Attending To Marketing

Attending To Marketing

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

“The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing.” – Seth Godin 

While they do go hand in hand, marketing is not sales, and sales is not marketing. For your business to be successful at making sales, marketing is crucial.

Too often, small businesses focus on the sales aspect of their business but spend inadequate focus and resources on their marketing. They may consider marketing to be an expendable entity, or an afterthought when revenue seems good. With such anemic marketing efforts, businesses that don’t take their marketing seriously can hardly expect to reap many rewards.

Marketing isn’t just key to your business success–it’s a responsibility. It’s a vital vehicle for developing and maintaining long-lasting relationships with your customers. During your busiest times, during your most uncertain times, schedule and keep a regular chunk of time set aside exclusively for studying your audience, discovering opportunities, and future market planning.

What should go into your marketing budget? 

Here are some of the most common marketing expenses (depending on your industry) that you’ll need to include in your business’ marketing budget:

  • Website (design, security, hosting, and maintenance)
  • Newsletters
  • Email marketing services (Aweber, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, ConstantContact, etc.)
  • Social media management services (i.e., companies that manage your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram accounts, etc.)
  • Online advertising (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media ads, Google Adwords, LinkedIn ads, geotargeting, Yelp ads, etc.)
  • Online directories that you pay for (depending on your industry)
  • Network referral memberships, public relations
  • Referral and Affiliate programs (perks or pay offered to customers or affiliates who refer your business)
  • Business cards (including design)
  • Birthday and holiday cards
  • Promotional materials on the business premises (posters, sales signs, educational material, sound system announcements, pamphlets, etc.)
  • Direct mail (postcards, letters, etc. – including design, printing, and postage)
  • Traditional Advertising (including phone books, TV, radio, billboards, etc.)
  • Appointment reminder services
  • Booths at local events, (home shows, open house, art fairs, city events, etc.)
  • Sponsorships
  • Welcome bags or “goodie bags”
  • Branded promotional “swag” (t-shirts, pens, hats, mugs, etc. with your logo or other marketing on it)
  • Raffles, prizes, or giveaways

How much should a small business budget for marketing?

It’s a mistake to base your marketing budget on just whatever is left over once all other business expenses are covered. Instead, the investment should be a percentage of your company’s gross income set aside every month. What the percentage should be can vary depending on the industry.

Both the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Entrepreneur.com agree that companies that have been in business for five years or less need to invest more funds into their marketing budget than established companies that have been in business longer. 10 to 20 percent of your gross (or projected) revenue if you are ramping up a new business and 6 to 12 percent for more established companies. For slim operations, no less than 3 percent is recommended.1

A healthy marketing budget is one that balances short-term and long-term needs. Focus on creating a calculated, focused marketing strategy for your brand that invests your money wisely.

1 U.S. Small Business Administration, 2013. (https://www.sba.gov/taxonomy/term/15051?page=37)

Entrepreneur.com, 2015 (https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243790)

Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
Create Magnetic Calls To Action Using A Personalized Touch

Create Magnetic Calls To Action Using A Personalized Touch

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

A “Call To Action,” a.k.a. a CTA, is a specific image, element, or phrase on a webpage that guides a visitor to take a specific action.

The purpose of a good CTA is to catch the attention of potential leads and existing customers and guide them towards taking a specific action. Hence the term “call to action.”

If you think of a visitor who is visiting your website as someone who is taking a road trip, the calls to action on your website act as traffic signs along a highway. These signs are there to guide the user to the right onramps and exits that help them to reach their final destination.

Calls to action help the user find their way and navigate through your website, sales funnels, ordering process, etc. by telling them what to do. Most simply, good CTAs provide direction and drive conversions.

Typical calls to action are often recognized as webpage buttons with short quips stating something like “Buy Now,” “Join Now,” “Click Here!” and the like.

However, a good call to action should highlight the benefit that the user will gain by taking action.

A case study cited by Unbounce demonstrated that swapping out a single action verb, “Get information” vs. “Order information,” resulted in a conversion rate increase of an impressive 38.26%. The verb “get” helped users to see how they would benefit, whereas the verb “order” simply gave them a task to complete.

Words mean things, and being selective with your language and vocabulary can make or break the final desired outcome. Strong action verbs are essential to the overall picture.

While short, two-word CTAs can be useful, even sometimes important, they can also be rather nebulous and boring. A website full of only this kind of call to action will get old fast.

The most effective call to action phrases will be more interesting, personalized, and will speak directly to the user. Good CTAs use strong action verbs and give your visitors a reason to take the desired action.

Which would you find more attractive and likely to drive conversion? “Join here,” or something more creative and personal like, “Discover the tribe that has been waiting for you!” A “click here” button, or “Get my playbook if you want to be better at copywriting.” Which one is better at telling the user where they are going and why?

Hopefully, these examples will inspire you to evaluate your current CTAs and start optimizing.

Focus on:

  • Writing compelling, engaging copy
  • Prioritize the action verbs you use
  • And place your CTAs on your website strategically

Following these tips will help motivate your audience to take action.

Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
It’s Not About You…

It’s Not About You…

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

“Consumers are statistics. Customers are people.” – Stanley Marcus

What are you focused on? Your benefit, or your customer’s?

Whether business-to-business or business-to-consumer, it’s essential to interact with the real world of your customer. Get to know their challenges. Get to know their prospects. The moment your focus is self-centered is the moment you begin to lose your capacity to serve your customer.

According to a McKinsey survey, 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.

Marketing is not just about advertising—It’s about listening to your customer, tuning in to their responses, and developing more profound insights into your client’s behaviors, needs, and aspirations. It’s about finding better ways to help your customer and deliver results.

Keep your friends.

Instead of preparing for what you will sell and what you will say next, pay attention to what your client is saying and be a steward for their ideas. Be conscious of your next encounter. Don’t assume you know best – let your customer tell you.

When you partner with clients to design and deliver the solutions they want, you can nurture a growing relationship with a loyal audience who welcomes your increasing success.

According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, loyal customers are worth, on average, up to 10x as much as their first purchase. Paying attention to your customers’ needs is more than just a feel-good methodology. It has the power to increase customer loyalty and reduce your marketing costs while driving engagement and profits.

Active listening improves strategy and magnifies results.

When you’ve taken the time to get to know your clients better and understand their point of view, you clarify efforts and reap more focused results.

Your marketing efforts must be relevant and up to date. Your audience won’t trust you if you don’t speak their language. Develop a strategic marketing plan, so you don’t waste money advertising the wrong message in the wrong place to the wrong audience.

To improve insights, smart marketers glean from consumer feedback, interactions, and experiences. Excellent listening and observational skills contribute to better quality marketing— and better marketing leads to improved relationships with customers. ­­ 

Serve your people. Solve their problems. 

There are few things more valuable than trust. It’s not enough to just get your product out there: focus on making real connections and developing deeper relationships. Trust takes time to build.  Understanding the needs of your clients will go far to help you create win-win relationships that lead to mutual success.

Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales