To misquote Madonna, we are digital girls (and boys), and this is a digital world. And what we do isn’t digital marketing, it is marketing in a digital world: we’re serving as sales, customer service, acquisition, communications, client retention and acquisition. All of it.
Conversations are happening online about your industry and brand, and being part of — even better, leading — these conversations make your business better, period. It gives you a direct understanding of customer pain points, and also puts you face-to-face with people celebrating what they love about your people, brand, and products/services. There are nearly 4 billion (yes, with a b) internet users worldwide and over 300 million social media users in the US, which is projected to reach 327.22 million by 2027. Simply put, if you aren’t maximizing your marketing efforts online, you’re missing out.
And we understand that the current climate (what we wouldn’t give to live in boring times again) might make you cautious to invest in marketing now, but that’s exactly why this is the time to strategize and optimize, to safeguard your business against the future. And bringing on an agency like ultraviolet gives you full-scale capabilities across marketing software and platforms as well as diverse expertise, often making it a better value than trying to staff these roles in-house.
Ask yourself these 5 questions about whether now is the time for you to bring on a digital marketing agency:
1. Do you have some type of digital presence and are looking to bolster that presence?
A business thrives by generating engagement —meeting people where they are — and more often than not these days people are online. And the easiest way to put your best foot forward with these potential customers is to bolster all aspects of your brand online. We formulate full marketing plans across digital outlets including content development (web, social, blogs, downloads, landing and pillar pages, content calendars, campaigns, emails, you get the idea) and social media (cadence, timelines, engagement stats and more for all the major platforms) for starters.
A strong digital presence gives you the ideal platform to communicate with consumers. It allows you to control the narrative across all touchpoints in a way that reality stars only dream of. From your website to online reviews to social media, a cohesive online presence also gives you a better understanding of the customer journey from discovery to purchase. And the goal of delivering this seamless experience is that customers feel engaged and heard at every touchpoint in their journey, becoming loyal to you and your brand.
Your relevancy depends on those connections – and research has shown that an omnichannel approach is the best, with different channels being best at different parts of the customer journey — all businesses need to have an effective online strategy to increase their brand awareness and continue to grow.
Here’s a sneak peek at ultraviolet’s flywheel, which is our momentum-driven method of aligning your entire digital marketing strategy. You may not take on all of this at once, but even if we utilize 30% of our tools and tactics, you are adding fuel to the forces that get your wheel spinning, setting your brand up for success.
2. Are you willing to take innovative risks?
We love to develop assets and campaigns that move the needle — and that requires trust. An algorithm change or a trend on social media will get us thinking and reaching out to you with ideas — some that might seem a little “out there.” Too often clients get stuck in doing things the same way they have always done it – which is like the secret phrase that freezes your brand faster than anything.
Sure, one platform may have been working well for you, like you feel like you’ve been killing it on Instagram, but there may be an opportunity to succeed on another platform like TikTok or Pinterest. Being set on staying on a platform where you’re comfortable is so limiting and could potentially set your brand back.
Social media is always changing —and so is how people use it — and as a business, you need to be able to comfortably adapt to not only what’s hot now, but also what’s next. And we’re not saying it’s going to be easy – we have worked with too many design professionals and manufacturers to say that — but risks lead to rewards.
Some risks we have asked clients to take include investing in video and production and being willing to follow scripts for asset development like Reels. We also may ask a client to step out of their comfort zone to develop these assets — but we always maintain their voice and story. It’s about being willing to tell your story in different ways. This takes a little bit of thought, a lot of bravery and at its core, an innovation mindset.
3. Do you have a clear understanding of your marketing goals and objectives and need help strategically?
It’s Psych 101 stuff: Setting goals helps trigger new behaviors, guide your focus, and sustain momentum. You’ve seen countless inspirational Instagram images with some variation of “the difference between a goal and a dream is a plan and a deadline” – and it’s corny, but it’s also super true.
Ok, so what keeps you up at night? Is it increasing brand awareness, acquiring new customers, establishing industry authority, increasing revenue? Aligning with whatever your growth goals are, ultraviolet develops marketing plans with an integrated approach and a holistic tool kit to help you crush them. Once our marketing plan launches, we build benchmarks to report on important metrics — like engagement and conversions — that are growing your business, while we optimize continually to amplify the impact.
4. Are you ready to make an investment?
Running a business, as you know, isn’t cheap: services, equipment, office space and everything that comes with it. And we wouldn’t recommend you add another line item to the budget if we didn’t think it would help you. We don’t think of what we provide in terms of cost, but in value. Digital marketing has immense potential to grow your business and we have a dedicated and highly experienced team — plus the resources and partners — to handle a full range of marketing services and needs.
We think of our team as more than a partner; we are an extension of our clients’ business. Think of us as offering the full benefits of an internal marketing team without the expense of bringing one on staff. And if you have an existing marketing arm, great! We are positioned to act as a support system for them at all levels.
5. Do you have a passion for your work and want to share that with others?
We saved the best for last here. We live, eat, breathe analytics funnels, click-through rates, A/B testing, and analyzing ad metrics and pour our metaphorical blood, sweat and (occasionally literal) tears into writing, designing, creating, and building relationships. And we love working with people who are just as passionate about their jobs.
The most successful businesses are run by people who have turned their passion into profit. They focus on their strengths and find others to help them fill in the gaps. It’s not just smart business — studies show people who use their strengths at work are:
Are you great at design but hate accounting? Would you waste your valuable time trying to learn the latest tax laws? We would hope not — and that you would instead hire a great accountant who loves crunching those numbers. And that same mentality applies to marketing – don’t lose sleep trying to keep up with algorithm changes. Bring in a pro (aka us).
If you think we sound like a good fit for your growth and marketing needs – or if you just have any questions – just reach out.
