12 Pro Marketing Tips for 2023

Below are 12 pro marketing tips sourced from Blayzer Digital’s own team. These come straight from social media experts, web developers, project managers, salespeople, and others that have one heck of a combined resume.

*Please note that the tips below are to be taken lightly. A little fun for the end of the year!

If you have any tips, thoughts, or questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

SEO and other digital strategies take time. Example: If you want to have a big ad push for particular products on Black Friday, that should be planned well in advance. Same thing with content.

Do you get a report on what you’re paying for? If not…request a report. And if whomever you’re working with is sketchy about sharing any analytics, fire them.

Pretty graphs are easy to fake! It’s easy to go into Analytics and manipulate graphs. Do you make money off of clicks and abandoned shopping carts? No! You make money on conversions. Get real proof that every dollar you spend is adding value to your product/service.

Certain providers (GoDaddy comes to mind, alongside seedy marketing agencies) might write things into a contract that makes it nearly impossible to cancel. If you’re kept under contract and any of your digital assets are held hostage, get out or call a lawyer. Read your contracts closely.

There’s always a cool new trend. Does your company need to use TikTok or some piece of customer service software? Maybe. Is the time invested worth the payoff? Gauge any new marketing trends before investing in them or, better yet, give us a call and we can discuss.

This type of media is great for a number of reasons. You can build trust, market products and services, and show potential customers you’re a real person.

This has become increasingly important in B2B sales. Example: you’re an estate planner. How many redundant questions do you get every day? Jot them down – make a two-minute clip explaining your answer. These can be very powerful supplemental material (if used correctly.)

Any content you have (images, pictures, newsletters) can and should be used across multiple platforms Example: that staff photo you paid for last year? You can turn that into a greeting card, use it on social, have everyone update their LinkedIn photos, put it on your site…You can get a lot of mileage out of a single good piece of content.

It only takes a few minutes to like a YouTube video, optimize your LinkedIn profile, or contribute information to your marketing department or agency. Use incentives and keep any requests from coworkers streamlined (i.e. not overwhelming).

It’s like pulling teeth sometimes…but they’re important. Have your agency set up a mailer or send a Google Review link to each new (or existing) customer. People expect companies to have stars next to them. There are plenty of clever ways to get legitimate reviews – use them.

You may want to jump right into the next job or sale and forget to ask for a review. Or you may feel awkward hounding former customers with review requests – which happens if you’re not careful. Video reviews (you can use Zoom and record a session) are becoming quite popular.

Texting is blowing up in the B2C world. There are affordable (and effective) ways to text your clients discounts and specials, links to leave Google reviews, to schedule meetings, etc. Two caveats: Don’t “cold call” text people, and keep business to business hours.

Perception is everything. Even having your employees use the same professional email signature or have updated LinkedIn accounts/bios can make or break a deal. Pro tip: this can be a hassle for your staff because it’s one more thing to do. But once it’s done, it’s done.

If it’s cheap, it’s probably cheap. There’s nothing wrong with having a $20/month website through Wix or Squarespace if that’s what you need. When you want to go to the next level, though, it’s common for businesses to experience some form of sticker shock. Adding value costs – just make sure you’re spending it on the right things.

Likes and site visits don’t mean anything if they don’t convert (or cause something to happen.) Conversion points would be entering an email address for a newsletter, creating an account, or even abandoning a digital shopping cart. There’s a fine line between valuable conversion points and spammy “BUY ME!!!” media all over the place. To the point: none of you reading this want an ad to pop up right now. Especially if you’re on your phone. Conversion points should be light and meaningful, yet easy to find.

Staying on the topic of user experience, anyone on your site expects certain things. They want that “hamburger” menu, important links in the footer, easy-to-find contact info. You probably don’t want people to spend an hour on your homepage – this means its ineffective. Users should hop right into what they’re looking for without having to scavenge around a beefy website (that’s hopefully not full of popups!).

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing can be a blessing or a straight-up curse. I have seen multiple – usually smaller – businesses try and out-spend their bigger competitors. Example: lawyers. Law firms love to spend money on ads if their digital bus bench is above everyone else’s in town. Do you know how much “personal injury lawyer St. Louis” costs per click? Usually around $150. That’s not even considering leads that bounce right off your site or that don’t convert. There are firms out there that spend tens of thousands on mismanaged ads and see very little return.

When you’re in the ad game, you might be “gambling” what would be your entire marketing budget and get nothing in return. First off, your paid ad on a SERP should lead to something actionable. You don’t want people who clicked to leave when they get there. Misleading information, slow load time, and a dozen other factors affect bounce rates. Make sure where people land leads them to the thing they were looking for. You can also micro-target certain demographics, keywords, areas, etc. to dial in and get the best bang for your buck.

This is Google Ads tterm. QS is how Google ranks any paid ad. How? It looks at things like how fast your page loads, the value of the content, if the site is secure, if the ad matches the information, and so on. QS is incredibly important to consider. In fact, the higher a landing page’s QS, the less you pay per click. That’s right! If “HVAC company near me” is $30/click, having a better, Google-friendly page can bring your cost (not the bid) down to $20/click. Ask your agency about Quality Score! If they don’t know what that is, fire them.

You can prepare for things in advance, of course, and that usually starts with a solid website, claiming your social profiles, and having a long-term strategy in place. There are a lot of components at play when it comes to digital marketing – have a chat with Blayzer to learn more.

You may have noticed a theme to these “pro marketing tips.” Care to guess? Here’s a multiple-choice test:

A) These pro tips are about succeeding in the online space.
B) These pro tips seem almost… anti-marketing?
C) These pro tips are rehashing things I may already know or assume.
D) These pro tips certainly gave me a lot to think about.

The answer (we hope!) is “D.”

This industry serves a purpose: to help people succeed by selling products, advertising a service, and build better brands. We don’t just build websites or online stores. We build success and value.

It’s important for businesses wanting to grow in the online space to find a partner – not just someone who builds a website – but that helps you with solutions.