforce digital marketing efforts. By incorporating consistent messaging across various channels, including television, radio, out of home, print, and online platforms, brands can create a cohesive and integrated marketing strategy. This synergy helps maximize the impact of campaigns and enhance overall brand recognition and increase the effectiveness of the campaigns.

While digital media continues to grow rapidly, traditional media still offers unique advantages that can effectively complement a brand’s marketing strategy. The key lies in striking the right balance and leveraging the strengths of each medium to achieve the desired outcomes. By strategically incorporating traditional media alongside digital marketing tactics, brands can maximize their visibility, build strong connections with Houston residents, and ultimately achieve their marketing objectives in this diverse and dynamic Houston market.

At Brand Ranch Media, we have helped our clients scale their businesses to become industry leaders. We have the experience and foresight to help you reach your business goals. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or use our contact form to start the conversation today!

*(1) source – Credit Donkey

*(2) source – Strategic Media Inc.

Best Houston Advertising Agency

The best Houston advertising agency is Brand Ranch Media.

Are you looking for the best Houston advertising agency to take your brand to the next level? We’ve got you covered! In this article, we’ll discuss what advertising agencies are, what they do, and how to choose the best one for your business.

The Role of an Advertising Agency

First, let’s discuss the basics. An advertising agency is a company that creates, plans, and executes advertising campaigns for businesses. Depending on the agency, they can handle everything from traditional advertising like tv, radio, billboards, and print ads to digital advertising including website design, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, search engine marketing (i.e., pay-per-click), and more. The goal of an agency is to help businesses increase their visibility by effectively communicating their message and reaching their target audience.

Services Offered by Advertising Agencies

So, what exactly do advertising agencies do? Here are some of the services typically provided by advertising agencies:

Marketing Strategy Development – An advertising agency will work with you to create a comprehensive marketing plan that aligns with your business goals and target audience.
Creative Development – Once a strategy is in place, an advertising agency will develop the creative elements for your campaign including copywriting, graphic design, sound design, and video production.
Media Planning & Buying – Advertising agencies have relationships with media outlets and can help you choose the best channels for your campaign, negotiate rates, and place your ads.
Campaign Management & Optimization – Once your campaign is live and running, an advertising agency will monitor its performance and adjust as needed to ensure optimal results.

How to Choose the Best Houston Advertising Agency for your Business

Now that you have a clear understanding of what advertising agencies do, how do you choose the best advertising agency for your business? Here are some key factors to consider:

Experience – Look for an agency in your industry or niche. They’ll have a better understanding of your target audience and what works best for businesses like yours. You should be just as cautious of agencies that tend to service only one industry and treat all clients the same. Make sure the agency you choose is diverse and can bring out-of-the box ideas from other industries.
Services Offered – Make sure the agency offers services that you need to achieve your marketing goals. For example, if your business is focused on e-commerce, you should look for an agency that specializes in e-commerce. If your business is focused on home services, you should look for an agency with a track record of success in this area.
Reputation – Check online reviews and ask for references to get a sense of the agency’s reputation and track record. Check out our reviews here.
Communication and Collaboration – Choose an agency that you feel comfortable working with and that prioritizes communication and collaboration. You’ll be working closely with them on your marketing campaigns, so it’s important to have a strong working relationship. It’s even better to genuinely like them!

If you’re looking for an advertising agency in Houston, there a plenty of great options!

Brand Ranch Media is a local, full-service advertising agency that provides traditional and digital marketing solutions including website design, search engine optimization (SEO), business listing management, social media marketing, search engine marketing (PPC), copywriting, design, jingle production, video creative, media planning and buying, and more.

Brand Ranch Media services many types of business and specializes in Home Services Marketing (HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Pest Control, Concrete Leveling, Construction), Healthcare & Wellness Marketing, Law Firm Marketing, Oil & Gas Marketing, Financial Services Marketing, and more. We help our clients scale their businesses to become industry leaders. We have the experience and foresight to help you reach your business goals. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or use our contact form to start the conversation today!

New Guide: How to Choose a Marketing Agency in 2023

With various marketing agency options, especially in Houston, it can be overwhelming to select whom to work with.

At Brand Ranch Media, our experience as a boutique marketing agency for various types of businesses has given us insight into what topics you should talk about when interviewing marketing consultants to work with.

Let’s jump right into the 5 topics to discuss with your marketing consultants:

Tell your Marketing Agency Your Goals
Discuss Your Budget
Ask about their Services
Find out their Specializations
Get a Feel for their Culture

First thing, what does a marketing agency do? The best marketing agencies analyze data and build the best marketing strategy for superior business growth. Read more on how the marketing experts at Brand Ranch Media educate business owners and advise on best marketing practices.

Tell your Marketing Agency your Goals

When interviewing marketing agencies to hire, it’s important to have a defined goal to share with them. Having a defined goal gives the agency the best view of the vision to implement the best strategy. We talk about setting your goals in this article. Marketing agencies can also assist with streamlining marketing goals to align with your business goals.

If a marketing agency is eager to have you sign a contract before defining and agreeing on a target goal, take it as a red flag. A good marketing agency will not move forward without knowing what they are trying to achieve for its clients.

Discuss Your Budget

There’s no question your marketing budget is important not only for you but to your marketing agency. It’s best practice to come prepared to talk to them about your allotted budget range. Your marketing agency will be all up in your business, literally. Being transparent about your budget upfront gives the relationship between you and your marketing agency a solid foundation.

Marketing agencies typically have a minimum marketing budget they require from clients they work with. It’s normal to start with an agency that is within your budget and grow from there. Asking the correct questions when interviewing different marketing agencies, such as budget, can tell you whether a marketing agency is a good fit.

Ask About Their Services

Marketing agencies are diverse in the services they provide. Some marketing agencies are heavy in digital media, while others may focus on public relations efforts or media buying, etc. When interviewing marketing agencies to hire, it’s essential to ask what their experience is with the services you are requesting.

The best marketing agencies will also advise and educate company leaders on which services they see as the best fit for the marketing strategy.

Find out their Specialization

Many experienced marketing agencies have their own specific specialty. Whether it be the types of businesses they work with, the knowledge of a market, or a certain service they excel in. Open the conversation when interviewing marketing agencies to find out if their superpowers align with the goals you want to achieve.

What’s the Culture of the Marketing Company

Another important factor in selecting marketing agencies to work with is getting an insight into their company culture. One way to get a grasp of the culture is to take a visit to their office. While there, take note of how their office looks, feels, and most importantly, how their employees interact with one another.

If your organization is very casual and the marketing agency is an uber-cold-laboratory-of-robots, the two may struggle in communication. A great marketing company will support your vision, mission & goal and seek ways to serve you and your customers with integrity as an extension of your brand.

At Brand Ranch Media, we use the golden rule – “If we wouldn’t do it with our money, we won’t do it with yours.”

Jump back to one of the sections:

Tell your Marketing Consultant Your Goals
Discuss Your Budget
Ask about their Services
Find out their Specializations
Get a Feel for their Culture

Having these types of open discussions with your marketing agency will give you clarity in selecting the right marketing agecny for your business.

5 Steps To Set Marketing Goals That Maximize Growth

5 STEPS TO SET MARKETING GOALS THAT MAXIMIZE GROWTH

In this article, we give you our 5-step approach to creating a marketing goal that is proven to maximize the growth of your business. Here is a table of contents of the steps we will review:

With over 20 years of experience, our marketing consultants at Brand Ranch Media have led brands to scale into industry leaders using this 5-step approach. In light of the new year, we are sharing our secret with businesses looking to set new marketing goals.

You may find that marketing consultants start with the end goal in mind when setting your marketing goals. Let’s use the comparison of taking a road trip. Would you hop in the car to go somewhere you’ve never been, and just drive? Sure, that may work, but you could have gotten there faster by using GPS.

Your marketing goal is like inputting your destination in the GPS – it saves you time, and money and gets you to your destination the fastest. Without these marketing goals, your business gets stuck driving without any direction.

Let’s start the engine, to the destination of our 5-step approach to creating marketing goals that maximize your business growth.

01: Establish the Marketing Goal

There are various marketing goals you can create. As marketing consultants, we have found that the most effective marketing goals have some common components. The marketing goal should align directly with the business goals. It should also be specific, and typically measurable by a qualitative amount. Another component of a strong marketing goal is placing a timeframe around the goal.

Do you want to grow your email list? By how much? In how much time? Here are some examples of marketing goals:

Weak marketing goal Strong marketing goal

I want to grow my email list

I want to grow my email list by 10% in 7 weeks by tracking new website forms, and new social media messages +

Example:

By how much?

By when?

How will I track progress?

Can this goal be achieved in the timeframe?

Does it relate to my business goal?

by 10%

In 7 weeks

New leads in CRM

New social media messages

Website Forms

calls

Yes

Yes – Consideration

02: Write Marketing Goals Down

I’m not kidding, write your marketing goal down somewhere you have to see it daily. Research shows that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if they are written down and referred to them often.

Share the marketing goal with other business members. Make your colleagues aware of the goal you’re collectively striving for. This not only gives everyone a central focus, but it also instills a sense of teamwork and comradery.

03: Match Audience to Marketing Goals

You have your marketing goal written down; the next step is to identify precisely who you want to see your message.

View this as a road trip: Our destination is our marketing goal, and the route options would be the various audiences you can target. The difference between taking the long or short route is in targeting the correct audience to hear your message.

Targeting the correct people to receive your message is an important piece in reaching your marketing goal with minimum waste of time.

To get you thinking about how your audience thinks, here are some questions to ask about your target audience:

Demographic

What are the ages you want to target?
Where do they live?
What is their culture?
What is their typical income?

Psychographics

What kind of music do they like?
Where do they shop
What are their hobbies?
What do they value?

04: Maximize Marketing Goals with Mix Media

The next step in reaching marketing goals is to incorporate a mix of media channels to deliver the messages. After an in-depth analysis of your target audience, narrow down what media channels the audience is present in. This link explains more of Brand Ranch Media’s philosophy on media buying.

On the road trip to the destination of meeting your marketing goals, using mixed media can be compared to pit stops. You can choose to stop at the gas station miles away from the route you are on or choose to stop at the one on the way. Selecting to stop somewhere that is already on the way to your destination saves time, effort, and money.

This could be purchasing keywords for certain words your target audience is already searching for. Or, by buying media on a streaming TV service the target audience uses.

To get you thinking about what media the audience is on, ask:

What part of Houston do they live in?
What music do they listen to?
What websites are they on?
What social sites are they on?
Do they watch cable TV?
Do they stream TV?

Brand Ranch Media are expert in market analysis with over 20 years of experience in media buying in Houston.

05: Marketing Goals – Always Analyze

Arguably the most important piece of the puzzle to your marketing strategy is to continue to analyze the data, over and over. Reflect on your initial marketing goal and use key performance indicators (KPIs) as a measuring tool to ensure your marketing efforts are getting your results.

Along your road trip, there are a few checks you want to make along the way – such as gas, the air in the tires, oil level, etc. These checkpoints are the KPIs you established when setting your marketing goal.

Return to a section:

Alright folks, there it is. A 5-step approach to creating a marketing goal that is proven to maximize the growth of your business. If you have business goals that scale your business to unfamiliar territory, this is where marketing consultants in Houston can help.

Are 2023 Consumer Privacy Laws Crippling Your Lead Generation?

Consumer Privacy Laws in Texas in 2023

After the news of Sephora getting hit with a $1.2M fine from the Attorney General for violation of California’s consumer privacy laws, businesses and consumers alike are becoming more conscious of consumer data privacy laws. In the United States, there is a lack of federal consumer privacy laws which has left consumers’ information at the mercy of the WWW (wild, wild, West) – the internet. Texas is not yet implementing new consumer privacy laws meaning the new consumer data privacy laws will not directly affect your privacy policy.

What is it that you should consider as a Texas business owner? As with any new law, it started as a Bill that was written with the intent of being the voice of the people. The new consumer data privacy laws that are coming online next year are a result of hearing consumers’ cries for companies to keep their private information, well, private.

Consumer Privacy Laws Are Changing Consumer’s Mindset

There likely have been several times you noticed an advertisement for a product you were searching for on Google. Or the creepiest, when you were simply talking about a product and open your phone and see an ad for it. Consumers are taking note of this and losing trust, becoming suspicious, and are less willing to hand over their information.

While you are likely not a multi-billion-dollar tech corporation stockpiling data to sell to your multi-national corporation friends, consumers are still paranoid and could be less willing to fill out your contact forms or join your mailing list.

Trust should be at the forefront of your company’s online presence if your business survives on online lead generation, retargeting, or email marketing. Texas business owners can use the provisions stated in these new data privacy protection laws and begin to implement protections for their consumers to build online trust.

So, while many will say, ‘there may not be a direct effect from these new privacy laws’, we are going to see a connection between the level of trust in consumers and the number of leads you will receive on your site.

As tracking has become more apparent, consumers are beginning to become more protective of their personal information and mindful of the information they share with any given business website. Building consumers’ trust level will assist in allowing the consumer to feel comfortable in sharing their personal information with your business.

Keeping your company ahead of the consumer privacy laws

One solution to position your company as a brand that consumers can trust is to update your privacy policy. If you are still using the vague default privacy policy that came with your web template, take this as an opportunity to begin building trust on your website.

Learn from the new laws that are going into effect starting in 2023 and use those laws as a baseline for your new privacy policy. Begin to look at and implement some of the rules regarding consumer privacy. Each state’s legal terms within the new privacy laws slightly vary, but they have serval provisions in common. Such as:

· The users’ right to access and delete personal information; and

· The users’ right to opt out of the sale of their personal information.

Under the new privacy laws, these websites are required to honor the consumers’ request to opt-out of having their data shared. These new data privacy laws state that websites must let the consumer know the following:

· What personal data is being collected by the website,

· If their data is being shared; and

· To whom their data is being shared with.

Giving consumers control of their personal information provides the consumer with a sense of control and builds trust in that business.

Getting ahead with the new privacy laws (Building Trust With Potential Leads)

All of your marketing efforts converge to build an overall level of trust in your prospects that will lead them to the steps to becoming your customer. This has been the focus of our efforts at Brand Ranch Media from the beginning. If you’re like us, you are too busy providing quality service to your clients to ever consider selling their information.

We want to help you grow by cultivating trust in your customer throughout your entire marketing system from start to finish. If you are not sure if your privacy policy needs a refresh, reach out to us.

Brand Ranch Media has digital marketing consultants to assist with understanding the changes in consumer privacy laws. Our dedicated team strives to serve our clients with expert knowledge, thorough guidance and explanation, and the necessary tools to keep your website’s privacy policy up to date. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or send us a message today to open a discussion.

Marketing During a Recession

Marketing During a Recession - Brand Ranch Media

Businesses and consumers have been eyeing several slumping economic indicators throughout 2022. Navigating persistently growing inflation, higher interest rates, and a declining stock market has been difficult for many. As marketers, we are faced with inquisitions from business owners who are seeking advice on how they should approach marketing during a recession, especially when the volume of leads decreases and/or revenue decreases. In this situation, we investigate many different factors which help us determine and address the most likely causes of these decreases. Internal factors, such as an ineffective marketing message, are typically simple to resolve. External factors, such as a looming recession, can be a bit tricky.

What is a Recession?

The historical definition of a recession is when the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) declines in growth for two consecutive quarters. In the first two quarters of 2022, real GDP growth in the US was in the negative. There are other financial indicators that signal a recession including an inverted yield curve on government bonds, a rising unemployment rate, and declines in the stock market. After a quick search (yield curve, unemployment rate, and stock market) you will find that as of Q3 in 2022, the figures all indicate that the economy is in recession. However, a recession does not necessarily have to mean doom and gloom for all!

The Good and the Bad

Some businesses actually thrive during recessions and are sometimes called, “recession-proof”. Examples of these types of businesses include grocery stores, healthcare providers, discount stores, auto repair, home maintenance stores, and accountants/financial services professionals. Any business that provides goods or services that fall under the category of mandatory or non-discretionary expenses will tend to fare well during recessions. Businesses that provide goods and services considered discretionary are at greater risk as consumers are forced to delay their plans of making larger purchases or spending their income on things such as dining out, vacation travel, and entertainment.

Marketing During a Recession

In the event of a recession, many companies cut spending on special projects, technology such as electronics and software purchases, shipping, and unfortunately, workers. In addition, marketing budgets are typically cut or altered in some way. Part of our job as a marketing firm is to advise our partners on how to best allocate their marketing spend. During the COVID-induced economic recession in 2020, our overall client sales grew 26% (2020 vs 2019 sales) for all industries. For our clients in the home services industry, we saw sales growth of 300% over the previous year!

So, what do we recommend when marketing during a recession?

Create a Plan

The most important thing you can do when marketing during a recession is to already have a plan in place long before a recession hits. All businesses should create a contingency plan for external economic events that may impact the company’s bottom line. Without a plan, you could be left scrambling for a solution causing additional stress and potentially missing opportunities.

Know Your Top Performing Channels

Marketing attribution can help you distinguish your top performing marketing channels from your lower performing channels. Understanding which marketing tactics are contributing the most to sales and conversions is crucial because it can help identify where you are able to cut spending as well as how much you should cut. Cut back on underperforming channels and either shift budget to the better performing channels or keep the savings.

A caveat to temporarily cutting marketing budgets is that it can be difficult to recover market share once the economy improves. This gives your competitors an opportunity to swoop in and take what you left behind. We rarely advise a business to completely cut out a channel and we don’t suggest going “all in” on one channel. The goal is to continue to hit all the touchpoints with the right message throughout the different stages in the marketing funnel.

Personalization and Brand Trust

Customers in today’s marketing landscape want a more personalized marketing experience. The ability to understand your customer and relate to them and their needs is how you can stand out against your competitors. In addition, businesses and brands need to connect with their customers and provide them with relevant messaging. During a recession, the messaging should try to invoke feelings of sentiment and also show empathy. A “hard sell” approach is going to give off the vibe that the company doesn’t have the customer’s needs in their best interests. Brands will come across as out of touch and can lose consumer trust. The best approach is to try and think like your typical customer and craft your messaging based on that mindset.

Stay the Course

Overall, the best plan of action for marketing during a recession is to stay the course, don’t make any drastic changes, and understand that recessions eventually end. Assess if your business is recession-proof and if you can afford to keep all your marketing efforts alive. You will find benefit from going above and beyond your customer’s expectations. Providing quality customer service should already be a standard for your business and won’t cost you anything extra. Lastly, remember that most everyone is feeling financial stress. Figuring how you can help ease the stress of your customers will send a positive message and strengthen those relationships long after the recession is over.

At Brand Ranch Media, we have helped our clients navigate through both busy and slow seasons as well as stronger and weaker economies. We have the experience and foresight to help you reach your business goals. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or use our contact form to start the conversation today!

How to Transition to GA4 in Google Analytics

If you’re not quite sure how to transition to GA4 in Google Analytics, this article is for you! Back in March 2022, Google announced that on July 1, 2023 it will sunset the Universal Analytics (UA) property and all new website analytical data will collect in the Google Analytics 4 (GA4) analytics property only. This means that businesses and marketing teams currently using UA need to devise a transition plan to help ease into GA4. Since UA data will eventually cease to exist within Analytics, waiting until the last minute to make the switch is not an option. In our previous article about GA4, we provided a little insight into the newest analytics property so we’ll keep our recap within this read brief.

What is GA4?

The GA4 analytics property uses event-based tracking to provide user behavior insights for visitors of a website. These insights provide business owners and marketers valuable data metrics indicating performance signals for advertising campaigns both on and offline. Changes surrounding user privacy online and in apps created a need for an alternative analytic tracking method and GA4 was born.

What is the difference between UA and GA4?

The main difference between UA and GA4 is that UA uses session-based metrics while GA4 focuses on event-based metrics. You will no longer see visitor statistics within GA4 that you may have become accustomed to viewing in UA such as bounce rate and average time of website. Instead, you will see event actions that users take such as clicks, scrolls, and other engagement actions. These events are designed to give you a better understanding of user behavior. The verdict is still out on whether the GA4 platform is going to provide marketers with a satisfactory level of quality data once data stops flowing through UA. From the time of writing this article, Google still has about 10 months to get it right.

Creating a Transition Plan

Since historical data will no longer be available from the UA property and the data reported in GA4 slightly varies from what business owners and marketers have become accustomed to over the past 10 years (released in 2012), the need for a transitional plan that will help ease into the use of GA4 is vital. If you have already set up the GA4 property, then you’re off to a good start! However, you want to be sure that the property has been configured properly and that your conversions are properly recording within GA4. If you’re using a 3^rd party tracking application that integrates with Analytics, unless there is a GA4 integration update available, conversions will not track in GA4 the same as they did in UA.

Once you configure the GA4 property, you will need to create a timeline including a learning period to become acquainted with the differences in the types of data metrics reported in GA4 versus the metrics in UA. Figure out what data you will no longer have access to, what data is new, and any comparable datasets available. There will be differences in data visualization so it’s important to understand how that might affect the charts and graphs in your reports. If you use Google Data Studio or a 3^rd party reporting platform, you will need to ensure that they are configured properly to account for the changes.

The final piece of your plan as you transition to GA4 is to take all of your historical data in Universal Analytics and archive it so that you can access it to compare future advertising performance to past performance. This piece is crucial. Google says it will only keep historical data from UA for 6 months and has not provided a turnkey solution for this type of data storage or integration with GA4 data. You will need to decide what data is important for your business, how much of it you want to keep, and how far back in time you might want to reference in the future.

Data is the most important piece of the marketing puzzle. If you allow yourself enough time to configure GA4, learn the differences between the metrics in UA versus GA4, make updates to visualizations in your reports, and backup all historical data in UA, you will be well-prepared come July 1, 2023 and can avoid any last-minute scrambling to organize your data.

If you are a current or future client partner of Brand Ranch Media and would like us to help you formulate and execute a plan to help with your transition to GA4, don’t delay! Put your mind at ease and let’s start the discussion today! Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or shoot us a message through the website.