All you need to know about Google’s Helpful Content Update

Are you focusing so much on SEO that you’re creating sub-par content? Well, Google is changing the game. Google recently announced a sitewide algorithm change they are calling the helpful content update that reevaluates search engine-centric articles.

Google discusses the update in the following announcement:

“Next week, we will launch the “helpful content update” to better ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people, rather than content made primarily for search engine traffic.”

What does this mean? Should you worry about the optimization of your content and site as a whole? Not necessarily.

Google recently released a blog article explaining the algorithm changes and how to create successful content that reaches your intended audience.

Let’s dive in.

Google’s new focus on people-first content

The focus of the “helpful content update” is to reward creators for producing valuable content. Say goodbye to solely SEO-centric articles that are not giving readers the content they are actually searching for. Google wants to provide its users with a smooth and satisfying experience when scrolling for information.

How can you ensure you’re creating content that will be successful with the new Google update? Simply, create your content for people and not for the search engine.

“By following our long-standing advice and guidelines to create content for people, not for search engines. People-first content creators focus first on creating satisfying content, while also utilizing SEO best practices to bring searchers additional value.”

What could you do to show your own value to your customers? Add case studies and real-world examples on how your product or service has helped an actual customer. This content is people-first.

How does Google’s Helpful Content Update work?

The idea of this update is to weed out the bad to make room for the good. Although this may seem intimidating, it will help you succeed in your SEO efforts if you do it right.

This is a huge win for people trying to compete with large companies dumping hundreds of bogus fully optimized articles that provide no value to readers. How can you create content that matters, but also performs well?

You put yourself in your customer’s shoes and share real examples of how your solution has helped other customers. Show specific examples that can guide the reader and help them understand how your solution solved a problem or helped a customer reach their goal. Customer-centric strategies that start with buyer personas are critical. Google wants to hear actual, first-person accounts of how your solutions have benefitted clients.

“Any good marketing team will love this new customer-centric algorithm if they are doing their jobs well. Marketing strategies should always start with the buyer persona and think about where they are at in the cycle, what real-world problems they face, and give actual solutions for that customer. The fact that Google is now rewarding that is a win for marketers everywhere.”
Branden O’Neil, CEO, Atlas Rose

Google has provided a list of questions to ask yourself when creating content:

Is the content primarily to attract people from search engines, rather than made for humans?
Do you produce lots of content on different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results?
Do you use extensive automation to produce content on many topics?
Are you mainly summarizing what others have to say without adding much value?
Are you writing about things simply because they seem to trend and not because you’d write about them otherwise for your existing audience?
Does your content leave readers feeling like they need to search again to get better information from other sources?
What about deciding to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, mainly because you think it will get search traffic?
Does your content promise to answer a question that actually has no answer, such as suggesting there’s a release date for a product, movie, or TV show without valid confirmation?

Creating content written for human consumption is more important now than ever. But shouldn’t we have been doing that the entire time? SEO is a helpful marketing practice, especially when it’s applied to people-first content. However, content created primarily for search engine traffic is usually associated with articles searchers are uninterested in reading because they lack value.

How does the Helpful Content Update affect my site?

The update includes a new ranking signal that will negatively score sites that publish high-volume content with low value or are overall unhelpful to users.

In recent history, the “product review update” targeted specific pages on a site. However, the helpful content update is sitewide. This means it could potentially impact all the pages on your site.

“Any content — not just unhelpful content — on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that’s better to display. For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.”

Google suggests removing content from your site that is unhelpful to users.

How long until your site begins to perform better after removing unnecessary content?

Any website identified by the update may take several months for peak optimization. Do you have a new site? No worries. The classifier embedded in the update is continuously running, monitoring NEW and pre-existing websites. Once the classifier determines your site does not contain unhelpful content for a long amount of time, it will no longer apply.

The classifier uses machine learning and is completely automated – not manual or spam action. Simply put, it is one of Google’s many signals used to score content.

This means the article could still perform well if you have people-first content on your site but your site is identified as containing unhelpful content. There may be other signals classifying your content as helpful and relevant to a specific search.

The new signal is weighted so the more unhelpful content you have on your site, the worse it will perform in searches. In other words, some sites will get hit harder than others.

Currently, the update only impacts English searches. However, Google is working on expanding the update in different languages in the near future.

Updates are continual, ensuring a people-first approach to searching on Google in the future.

Final takeaways from Google’s Helpful Content Update:

The update devalues unhelpful content, taking a people-centric approach to SEO.
Add in personalized content by using real examples from your own business and experience.
The update affects your entire site, not just individual articles.
The update is not a manual action or spam action. The process uses a machine-learning model.
People-first content can still rank even if it’s on sites with large amounts of SEO-centric content.
The signal is weighted. The more unhelpful content you have the worse your website will perform overall.
Only English searches will be impacted, updates will include more languages in the future.

At Atlas Rose, we believe in creating valuable content for our clients that informs their intended audience, while making sure it ranks well on the appropriate channels. Do you want to know more about this update? Is your site prepared to take on this type of change? Do you want to create better human-focused content for your site? We can help. Talk to us.

About Atlas Rose

Atlas Rose is a marketing leadership company focusing on bringing executive-level help to small and medium-sized businesses. By offering fractional Chief Marketing Officers integrated with their client’s leadership team, they effectively impact the company culture and mission. The result is a predictable, measurable, and effective lead flow for just a fraction of what a full-time marketing department would cost. They can be reached at info@atlasroseco.com, 762-533-5007 or visit them at https://atlasroseco.com.

Increasing Engagement: LinkedIn Hashtags

Content You Need To Read, If You're Not Doing This, You Should Be, Marketing 101, Uncategorized

Part One of Three: Hashtag Strategies

Increasing engagement on LinkedIn through hashtag strategies is becoming mainstream. LinkedIn hashtags increase visibility to build brand awareness. Being engaged on LinkedIn requires several things: staying engaged on the platform yourself through posting and engaging with other posts, (this is “social” media), posting quality content, and using a hashtag strategy. Having a content strategy for LinkedIn is key.

In this first of three blogs in our Engagement on LinkedIn series, we’ll talk hashtags: what they are, how to use hashtags, and why they are an important part of strategies.

How to Increase Engagement on LinkedIn

Hashtags increase your visibility on LinkedIn. Using LinkedIn hashtags allows users who search for or follow these to find your post, therefore finding your business. Let’s say that your company currently has 500 followers. By adding a hashtag that has a following of 10,000, you may triple or quadruple the visibility of that post. What does this do? Introduces you to people who currently do not follow you and are looking at the same topics. Over time, this builds brand awareness.

What is a Hashtag?

A Hashtag is “a word or phrase with the symbol # in front of it, used on social media websites and apps so that you can search for all messages with the same subject” (https://www.oed.com/).

Christ Messina was the first to use a hashtag in 2007 on Twitter to make it easier for users to organize tweets under given topics. They have grown to other platforms over the years, and LinkedIn finally added these in 2016.

Basically, LinkedIn hashtags categorize content on their platform. They help your posts be discovered by people who may not be aware of your brand but are looking for content or offerings that you offer. These help extend your reach on LinkedIn to reach new, targeted audiences.

Do People Use Hashtags on LinkedIn?

Yes! Hashtags are used on LinkedIn now similarly to they are on other platforms: to group content and help gain visibility. Prior to 2016, LinkedIn did not allow hashtags but businesses are using them more and more. Since then, they have grown in popularity. Businesses now use LinkedIn to generate leads and to gain brand awareness.

Including hashtags in your posts means taking part in a conversation happening on that social media platform. And most importantly, it makes your posts visible in that conversation.
Hannah MacReady, Hootsuite

The use of LinkedIn hashtags is a way to increase engagement and is seen as a business growth opportunity and a content strategy. People see your hashtags and can see that you are putting out quality content. This helps more people find your business and expand your network. When used the right way, hashtags can establish you as an industry thought leader, and add credibility.

Are hashtags a part of your LinkedIn content strategy?

How Many Hashtags to Use on LinkedIn?

Using only one or none at all is giving up valuable real estate on a LinkedIn post. Using more than five can look spammy. We suggest 3-5 total, with one being an identifier for your company.

5 Hashtag Strategies to Increase Your Visibility

Research LinkedIn hashtags. Know their followings before using them.
Add 3-5 hashtags to each post:
- One of those is always an identifier for you (ours is #atlasrose)
- One if you target potential customers who are in your geographical area (#ncbusinessleaders or #nccraftbeer)
- One if you are posting about a campaign or event to use, and encourage your team to use it (#ShareACoke or #superbowl22)
- The remainder is to reach a variety of audiences to expand your reach (including topics, industries, events, meeting locations, etc.). (#cybersecurity or #marketresearch)
Use targeted hashtags with each post. Broader hashtags have so much competition that posts tend to get lost. Tailored, or niche hashtags will get your message in front of a more targeted audience.
- Example of targeted hashtags: #marketingstrategy
- Examples of hashtags that are too broad: #marketing
Have a hashtag unique to your business and use it on every post (example: #atlasrose). Give people an easy way to see more about things you and others have posted about your company.
Other than your identifying hashtag, do not use the same ones in each post. Many social media platforms will penalize you for duplicate content (using the same hashtags in each post). Rotate them and be creative!

Do I Add Hashtags to Posts, My Personal Profile, or My Business Page?

Yes to all. But, posting them in each area means different things:

Adding a hashtag to a post means you are grouping that post so that others can discover it on that topic. It is searchable and is clickable to see other posts in that same category.
Adding a hashtag to your personal profile means that this is a subject or product that you specialize in. It is not searchable and does not have the blue clickable link.
Adding a hashtag to your business page means that this is a service or product that your company specializes in. It is not searchable and does not have the blue clickable link.

Adding LinkedIn hashtags to all three educates the viewer more on what you, your post, or your business is all about. It helps you to be discovered. At Atlas Rose we use #marketingleadership.

Contact us to learn more about developing your content strategy.

How to do Hashtag Research

Knowing if a hashtag has 5,000 followers vs 5,000,000 followers is a big deal. LinkedIn makes it easy for you to research to make the best choices for your post.

On mobile or desktop devices, there is a search box at the top of the screen. Begin to type in your search: #business. If you are researching the term “business analyst” for a job posting or post, you can type in “#business” and LinkedIn will give you a list of some of the most common hashtags that start with the term “business.”

Click on #Business, and it will show the follower count at the top of the next page (3.6 million followers) and give you the option to follow this hashtag.
Scroll further down and click on “#businessanalyst.” This will show you that 25,728 people follow this hashtag on LinkedIn.
- This is a great hashtag for you to use. It is a more targeted audience to get your post in front of.
- If you chose to just use #business, your post will have too much competition to show up in feeds.

Common LinkedIn Hashtag Mistakes to Avoid

Using Too Many Hashtags (3-5 is ideal)
Using Only the Most Popular Hashtags (you’re post will get lost)
Having Misspellings and Spaces (no spaces!)
Using the Same Exact Hashtags for Every Post (will look like duplicate content)
Forgetting to use them in comments (Engaging on other’s posts with hashtags is a great way to stay social and show thought leadership)

Do I need a LinkedIn Content Strategy for Hashtags?

If you are a business or freelancer who wants to grow, yes. To be successful on social media platforms, you must stay engaged. Social media is a two-way street. Worried that you don’t have the time to keep up with researching hashtags and using them on a regular basis? We can help. Talk to us.

About Atlas Rose

The Dangers of Attaching Your Brand to a Celebrity Spokesperson

Breaking The Mold, Bringing Marketing Back, Content You Need To Read, If You're Not Doing This, You Should Be, Marketing 101

Good Endorsements… Gone Bad

It takes years and patience to build a world-class brand with a huge following. But who has time for that these days? If you’re all out of good marketing ideas, you can just hire somebody famous to be the face of your brand!

Be sure to pick somebody who’s at the top of their game. Somebody with a zillion followers on Twitter or Instagram. Tiger Woods, maybe, or Lance Armstrong. Or Olympic champions – they’re a sure-fire bet, right?

Even better if they’re the feel-good story of the moment. South African amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius captured the hearts of millions by moving from Paralympic competition (where he’d won three consecutive gold medals) to competing in the 2012 London Olympics, the first double leg amputee to qualify for the biggest running competition in the world.

It was a great story, and Nike jumped on board with an ad campaign featuring several athletes with a voiceover that spoke of athletes’ bodies being their weapons. A print advertisement featuring Pistorius read “I am the bullet in the chamber.” The next year, in 2013, Pistorius was charged and later convicted of murdering his girlfriend with a 9MM pistol. Oh, the irony!

Nike has been bitten by celebrity endorsements before; past ads have featured Lance Armstrong (doping), Michael Vick (dogfighting), and Tiger Woods (caught cheating on his wife multiple times), and trust us, the list goes on from here.

Nike Shoes

It doesn’t matter if you have the most wholesome product in the world – you can still fall prey to bad celebrity endorsements. The “Got Milk?” campaign (you know the one, famous people with cute milk mustaches over their lips) dropped R&B performer Chris Brown in 2009 after he pleaded guilty to violently assaulting his former girlfriend Rihanna. Not a good look for the moo.

One essential feature of celebrity brand endorsements is that they appear genuine. No one wants to see the marketing hacks making sausage behind the scenes. So if you find a celebrity willing to spontaneously declare her love for your brand online, take the time to teach them the basic skills of cut and paste.

Here’s the caption that went with model Naomi Campbell’s Instagram post showing off her new pair of Adidas: “Naomi, So nice to see you in good spirits!!! Could you put something like: Thanks to my friend @gary.aspden and all at adidas – loving these adidas 350 SPZL from the adidas Spezial range. ✊ @adidasoriginals.”

Cut and paste fail, Naomi!

Lori Loughlin of Full House and Hallmark Channel fame and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli plead guilty to bribery charges in a widely- publicized college admissions scandal in 2019. Loughlin and Giannulli paid $500,000 to have their daughters gain admission to USC as members of the rowing team, a sport which neither girl had ever participated in.

Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade had a promising and lucrative career as an online influencer, working with brands Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, Sephora, and Amazon. Most dropped her like a hot potato after the cheating scandal became public, even though her mother was the culprit. (Loughlin lost her Hallmark Channel gig as well.) It’s good to remember that celebrities also have families who can do bad all by themselves.

Finally, if your brand invests in sponsorship, please ask the celebrities connected with it to play along. Soccer megastar Cristiano Ronaldo of Team Portugal cost Coca-Cola about $4 billion in market value after a Euro 2020 tournament press conference. Coca-Cola had a sponsorship agreement with the Union of European Football Associations, and the league had placed two bottles of the soft drink prominently at the podium in front of Ronaldo in a classic product placement move. Unfortunately, Ronaldo believes in healthy living and a clean diet. He looked visibly distressed by the bottles, giving them the stink eye before moving them out of the camera frame and holding up a bottle of water. He held the water bottle up and said in Portuguese: [Drink] “Water!”

Coca-Cola’s share price dropped by 1.6% to $55.22 soon after the press conference. The market value went from $242 billion to $238 billion — an expensive lesson in how celebrity endorsements will always be, a double-edged sword.

The practice of celebrity endorsements will continue for brands, and most of the time, the relationship will evolve just fine. However, understand that people have a bad habit of behaving badly in inopportune times. If your brand is caught in the middle of a public relations disaster, it could get ugly.

You’ve been warned.

About Atlas Rose: Atlas Rose is a Christian led marketing leadership company focusing on bringing executive-level help to small and medium-sized businesses. By offering fractional CMO’s integrated with their client’s leadership team, they effectively impact the company culture and mission. The result is a predictable, measurable, and effective lead flow for just a fraction of what a full-time marketing department would cost. They can be reached at info@atlasroseco.com or 762-533-5007.

Should You Cut Your Marketing Budget?

Bringing Marketing Back, Content You Need To Read, If You're Not Doing This, You Should Be, Marketing 101

Should You Cut Your Marketing Budget in Tough Times?

Almost all businesses go through cycles when times are good, and other times of…PANIC MODE! Perhaps it’s when you lose your biggest customer or have a supply challenge or experience a full-blown recession like in 2008.

When you’re faced with more adversity than you care to have, it’s prudent to spring into action and look at every dollar leaving your organization. It can be tempting to completely strike out the marketing expense because unlike your other expenses, where you receive a good or service, in exchange of your dollars, the marketing expense can be a bit unclear. Which of your marketing is working? Is it working at all?

While it’s true, slicing marketing expenditures from your budget might provide some immediate relief, it also accelerates your downward spiral and could be a death sentence.

Kevin Miller, fractional CMO with Atlas Rose offers his perspective. “We’re not naive about the need to trim expenses relating to marketing if no other option exists. However, rather than eliminating it all, consider taking a deeper dive and operate with a scalpel rather than a chainsaw.”

He’s referring to the many smaller expenses that contribute to the overall marketing engine of a company. “The first thing we want to do is to take care of existing relationships. These are customers that love you and you love them back. Because they are considered promoters, they make repeat purchases and express their satisfaction to others. We don’t want to abandon them. We’ve found that if the situation calls for it, we’ll ask for their continued support during a tough time. If they can push up their timeline for a purchase, or take on more stock, it may just be the lifeline the business needs.”

Next, if you still need to make cuts, cut the general branding dollar but keep your money on direct lead collection marketing.. Your CMO (if you have one) should be able to communicate where the best and most direct ROI channels exist in your marketing plan. It’s not that general branding doesn’t work, it’s just that it’s a longer game and the path to a direct sale isn’t as definitive.

Understand that not spending precious dollars on marketing and advertising does eventually have an effect. It’s the same reason you still see Pepsi and Coca-Cola battle it out even after 100+ years. Even a half percent of market share is worth millions of dollars. If either one of them stopped advertising, it wouldn’t take long for one brand to cede hard-fought market share to the other. Once that momentum is lost, it can be hard to regain.

Companies of all sizes are flocking to fractional chief executives.

Miller’s best advice is to slow down. Take a deep breath and work with your marketing team to justify essential expenditures. Making knee-jerk reactions is dangerous. The best moves are calculated and methodical. Once business returns to normal levels, you’ll be able to take more measured risks with your marketing dollars. The extra scrutiny may even have a positive effect on your business and cause sales to increase.

Do You Need a Rebrand or Refresh?

Breaking The Mold, Content You Need To Read, If You're Not Doing This, You Should Be, Marketing 101

Do You Need a Rebrand or Refresh?

t’s the go-to move for creative agencies; enticing clients to spend money. For many, it’s included in the very first pitch. Change the logo, change the website and redo everything. After all, it’s the easiest way to generate billable hours! But is it the right thing for your company?

A brand refresh can be as simple as updating your logo, adopting a new slogan, redesigning collateral materials, and a fresh coat of paint in the office. It may include new colors, but it’s primarily cosmetic and doesn’t change how you do business.

However, a rebrand goes much deeper. It’s everything a brand refresh is and more. It means remodeling stores, revisiting mission and vision statements, and even leadership changes. The purpose is to more closely align with customers, avoid market confusion, and create a new personality.

As an analogy, a brand refresh is makeup and a rebrand is plastic surgery. With either, it’s a good idea to revisit your mission and vision. If there are any changes to be made, this is the time.

When is a good time for a rebrand or refresh?

Sometimes a refresh is called for when the “look” becomes outdated and you want to be more in line with the times. It can be tricky because you want to create a brand seen as “current” but also not one that chases trends. Be careful to make changes in increments. Don’t leave any confusion that you are the same company customers have always done business with. In this example, you see how Pepsi has updated its logo over the years.

Notice how they made a significant change in 1945 by adding the “wave” and red and blue colors. Since that time, (with exception of 1951-52) they have kept the image logo familiar with only small variations. In 1953, they dropped the “cola” in the name because customers were abbreviating the name anyway. They had achieved enough brand recognition where they had the luxury of simplifying the name.

Another great example is FedEx. In 1971 the name and logo were chosen to closely align the startup with the government. It conveyed trustworthiness, credibility, and the ability to reach far corners of the US.

By 2000, the name had served its purpose and the company sought to distance itself from the negative association of the word “federal.”

Today, the FedEx logo is known for its brilliant use of negative space. If you look closely between letters E and X, you’ll spot a white arrow. The company says it stands for speed, accuracy, strive for perfection, and perseverance in achieving goals.

Yet another more relatable example is from Atlas Rose’s client, Plus Delta. I am their fractional CMO. Previously known as PlusDelta 314, I suggested that they drop the ‘314’ from the name because it served little purpose. The owner had emotional ties to the name, but I pushed back. PlusDelta is a great name. It’s perfect for a company that consults on change management. The meaning of plus delta is ‘adding change.’ When I saw the URL was available, the decision became a no-brainer. The name is strong enough to stand on its own. There is no reason to keep 314 at this point. As marketers, we’re always looking for ways to make things simpler and faster to understand.

Sometimes a deeper Rebrand is called for.

By 2019, the premium coffee market was red hot. Starbucks had proven that Americans were willing to pay $4 or more for a cup of joe. Competitor, Dunkin Donuts had a stronghold on the coffee to go market for years but were ceding new ground to the Seattle startup.

Also around that time, Dunkin Donuts was evolving from the coffee and donut shop to specialty sandwiches, desserts, and other creative menu options. Soon, their business didn’t match their company name. They were more than “donuts” so a rebrand was in order. They are still working with franchisors to remodel 12,871 stores and change signage. For them, it’s an expensive, but necessary maneuver.

Other reasons to rebrand exist too.

For years, Old Spice was the brand of shaving cream and cologne your grandfather wore. The brand had outlived its customers and the market was shrinking. Proctor and Gamble knew to attract younger millennials, they needed to do something drastic. Beginning in 2010, they launched a massive campaign, including millions of dollars in advertising. The campaign was far-reaching and went way beyond a refresh. It included social media, new packaging, and even a new character spokesperson. Old Spice was now fun, entertaining, and masculine. It was a roaring success.

From this:

To this:

There can be bad reasons to rebrand too like if a new management team wants to make their mark or the company owner is just bored. Branden O’Neil, of Atlas Rose, CEO of Atlas Rose tells clients that change for the sake of change isn’t a good enough reason for a rebrand or refresh. If it still works, keep it! There are advantages of keeping familiar marks and crafting language that stands the test of time. Brand recognition is the biggest.

Is there anyone reading this that doesn’t recognize McDonald’s “golden arches?” Not likely. That’s exactly why McDonald’s will likely never move away from the likeness they’ve invested in since 1961.”

Healthcare company Johnson & Johnson hasn’t changed their logo since its inception 130 years ago. Why? Because there hasn’t been a reason to.

I recommend getting some outside perspective before you make a major decision like a rebrand or refresh. Sometimes you’re too close to the brand to think about it objectively. Keep an open mind and listen to legitimate business reasons to make the strategy shift. If the reasons aren’t strong enough, keeping the status quo is the right decision. What isn’t acceptable is being hesitant or slow because you fear the work involved. Outsourcing this task along with a full strategy review can be the best effort and money you can spend.

Change can be good. Or not.

Don’t Get Burned by Marketing Imposters

Content You Need To Read

The Industry’s Dirty Secret…

The marketing industry is full of clowns, pretenders, shysters, con artists, blow-hards, and snake oil salesmen. For the rest of us legitimate professionals in the business, it’s embarrassing, insulting, and makes us downright angry.

Unfortunately, there are few barriers to entry in calling oneself a “marketer.” So when you’re down on your luck, or in between gigs, it’s easy to change your LinkedIn profile, get a couple of free online marketing certificates, and ‘Voila!’ You’re in business. The unsuspecting business owner trying to grow their livelihood doesn’t know the difference and mistakenly hires an imposter. Decisions like these kill careers and entire companies.

It makes us mad, and we’re on a mission to call them out. If you’ve been lied to, overpromised, overcharged, or ghosted when you needed marketing help – give em’ our number, we’d love to chat.

If they say they can do it all, RUN.

Nope, not possible. No one person or marketing group in the world can be good at everything. There’s just too much to master. It’s like trying to find a doctor with a business card that reads, cardiac surgeon, orthopedist, dermatologist, immunologist, radiologist, urologist, gynecologist, and pediatrician. They don’t exist in America. Even if they did, you certainly wouldn’t want to be their patient. Specialties exist for a reason. The term “marketing” is as broad as the term “medicine.”

Even if they don’t claim to do it all, they may say they “have a guy.” In the marketing world, that’s code for randomly hiring a stranger halfway across the world on Fiverr. If and when you get acceptable work back, it’s marked up 500% by your contact.

If they’re in break/fix mode, RUN

Ever feel like your marketing “guru” is playing whack a mole with your budget? That might mean paying attention to social media this week and building a few emails next? Maybe it’s designing a brochure for two weeks and neglecting everything else? If you’re not seeing consistency and follow-through, that’s a problem.

So with that ugliness out of the way, How do you steer clear of the bad actors and strike up a relationship with the right marketing person or group?

For business owners, here’s our PROFESSIONAL advice.

Forget about everything you “think” you need.

Your problem isn’t how often you’re posting on Facebook, nor is it your ugly website. A magic bullet doesn’t exist. Think bigger. What you need is a strategy.

Our recommendation is to look for a vendor that has a bigger picture in mind.

Our approach for example is to complete a written 12-month strategy (and more detailed 3-month strategies) with a well-thought-out process-driven approach. We consider the time, cost, and unintended consequences of each tactic. It’s involved, complex, and requires dozens of years of experience. Your current social media coordinator isn’t equipped to do the same.

Our Chief Marketing Officers have managed multi-million dollar budgets, been in boardrooms, are trustees, and have found success. They’ve seen it all, and have a supporting network of the best of the best. Even if your company isn’t holding quarterly conference calls reporting to shareholders, it’s refreshing to work with marketing talent that could.

It’s a professional-level job, done by true professionals.

This is where your brand needs to start. Our fractional CMO’s take you and your executive team through a series of exercises that help you once and for all get your marketing to a place where it needs to be. Think of it as a journey. It’s the same process the most respected brands in the world use, and it’s now available for you. We’ll leave room for unexpected opportunities, and advise you of the resources it will take to make your aspirations become a reality.

This isn’t about piecemeal marketing tactics, it’s true marketing leadership that every growing organization needs to get to the next level.

Sure there is a time for tactics, and we have that covered too. We don’t claim to do it all, but we will manage the process and deploy our teams of proven outside vendors that have worked for us before. Fiverr amateur hour just isn’t our style.

In the Atlas Rose method, the CMO sets the strategy, and the marketing managers keep the trains running on time by moving along multiple projects and initiatives simultaneously. When it comes time for the weekly client accountability call, we’ll report on progress, bring up any trouble spots, and talk through the next steps. Stuff gets done, – and done right, finally.

Ignore the online carnival barkers, please.

About Atlas Rose:

Atlas Rose is a marketing leadership company focusing on bringing executive-level help to small and medium-sized businesses. By offering fractional CMO’s integrated with their client’s leadership team, they effectively impact the company culture and mission. The result is a predictable, measurable, and effective lead flow for just a fraction of what a full-time marketing department would cost. They can be reached at info@atlasroseco.com or 762-533-5007.

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