Rise Above The Rest

How would you like to increase short and long term sales and profits for your company during these difficult times!

“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time”  
-Henry Ford

In a study of U.S. recessions, McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies covering 16 different SIC industries from 1980 through 1985. The results showed that business-to-business firms that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recessions averaged significantly higher sales growth, both during the recession and for the following three years, than those that eliminated or decreased advertising. By 1985, sales of companies that were aggressive recession advertisers had risen 256% over those that didn’t keep up their advertising.

In good times, people want to advertise; in bad times, they have to.”   

-Bruce Barton, co-founder BDO Advertising Agency

Materials compiled from a variety of sources, including America Business Media, McGraw-Hill, Penton Research

Now is not the time to cut back or eliminate your advertising budget. Now is the time to double down, triple down and maybe even quadruple down on your business. It comes down to Risk verses Reward. The Mullikin Advertising Agency can help you drastically reduce the risk and make sure your business is greatly rewarded with increased sales!  

Should you Hunker Down or Double-Down your Advertising During COVID-19?

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The Choices You Make Now Could Ignite Your Business or Weaken it

There is no question we are facing unprecedented economic times. COVID-19 has already caused a drastic decline in the US economy.  But how you react right now and the choices you make could make or break your company’s future. So, what’s it going to be?

Are you thinking about cutting back your advertising budget? You are ready to hunker down and ride this out?  It’s an option, but perhaps not the best option. Take a look at what one company did in one of the WORST financial meltdowns in United States history: The Great Depression.

The Great Depression was very difficult for most consumer product companies, but Procter and Gamble came out of the entire meltdown a whole lot stronger than it was in 1929. How did the soap giant beat the Great Depression when grocery customers started cutting their orders? P&G determined that even in a depression people still need soap, so why wouldn’t they buy it from Procter and Gamble?

Instead of cutting back their advertising efforts as many of its competitors did, the company actively pursued new marketing opportunities, which at the time included radio broadcasts. It was able to maintain and increase sales while other companies folded. One of these campaigns involved becoming the chief sponsor of daytime dramas (later called “soap operas”) aimed at housewives, the company’s primary market. The Mullikin Agency saw the same thing happen with several of our clients during the 2008 and 2009 recession.

Could your business do something similar today?

Let’s look at a couple of ways to increase your marketing efforts right now.

The Digital Market Just Got a Whole Lot Bigger

You say that’s not possible!  There aren’t any more people today than there was yesterday; how could it have possibly grown?

It’s really pretty simple. With hundreds of thousands of people furloughed from work or working remotely, and so many live entertainment opportunities being shut down, the number of hours people spend online and on their TV, phones, laptops and radio is already increasing.  They can’t go to restaurants or gather in large groups. This is likely to skyrocket in the coming weeks. If you want eyeballs, digital is one place to consider being right now. People are stuck at home and you can reach them better than you ever could.

Less Competition = Lower Marketing Costs

While many of your competitors may stop marketing out of fear and uncertainty, this could be a great time to get ,more traffic and make more sales while others are pausing and stopping their advertising campaigns. It’s simple economics. The law of supply and demand says: when demand drops, and supply stays the same prices will naturally fall.  For online advertising, this means a lower cost per click, and lower CPM (cost per 1000 advertising impressions).  Your brand exposure will be less expensive during this time.

This may even be a great opportunity to leapfrog your competitors. When else in the history of your business have your competitors just stopped? SEM and Targeted Digital Display ad campaigns along with Facebook Lead Generation campaigns will likely leave your competitors in the dust.

Your Brand Will Be Louder Than the Rest

You’ll stand out. With your competitors cutting back, pausing, or stopping their campaigns, you will stand alone or at least you will have an opportunity to stand out.

Your message will be clearer without your competitors present and you will have an opportunity, perhaps the only opportunity, to address your customers and prospects without the noise of competing messages. 

 Remember, Procter and Gamble expanded their voice, while their competitors shrank, maybe you should consider doing the same.

The Mullikin Advertising Agency is open for business and can help you navigate through these difficult times with a customized on-line advertising approach that will bring you increased sales that could even help you leapfrog your competition. We can also help you with other advertising options as well.

Let the Mullikin Agency light up your business!

If your business is just starting off or is well established, a successful Digital Marketing strategy is essential for businesses  during these difficult days to grow their brand, drive more leads and stand out from the competition. Get your marketing channels lit up for success.

Here are some powerful ways to light up your online marketing!

Connect with your audience on social media

With people engaging with brands on social media, your business needs to be where your customers spend their time. Target your audience with engaging conversations and build a brand that goes viral.

Use a local Advertising, Marketing and Public relations firm like The Mullikin Agency who knows the market and understands Social Media, has great ideas for creating visually impacting messages that help tell your story to others. We can help you do all of the following:

Boost your ranking with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google your business’s name – and see if your website is ranked as one of the top 3 businesses in the search results. If it is, you’re doing amazing. If not, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers and could use some help.

To improve your ranking on Google, follow these steps:

• Perform an audit of your website to optimize it for search engines.
•  Create rich valuable content for your audience to increase trust and credibility in your business.
• Create quality references from sources such as blogs and social media.

Drive more leads with Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Generate more traffic to your website and increase your visibility with digital ads tailored and directed to your audience. With SEM, your business appears at the top of Google search results and is the first link customers will click.

Email Blasts and a strong list of e-mail addresses

Make it easy for your audience to connect with your business by building a strong, memorable and trustworthy brand. With consistent and catchy brand colors, fonts and messaging you will make a big impact.

       1. Create a brand

Build a cohesive brand with your company’s logo, tagline and let it pop with color, typography, iconography, and more.

       2. Strike First Impressions with customized business cards

Perfect your business and help promote with well-designed business cards.

      3. Support your sales with professional material

Whether it’s distributed in large numbers through direct mail or handed out one at a time by your sales team, brochures, rack cards, flyers and other printed material are all ways to increase the spread of your business’s word about different products and services and attract to continually receive new business.

      4. Help bring your brands story to life with logo, animation and videos

In this new era it’s important for your business to brand its story with a creative video or use of animation to delight your audience and to always stay memorable.

      5. Get viral with social media designs

It is always important to increase your presence on social media with unique images and videos so your audience can relate and share your business with others.

      6. Wow your audience with web & Mobile Design

Promote your business and make sure your brand is consistent across all platforms, whether it is web or mobile. Leuer your customers’ attention to your website with bright and engaging content. From blog posts and articles to infographics and videos, your websites content will reign supreme.

Advertise even during economic slowdowns

For this economy to function, companies must market and advertise even amid a global crisis. Take a quick look back at the tragedy of September 2001 and how businesses reacted.

In the weeks after 9/11, the ad industry responded with uplifting messages. The Ad Council released “I am an American,” a TV spot showing the nation’s diversity. General Motors offered an uplifting advertising campaign entitled: “Keep America Rolling,” combining a pro-America pitch with zero percent financing.

Today we find individuals and businesses deeply concerned and fearful. People seem to be apprehensive for their jobs, for their lives and for the future.

It may seem like the easiest course of action is to batten down the hatches and cut back just to survive, but that is not what history teaches us. 

The U.S. economy needs marketers and marketing. Consumer spending  accounted for more than two-thirds of economic activity in 2019, so it’s no secret that marketing helps drive commerce.

I believe we will see businesses in the coming months that are willing to take bold risks to keep this economy rolling.

Businesses must give consumers a reason to spend through special offers and the promotion of their products and services even when we are going through tough economic times.

During the Great Recession back in 2008, I wrote an “Opinion” published in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal in April of that year that “during economic downturns, businesses must look for creative ways to be even more visible than ever.”

What I said 11 years ago can still be true today, “To succeed during difficult times, you will need to be tenacious and creative. Engage your entire company or organization. Make a commitment to do what it takes to succeed and take an aggressive approach to generate new business.”

In Ad Age’s first issue published post-9/11, they offered a similar and hopeful view: “President Bush had it right when he urged that normal national life must return promptly; that the nation has to get back to business after last week's horrors.”

The economic life of this country is the foundation of our well-being and cannot be put on hold for very long. Consumers, already anxious about the economy, need to see that business is not retreating. Companies and employers must sell products, and they need to market and advertise to make it happen. Advertising messages and schedules must be planned and purchased, and businesses must look to the future.

After times of crisis throughout our history we have always pulled ourselves up by our boot straps and took positive action. Even with these unprecedented days of COVID-19, we must soon begin to reset and move forward for the good of the entire nation.

Someone once said, “In Good times, businesses want to advertise, in bad times they have to.”

Let it be so!

How digital marketing is ever changing!

How digital marketing is ever changing!
Digital marketing is always evolving, and this year is no different. There are new technologies that are being planned to make the internet more powerful and more engaging. From AI to 5g to emerging online marketing strategies, here are a few new digital marketing changes for you to consider.

1. Google’s BERT Update
Google's algorithm update tells Advertising Agencies if your website gets high or low ratings and is important for website owners and managers to know. It can mean the difference between higher or lower search rankings for your business.  Google's latest update is an innovative coding system called BERT, it stands for bidirectional encoder representations from transformers. It is expected to affect 10% of all websites.


2. Voice Will Start To Dominate Search
A survey showed that 58% of U.S consumers conduct local business searches by using their voice control on their smartphones. Two thirds of this group say they conduct at least one voice search to find a business per week. The statistics are expected to climb in 2020 and beyond. Google assistant and Apple Siri are the leading voice assistants; it’s a good idea to make sure your business’ website works well with the searches as well with the other top Voice Assistants:

Google Assistant 36%
Apple Siri 36%
Amazon Alexa 25%
Microsoft Cortana 19%
Other 1%

3. Live Videos Help Drive Engagement
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are great for eye catching visual presentations; that is why live videos are constantly increasing direction. The key to engage your customers may just be videos. Video can be used for multiple purposes. You can initiate the increase of engagement by repurposing the same video or using different clips from the same video. Live videos help create shared experiences in real-time, this is why they attract better engagement. Let us know if we can help you create the perfect video.

     4. Educational and Interactive Content
Bite-sized informative images contain useful knowledge. The more educational and interactive the content is the better. Keep your informative content to a one-sentence overview. Images always work best when they are presented in a series and should always be mobile-friendly. Smaller infographics will outperform the larger ones. Keep us in mind for those needs as well.

5. Influencer Marketing
Influencers  reach has declined lately due to the internet being flooded with over a million blogs. Social media engagement has peaked because of the over-saturation. In 2020 there will need to be changes made to achieve a  winning digital strategy.

6. Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing is using multiple channels to sell your products. Our clients have found success in using different marketing channels; your website, email, and social media. It’s not considered omnichannel until your business’ use all of these channels and merge it into a seamless experience. Your messages must always be consistent on all of your marketing channels.

7. Customization Options
Please consider outsourcing your digital advertising and communications to an expect like the Mullikin Advertising Agency that can help you handle all the aspects needed for web development that contains specific features for your business or industry. Template-driven websites don’t always attract that many customers like sites with designs and in-depth content do.