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By Wayne Brown

It was only a few years ago that QR (quick response) codes – those little black squares within a square that resemble the textured cubes from Minecraft, seemed to be everywhere from advertisements to store windows.  So now the question is – are they still important or was it a fad that never caught on?

In the beginning, QR codes were so popular with marketers because they can hold an enormous amount of information, similar to bar codes. I think the problem was that they were overused and slapped onto every type of marketing collateral. The idea was that consumers would simply scan away to a new web location. However, many of these digital destinations didn’t always end up at relevant places. As a result, consumers felt it was either a waste of time or just ignored it altogether.

Personally, I love QR codes, but two variables need to be present in order for them to be effective. The first one is space.  Some collaterals and campaigns can benefit from QR codes, while others can’t.  Packaging, flyers & sell sheets, brochures, business cards, menus, wall & floor banners, even store windows can be effective, as long a there is enough design space to insert them.  Collaterals that involve movement like highway billboards, TV spots, the web, and someone’s shirt will not be very effective. The next important thing to consider is where the QR code will take the user and what will the value be.  QR codes that link to coupons, special offers, contest forms, social media sites, and directions & maps are examples of campaigns that provide value and benefits to the consumer. It helps to have a call to action next to your QR code that prompts the users to scan.

Hopefully, marketers will continue to make better use of QR codes, so that they catch on with more people. Despite what people think, they are not cumbersome. For the marketer, sites like www.the-qrcode-generator.com and www.kaywa.com offer quick, easy, and free QR code generators. For users, the QR code reader app comes with both Android and iPhone. All it takes is to open the app and place it over a QR code. You don’t even have to snap anything. The app will automatically scan and take you to the url destination.  The best part about QR codes is that they are fun – kinda like looking for buried treasure, and easier than having to type “www.blahblahblah” on your smartphone.

By Wayne Brown

Several years ago, I had a chance meeting with the leaders a 30 year old non-profit organization in New Jersey, who shared their financial and staffing struggles with me.  Being the optimist that I am, I suggested a few viable resources and marketing strategies that I felt could help them.  Their jaded responses and reluctance to seek outside help caught me by surprise. This company, I thought to myself, will not be around in the future. Sadly, I was right.

Many times in a situation like this one, a good marketing strategy can do more than make a business look pretty. Unfortunately, for small businesses, marketing is typically viewed as an extra “expense,” pushed aside by other “more important” expenses, such as payroll, inventory, and rent. However, hiring a small business marketing consultant can help get a number of things accomplished that will ultimately lead to achieving a company’s objectives.

About a year ago, WOW Creative Group started working with a $5 million company that was primarily interested in our graphic design services.  What they didn’t realize at the time was that all of our collaterals are created based on a company’s brand standards. With that in mind, we set to work in creating a brand for them. From there we developed a marketing plan to take the brand to the consumer, which involved a new website, growing awareness on social media, email, pay-per-click platforms, using video to sell products, tracking analytics, as well as the traditional forms of print. At the end of the company’s fiscal year, there was a significant increase in their return on investment, and the CEO commented that hiring a marketing consultant was perfect for their size company and money well spent. Prior to hiring us, the company’s department managers were responsible for marketing and advertising their individual products and services, which created inconsistency and confusion in their marketplace.

Hiring a marketing consultant in the absence of a full-time marketing director or team offers huge benefits. For one, there’s no acclimation period to reach 100% productivity, as would be expected from a new salaried employee. A seasoned marketing consultant comes with experience and can create a plan of action right away without having to wait months to learn the business. Another benefit is that marketing your business might only require a certain number of hours a week, which might be much less than if you had to pay a full-time employee. In addition, you won’t have to deal with the usual HR headaches, training, payroll, sick and vacation time, and other costs typically incurred by employees. In fact, hiring a consultant is a tax-deductible expense.

Company owners and executive leaders usually have the skills needed to run their respective businesses, but not necessarily in all areas of customer acquisition or the technology that powers it. In addition, wearing too many hats is not always a good thing for any business owner or director, as the ability to manage effectively becomes stretched too thin.

If you’re a business owner or director and find that you don’t have time to pursue opportunities in your market because of time constraints or staff limitations, and are constantly pushing other aspects of business aside just to get through the day, please contact me at wayne@wowcreativegroup.com.

By Wayne Brown

I can’t speak for other industries, but when dealing with marketing professionals, you need to understand that nearly every term and concept is referred by an acronym. While marketing professionals might know many of these linguistic shortcuts, keep in mind that their clients might not.  A marketing professional (we’ll start by calling them “MPs”) might come across as either highly intelligent or very annoying.

I don’t know, maybe it’s me. Anyway, I don’t sell my company’s services B2C, I sell them B2B. We get together, talk about their websites and their BRs, because if you have a high BR, it might mean your lists are out of date. However, not all BRs are bad, maybe some emails are just misspelled.

Now suppose you do have a good list and a pretty good advertising campaign. Add up all your advertising expenses, overhead, etc., and then divide by the number of new customers in that time period and you’ll find out your CAC. Hopefully that number is acceptable to theCMO, if there is one. If not, your company might be using a consultant.

Nowadays, many companies are relying on a CMS to build their websites. Now, a CMO or marketing staff associate can edit and manage their own websites! Put together some great-looking pages and you can coordinate your SEM with SEO to produce a higher ranking in the search engine results pages to enhance  your PPC. Keep in mind, none of your advertising will work without a strongCTA. When all is said and done, take a look at your GA to analyze your CTR. You might want to diversify your marketing with a DMbecause print isn’t dead, yet. A combination of print and digital might be your best bet for creating awareness about your company. Don’t forget social media! At the very least, if you’re not engaging people on FB, you don’t exist. You need to find out what platforms your customers and prospects are using, otherwise your #FF tweets might be a waste of time. For all the time and effort many companies spend on CMS, they might be better off learning HTML and not having to worry about all the plug-ins.

A good marketing consultant knows how to analyze data, too. Comparing last year’s numbers with this year’s MTD and YTD will help you plan your campaigns going forward. Then you’ll know if all those PVs and PPCs were worth the ROI. Keep in mind that more than 60% of users view information on their smartphones, so if you are using print, you might want to add a QR code.  QR codes that link to coupons, special offers, contest forms, social media sites, and directions and maps are examples of campaigns that provide value and benefits to the consumer. It helps to have a CTA next to your QRcode that prompts the users to scan.

Marketing consultants sure do know a lot, and if they’re going to work with SMBs, it helps to have a good SLA in place, so that both the consultants and the sales and marketing teams can define their expectations. How do consultants and corporate marketing departments find each other anyway? Well, WOM is typical and inexpensive, but it does take a lot of work for that to happen. One way you can promote yourself is to have an RSS feed on your website, so people can subscribe to any new content, such as a blog post, that’s added to your site.

Generally speaking, people have short attention spans when it comes to successful advertising. Can you imagine if I had to spell everything out in this article? Hopefully you didn’t find this as a bunch of BS.