THE FROG BLOG

At some point, most growing businesses reach a tipping point where 'the owner does the marketing in between everything else' stops being enough. You need more. The question is: what does 'more' look like? The two most obvious options are taking someone on in-house or bringing in an outsourced marketing consultant. Both can work brilliantly. Both can also go wrong. Here's a look at each. Taking someone on in-house The appeal is obvious - someone who is fully dedicated to your

I've spend a fair amount of my time around engineering and manufacturing businesses, the kind that build precision machinery, equipment and components that have to work first time and keep working for years afterwards. What strikes me, over and over, is how rarely the marketing matches the quality of what's being made. A business can spend decades getting the engineering exactly right and still be relying on a website that hasn't changed since it was built, or a Facebook page

I get asked this a lot, usually by someone who built their website three or four years ago, hasn't touched it since, and has a nagging feeling they should. Well, the answer is there's no single number. Some parts of a website need attention every month. Others can sit untouched for years and still do their job. The trick is knowing which is which. Weekly or fortnightly: your blog If you're publishing new content, that's the part of your website working hardest for search engi

Q4 has a habit of sneaking up on small businesses. One minute it's a hot July afternoon, the next you're looking at the calendar wondering where September went, and realising there are only a few weeks left before the busiest, most important trading period of the year begins. If you sell to other businesses, Q4 is often when budgets are being spent before they're lost and end of year decisions get made. If you sell to consumers, it's the run up to Christmas, the biggest tradi

Someone who's spent years in one industry can stop seeing it clearly. They know the jargon so well they forget the customer doesn't. They assume everyone already understands why the product matters, because it's obvious to them. Coming in from outside means I ask the basic questions again: why does this feature matter? What's the customer actually trying to solve? That's often exactly what shakes a bit of fresh thinking loose. So when a new client asks whether I've worked in

You don't need a bottomless budget to make a significant marketing impact. Let's explore some budget-friendly marketing tips.

Now this is a repeat of an old blog post that has been buried in the Emerald Frog blog archives but I happened upon it this morning and...

If you use email marketing, direct marketing or make sales calls in your business then you need to read this post. The law is changing in...

We often get asked about the difference between PR and Marketing. A lot of people get the two mixed up. Then throw in advertising and...

To keep your social media content really fresh and effective, your outsourced social media team requires input from you as the client...

Have you mapped out your marketing plans yet for the new financial year? Do you know how you will be finding new customers and how you...

I had a call yesterday. Caller: “Hello this is <some guy> ringing from <some research company>. You recently downloaded some information...

What’s the difference between a good piece of direct mail and a “junk” piece? Not all direct mail is junk mail. A clear message, with a...

So you need some more business? What’s the most cost effective way of doing that? Many businesses plough a lot of budget into constantly...

This week’s blog post explains how small business can improve their basic marketing. These may all seem obvious, but it’s crucial that...

Happy New Year from us here at Emerald Frog Marketing! With a new year comes a new start. Now is the time to take a look at your...

When it comes to results, you put rubbish in, you will probably get rubbish out! A bit of a cliché, but so true. In this blog we will...

When you create a budget it plan it is vital to factor in a “contingency budget” into your costs. So, what is a “contingency budget”? A...

We heard a great quote the other day. You may have seen it on our Facebook page, but here it is again: Marketing is a lot like housework....

The Leaky Bucket may sound like a pub in the Harry Potter books and films, but it’s an analogy you should be aware of as a business...