Some businesses are slick marketers, while others avoid marketing almost completely. Regardless, over the years I’ve noticed that there is, and should be, a progression from Base-level marketing to Mid-Level, and eventually, Advanced-Level. These suggested marketing activities are not exhaustive, but will give you an idea of what kinds of things are in each tier and their approximate costs. If you have missed some things in the base-level, it’s good to revisit those before moving onto more advanced marketing.  And, these can be applied to either business-to-consumer marketing (B2C), or business-to-business (B2B) marketing.

Below I’ve included a quite thorough selection of things a business needs to establish a good base-level of marketing. To make things easier, I’ve also provided approximate costs.

Base-Level Marketing

When you’re new in business, there are certain basic elements you cannot do without. Have a look to see whether you’ve covered off these elements.

• Choose a Great Business Name: The business or brand name is a critical element to being memorable and credible. If you are not confident to do this yourself well (and quality is very important), you can expect to pay $5,000- $10,000 to develop a new name. Re-naming a company can be more expensive, as you may need to repaint vehicles, signage, etc. 
• Design a Logo: A well-designed logo is a must-have. We would recommend you pay at least $2000 from a trained designer who cares about your project and will give you a truly unique look that you love. A full-service communications firm will usually charge at least $5000 – $20,000, and often include a branding guide you can use that has your chosen colours, versions in monochrome, elements separated, and fonts/colours chosen for all kinds of uses. They may also include business card and letterhead designs in this fee.
• Write a Slogan: A slogan is a short descriptive phrase. It’s optional, but can really reinforce your distinctness. If you can’t develop one on your own, you can expect to pay $300 – $100,000 depending on the professionals you choose.
• Website: Developing a website yourself can be free, or nearly free, using an online template such as WordPress, Shopify, Wix or SquareSpace template, so you can update it yourself. If you choose to do it with some help from a professional, remember that it will be less expensive and easier if you can write the page content yourself, and supply good original photography of all your products/services. (With pro help, you can expect to pay $5,000 – $50,000 depending on complexity and whether it needs e-commerce, etc.).
• E-Newsletters: An e-newsletter lets customers know you are alive and well, and reminds them of your existence on a regular basis. It is also a great excuse to build a customer list over time. Free templates can be set up using a platform such as Constant Contact, Mailchimp, or HubSpot.  HubSpot also allows you to keep track of all your customer interactions. If you need a professional to set all this up, $2,000 – $5,000 is a reasonable range.
• Social Media Profiles: Do you need to be on social media? Most likely yes, although not necessarily on every platform. B2B marketers will need LinkedIn, and B2C marketers will likely want Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok profiles (and maybe Pinterest, if their products are highly visual)– but platforms will always come and go with trends. Ensure that they are all branded to your business, and customized with logo, photo, and information. There is zero cost to doing this – assuming you do it yourself, and if you’re not sure of their function and setup, simply watch some how-to videos on YouTube.  Ideally, you should get consistent “handles” so that they match wherever possible, i.e. you can be found at the same @yourbusiness handle across all platforms.
• Write a Blog: Writing a blog is free if you do it yourself (or $100 – $1000/each if professionals do it, depending on complexity) and easy to do once you have a website set up for it. Creating a blog helps you keep your website content fresh. If you use an SEO plugin (a plugin is a piece of code that is added to your website template – you can buy them online) with WordPress such as Yoast or All-in-one-SEO, this will help your blogs to rank better and attract more website traffic. There are free versions of these plugins that work well, or you can upgrade to pro-version plugins as you get more SEO savvy.
• Signage: Signage is a critical component of letting your neighbours know you exist. Signage should facilitate people easily finding your location, but also set the tone for what people can expect. A great sign sets up excitement for your business, and gives it a brand personality. (Huge range here! From a tiny $100 vinyl decal on a door to a $100K backlit pylon sign). Go as big as you can get a sign permit for! It’s your one best billboard. Try to change and refresh signage  every few years if you can, just to grab attention.
• Selling: Selling is a crucial method of marketing, and at the very least, someone in the company needs to understand how to sell the products effectively. At the base level, this is usually done by the owners, or as partial role handled by staff with other duties.

Mid-Level Marketing

If you’ve covered off the base-level methods well, and are ready to reach the next level, consider these avenues for reaching your target customers:

• Print Mailing: While there are restrictions on e-mail, these do not exist on physical mail (or not-so-affectionately called snail mail). But because mail is more expensive to execute due to physical printing and mailing, it has a far greater opportunity to stand out. Flyers can be very useful for local retailers holding special in-store events; and to solidify themselves as members of the neighbourhood. They can also work to announce your existence to a business community (e.g. “We’ve just joined the Chamber of Commerce”). They can be expensive (or time consuming, if you save money and deliver them yourself); so we recommend always having a redemption element, that is, some kind of offer and call-to-action (bring this coupon in for a free gift or $x off) so you can definitely track whether it  had an impact. As with any marketing media, repetition of this is crucial. So, if you can only do 100 mailers and repeat, this is better than doing 1000 at once. And, once again, creativity of the message is essential to keep you out of the junk bin!
• Outdoor Advertising: Outdoor advertising, also called Out-of-home (OOH) covers a variety of media, such as temporary road signs and bus benches ($200 – $300/month) to Jumbo-tron video boxes in football stadiums ($5,000 – $50,000 or more). You’d be surprised that if you want to spend a few hundred or a few thousand a month, you can make a physical presence in your community and build awareness and credibility quickly. Outdoor is great for saying “we’re here” in a new city or launching a new location.
• Vlogging or Podcasting: Videos are extremely worthwhile nowadays because they can be used for websites, online channels, social media or television, depending on the quality you shoot. ($20 – 50K depending on your level of DIY skill!) There is very easy video and audio editing software to help you create them yourself nowadays. We would recommend hiring a professional for a feature / corporate video on a website, but if you’re doing little product reviews or informal TikTok-style short videos, shooting and editing them yourself is widely acceptable. 
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): To make sure your website is ranking on important keyword phrases, you can enlist the help of an expert in Search Engine Optimization. Some companies will also include writing and posting new blogs for you as part of their SEO services, because they know that adding new content (blogs) to a website helps it to rank better. Be very careful to check the company’s own rankings before hiring them to do your SEO, and also check their customers’ website ranks. Many SEO firms do use shady “black hat” techniques that only help rankings temporarily, only to lose those ranks when major search engines such as Google update their algorithms. We recommend looking for a firm that has a longstanding reputation, and checking their references. ($300 – $5000/mo depending on intensity of the SEO service). 
• Localized Radio Broadcast Advertising: Getting your name on the radio helps people remember it, and is very effective in raising your brand awareness over time. A minimum of 3 months’ campaign is recommended, but do 6 months if you can afford it. Ensure you choose the station that has the best fit for your target audience. Most radio stations offer in-house creative services for radio at no extra charge. ($5000/mo – $10,000/mo per city of 1MM in population. Smaller markets can be very affordable.)
• Television and Online Video Advertising: Sponsoring or advertising on local television or streaming services can magnify your presence, and become a recognized brand in the community. It can also be done on a much wider scale to build global brands. (Estimate $10,000 – $20,000/mo for a city of 1MM on local television. Online video channels vary widely, and can be started with as little as $300/mo).
• Local Newspaper Advertising: Newspaper was traditionally used to get “immediate” attention on a single day, such as for a short-term sale. It was also a great way to build awareness of sales or promotions of price-sensitive items where listing pricing helps to facilitate the traffic (homes, cars, electronics). Readership of physical newspapers has fallen dramatically in recent years, so newspapers today couple physical and online ads together. Ads range from small Classified listing to front-page ads and banners. ($20 – $10,000 each for a day).
• Promotional Products: These are items that you might brand with your logo – i.e. pens, clothing, giftware can be a great way to be remembered or to gain attention…we definitely recommend you check the quality and get good ideas from sales professionals in this area before purchasing.  These are items usually used by more B2B than B2C, although a small gift with purchase to B2C target customers can also be effective.
• Community Newsletters: As an alternative to direct mail, if you’re trying to reach into a specific community, the local area newsletter is a trusted resource. Rates are very reasonable, and businesses using this method are generally perceived to be “the neighbourhood’s own” resource ($50 – $500 depending on size of ad.). Many community newsletters also have classified ads within them.
• Online Advertising: There are tons of new online advertising vehicles to consider. YouTube Advertising Sponsorship, Google Pay Per Click Advertising, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and more. The good thing is that these ads can be very specific to qualified viewers, and appear only when the user types in specific keyword searches that are relevant. The budget can also range from $1/day to $100/day or more – that’s the beauty of it – and you can pay by click-throughs (when someone actually visits your website) or by number of impressions, making it very easy to track effectiveness.
• Geo-Fenced Advertising: If you would like to catch people who are on the move, and get right in front of their cell phones, you can do this with digital ads; this is also known as “Geo-Fencing” to certain areas. These can also be connected to billboards that track phones that pass by their locations, triggering ads to be served to the people in certain vicinities. We used this to reach drivers who were shopping regularly at new car dealerships to promote a tire protection product (cost is about $5000/mo to start, and you’d need a media buyer’s help).
• Dedicated Salesperson: At the mid-level, selling is usually done with trained, dedicated salespeople who have the support of a CRM, a customer relationship management system. Having at least one dedicated person usually dramatically enhances momentum, as opposed to having other people in the company handle the job only partially, and when they are not too busy otherwise.

Advanced-Level Marketing

Of course, if you’re ready to go big or go home, here are some of the upper end methods you might consider. Sometimes, a good marketing agency or media buyer can swing top-tier methods at a bargain price, or with a good pitch.

• National Broadcast Television Advertising: National television advertising gets a product brand launched into the minds of consumers. Sometimes it is just plain necessary, especially when a product is something the public wouldn’t normally seek out, for example, a revolutionary health procedure, and it requires the credibility of television to be taken seriously. In this case, a public relations campaign (write a good news release with photos etc, and then pitch it to the right journalists to cover) to cover the story of your product would also be recommended to go along with it. (Usually 15% or so of your campaign budget, or upwards of $20K).
• National Online or Print Advertising: National credibility can also be built using well-established media such as Maclean’s in Canada or the New York Times (US). This kind of advertising again has the effect of taking products that might get initial skepticism (e.g. a cure for baldness) and making them seem more mainstream and credible – think of all the disclaimers on the back of the pharmaceutical ads in magazines like People! ($10K – $250K for a full page+ each – check rate cards, most of which are online.)
• Celebrity Endorsements: Finally, if you have the deepest pockets, you can get celebrities (or influencers who have a large following, but may not be household names) to endorse your product on their social media platforms or elsewhere. This of course comes with the risk that the celebrity may fall from grace due to various scandals. It’s a quick ticket to the big time, but it can certainly backfire. Always seek legal counsel if you’re considering this. Check out the 6 Million-plus Youtube hits for William Shatner’s ride on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket ship, and you’ll see why Bezos invited him along! That said, although I’ve indicated this as an advanced technique, you can also do this with emerging local athletes or artists at a fraction of the cost – simply supplying then with your products and asking them to mention them to their fans.
• Profile-raising appearances: Can you get a story in the news or prestigious publications in your industry? Start a podcast or YouTube channel? Do speaking engagements (maybe write a book to go with it)? These are less costly in terms of being “paid” but take more serious talent, credibility, skill to manoeuvre. However, like the other advanced methods, they can add enormous credibility to your brand. Or, getting the help of a PR firm can cost $50 – $200K to build these for you.
• Advanced Selling: At the advanced level, the sales team and training is honed to a fine craft. If it’s a B2B setting, elements like presentations, letters, proposal formats, and of course targets and bonus structures, are finely tuned and well-designed. If it’s a B2C environment, team roles such as customer service, sales, and account management are well-defined and monitored. Many firms are also using AI to research and qualify leads, and draft sales materials. Costs to develop some of these elements are higher ($100K+) but they are essential to longer term expansion.
• Industry Leadership: In almost every industry, there’s a firm that goes beyond the norm to advance the knowledge and best practices. This might involve serving on a board of peers, starting a conference, writing a book, or publishing original knowledge online. It could also involve setting new environmental policies and government relations. While these things aren’t typically considered marketing, they do raise a company’s profile, and certainly affect growth and success, sometimes of the entire industry. Costs will vary, and the opportunities need to be earned over decades in business.

While the elements mentioned above are not everything under the sun, it can be helpful to see where you’re at today, and take a glimpse of the future. There’s always another level to reach, and with patience, tenacity and an understanding of the role of marketing, you can make it there in time.

If you would like to discuss how to level up your marketing, we would love to hear from you.