Weber Marketing

06/12/2021

Hurry up Wednesday! Looking forward to sharing the stage with Sarah Best, Eagan Heath and Candy Phelps at Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison's Digital and Social Media Conference.

Thankful I get to participate as a learner and presenter. My pencil is sharpened and my notebook is ready for some great takeaways. And of course, my slide deck is ready to roll.

29/06/2021

True or false: Great creative = great marketing

I wasn't able to grab an in-action shot, but my thanks to Center for Entrepreneurship Madison College for the chance to present this morning and give my two cents on this question and others like it. Our focus was how small businesses can be successful with their marketing efforts, regardless of the budget or their own marketing know-how.

An engaged audience with good questions throughout are signs of success to me!

16/06/2021

CTAs (call to action) are the action you want visitors to take on your website or other digital platform. "Download here" or "Register now", etc.

Since digital presence is so important right now, I am sharing a post I came across on LinkedIn. A great reminder to think beyond the traditional, or often used, CTAs on your website.

The other problem with CTAs of "download" or "learn more" is they are overused and, thus, often glossed over. I appreciate a CTA that isn't a cookie cutter approach and instead is unique and feels authentic to the brand vibe. "Quick shop" or "Are you ready" or "Ready set learn." A quick 5 minute brainstorming session with your team can produce fun CTAs that gives your brand some personality.

Final note: Don't forget to set up tracking on your CTA button(s) so you can monitor the CTAs that are working for you and/or ones that are not.

01/06/2021

My thanks to Center for Entrepreneurship Madison College for inviting me to present on June 29th with a focus on small business marketing. Whether you are a startup or seasoned small business owner, if you are struggling or unsure of which direction to take your marketing, join us as we discuss how your business can get on the right path to marketing success.

Agenda and registration can be found here: https://bit.ly/3i44ipQ

Tip: Budget is NOT the biggest barrier to marketing success. Do you know what is? Sign up and find out.

thanks to Madison College Entrepreneur Center

Are you a start-up or small business trying to get a handle on your marketing efforts?

18/05/2021

It is always a great start to the day when it is kicked off talking about marketing! I enjoyed sharing the virtual stage with Kathryn Wundrow from The Digital Ring as we shared our thoughts on how new or small businesses can move their marketing forward.

Discussion points included:

- Debunked 7 age-long marketing myths like, "Marketing is easy. I can do it myself."

- The steps necessary to figure what to focus your marketing efforts on

- What is the most relevant marketing strategy right now

- Then one of most frequently asked questions; how much to spend on marketing

Thank you Hedberg Public Library in Janesville and SCORE Mentors Madison for the invite.

15/04/2021

As a marketing consultant, I've been getting asked pretty consistently the same 4 questions over the last year:

1. How do we decide what to focus our marketing efforts on
2. What is the most important marketing strategy right now
3. How do we set projects up for success
4. How much should we spend on marketing

I had a great morning spent with the SCORE Mentors Madison group providing my answers to these questions with tips and strategies to help move their client's marketing forward. Thank you Ken Wundrow for the invite!

If you are just getting started with your business, or a seasoned business owner and need some guidance, SCORE Mentors Madison is a group you should reach out. They are a genuine group that want to see you succeed. Find out more here: madison.score.org

If your group, organization or marketing department is interested in this type of discussion, let's chat.

08/04/2021

As a marketing professional, one of my favorite things to do is to build a relationship with is my sales team. Often sales and marketing are on different legs of the org chart (which I think is a huge mistake). As you are probably familiar with, this leads to misalignment of goals and focus.

My fellow marketers, you know, and I know, how frustrating it is when you work your buns off to get a marketing campaign built up and launched only to have it fall flat on its face because your sales team didn't do their part. Why didn't they make those calls? Why are they not tracking engagements in Salesforce? Why are they not excited about the demo video you spent $5k to create?

Well, probably because: 1) No one communicated with sales about the campaign so they have no idea what you're talking about, or 2) Sales and marketing goals are not the same thus there is no synergy between the teams, or 3) Marketing didn’t take the time to sit down with sales to gather consumer insights and build a campaign to support the needs of the marketplace, nor their colleagues.

Marketing team(s), take the lead on building the bridge with your sales team. DM me if you need outside support or listen to this oldie but goodie for starting points: https://www.webermkt.com/post/marketing-check-in-sales-and-marketing-teams

Sales and marketing teams, I have a question for you. We are three weeks into the new year and have the two of you (sales and marketing) met yet to discuss goals and marketing needs for 2020? Why not? Here are 3 agenda items you can use to begin the conversation with.

09/02/2021

I recently sat through a difficult creative review, not because the work wasn't good, but the client was really uncomfortable giving constructive criticism of the work.

If you struggle giving creative feedback, my previous blog post might be helpful to you. Tips include:

1) If you are disappointed with the creative concepts, ask yourself this question, "Did I do a good job of setting this project up for success?" If no or unsure, then fault lies with you not your creative partner.

2) No creative professional is expecting to hit a home run on the first go-around. So relax and remember this is a process.

3) Don't skip over what you don't like, and why, about the options put in front of you.

4) On the flip slide, make sure to point what you do like on each option.

5) Don't worry about using "fancy" or "industry speak" words. Just say what comes to mind and your creative partner will take it from there.

6) Your job is not to be the creative director. As you are providing feedback, positive and negative, your creative partner is already formulating next steps in their mind.

Do you want to know what I believe to be the # 1 reason creative projects fail? Here is a clue: T_M_

Read my full blog post and find out the answer here: https://lnkd.in/gkei9x5

05/02/2021

Event planning. Does it get you excited or nervous?

If I had to pick a "sweet spot" my professional career is based off of, I would say it is in event planning. I love the highs and even the lows (only because it feels GREAT to problem solve your way through the lows)!

Big or small, events are a great way to make a personal connection. To pull off a rewarding event you need a big-picture visionary and an every-detail-covered perfectionist.

If your company is in need of event planning help -- whether it is for a corporate function, trade show, destination event, conference, seminar, professional development workshop(s) or partner networking, let's have a conversation.



https://www.webermkt.com/what

25/01/2021

A new year. A new service offering.

In December I taught a class through UWSBDC and one of the attendees followed up with me and asked if I did marketing coaching. She wanted to learn and do the hands-on work, but needed a coach to help along the way.

It's been a great experience for us both. Since our first meeting on December 14th, she has established her business goals, a marketing strategy and ex*****on ideas in order to reach her goals. From this, she has coordinated and designed her first promotional campaign that includes updates to her website, 4 direct mail pieces, social media posts (for a whole month!). This week's assignment is to research print vendors and write her first press release to send over for my review.

She is doing the hands-on learning (and work!) she wanted, but she has a 20-year professional guiding her along the way.

If you and/or your team would like to hear more, please message me and let's get something scheduled.