Inbound Marketing Blog

I recently read an article on 'bad' clients and the 'bad' attitudes of agencies. In reading it, I was reminded of a poignant fact that clients who are willing to pay for the expertise to solve important business challenges are often in a struggle to get a foothold in their market and increase ROI.

They can be difficult to deal with on any number of factors, but our job is to approach such clients with compassion and understanding, and in the end, to help them.

No matter the industry, brand or product, all businesses have one common goal: to get their product or service to their target audience. With how widespread social media is now, it's safe to say that people who are shopping online are also using social media to some degree. So how does the knowledge that online shoppers use social media become important to a business? How does social media affect sales?

A study called "Engaged Social Followers Are Your Best Customers” sheds some light on how social media can affect business. The first thing is to look at the four-step life cycle of the social media follower and how the social touchpoints play out. Here are the four stages of the journey.

1. Discover a company and products.
2. Explore whether what the company offers is right for them.
3. Buy your products and services.
4. Engage with the company, and with their friends and peers, after their purchase.

Business owners use several marketing strategies to entice customers and increase profits. Some strategies succeed and reinforce sales, whereas other methods exhibit insignificant results. Market and data research is vital in determining the best marketing or advertising strategy. Data-driven market research is perhaps the most important tool for business owners when evaluating the market they are interested in engaging with.