A fractional CMO is a marketing executive contracted to help with customer acquisition, sales development, and company growth. They are involved in the marketing strategy and ongoing goals of a business.

Here are five signs that contracting a fractional CMO might make sense for your small business.

1. Lacking marketing leadership on your team
Marketing managers track and analyze the performance of advertising campaigns, manage the marketing budget and ensure that all marketing material is in line with your brand identity. A fractional CMO can work with your team to enhance their skills and help drive efficient and effective organizational communications to the next level.

2. Having no marketing plan
A good marketing plan is key to marketing success. Failure to develop a functional marketing plan can lead to budget issues, low customer volume, and, in the worst-case scenario, business closure.
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 A fractional CMO will craft a marketing plan that can help you:

•         identify your target market and how your product or service can benefit it
•         Set goals and timeframes for your marketing activities
•         Map out a strategy to reach your target audience

3. Not knowing how to delegate
Leaders who fear the prospect of failure may cling to work and refuse to delegate. They feel they need to take charge and deliver the work personally to ensure it is done correctly. You should learn to delegate anything that someone else can do better. Otherwise, you'll be doing a disservice to your employees and your business.

4. Lacking implementation resources in marketing
Besides people, structure, systems, and culture, resources are vital to implementing your marketing strategy. Without the necessary implementation resources, it'll be difficult for your business to put your marketing strategy into real-life practice to drive valuable results.

5. Lacking tech platforms for automation
Businesses use marketing automation platforms as a hosted or web-based solution to streamline sales and marketing efforts. A marketing automation specialist can help you automate online marketing campaigns and sales activities to increase revenue and maximize efficiency.

Your team will get more time to focus on overall strategy and nurturing the leads that show real promise. This ultimately translates to more prospects and more customers.

If your marketing staff requires more direction and industry experience to move your business forward, it could be time to hire a fractional CMO. Your business will get executive expertise without the full-time cost. Call Clairant today!

Marketing is not what it used to be before the internet and social media. Social media have become one of the most powerful marketing tools any company can use. Gone are the days when we shunned social media as a time-wasting pastime.
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In the social media marketing world, marketing on social platforms is a must-have for any brand, and the facts prove it. Every day, 45% of the global population devotes over two hours to social media, and almost 75% of marketers believe in the effectiveness of social media. However, some challenges of the social media market plague companies that use social media, such as:

#1 - Platform Identification
Businesses fail in their selection of the platforms they should leverage. Just because you heard that Instagram is the ideal platform does not mean you should automatically market it. Most marketers do not research their target audience and which platform they spend most of their time on.

#2 - Understanding Target Audience
Some brands do excellent business in brick-and-mortar stores but fall flat on their faces on the social media end. The difference here is that your clients come to you in a physical store, but you have to seek out your customers on social media. Measuring brand awareness just got easier with social media!

Marketers sometimes create content without a target audience—a big mistake. Your content might be all that and then some, but it is just content if you don't tailor it for a specific audience. It might garner a few likes and comments here and there, but it is not up to its full potential. Every business has a type or type of audience. Master yours, know your market and create content accordingly.

#3 - Trouble Expanding to New Platforms
When a new platform emerges, most businesses are slow on the uptake. If the new platform is where your target audience has shifted to, pack up your bags and follow them there! It's that simple!

#4 - Creating Lead Generating Content
Generating content ideas and interactive media posts that generate leads for social media is tricky for most businesses. It is challenging to drive an audience from social media platforms to click on a dedicated landing page and encourage media sharing.

#5 - Lack of Content Ideas
Everybody struggles with creativity blocks in social media content creation. When your business runs out of ideas for content, you start posting erratically and lose your audience. Nobody wants to follow a page with one great idea today, and none in two weeks. Consistency and brand presence is vital. Source your content in advance to avoid these challenges.

If you need help mastering social media marketing, give Clariant a buzz, we are never too busy to listen! We have just the solution, so give us a call today and help you solve all your problems with social media marketing.
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The social media boom and rise of an internet filled with user-created content mean that it's never been easier - or more popular - to create a website. Plenty of free and paid services exist to provide small-business owners a jumping-off point to showcase your products, publish your blogs, or advertise your services. 

Web design can be easy, but it's still an art form! These five mistakes to avoid will help you make sure that your hard work doesn't go to waste.  

Mistake 1: Using a non-customizable theme
As you set up your first webpage, be sure to pay attention to the templates that you choose to use. While plenty of quality, un-paid options exist, you don't want to be limited in your customization options. As your business grows and changes, you want a website that is highly customizable and ready to grow with you!

Mistake 2: Ignoring SEO
Search-engine optimization (SEO) is definitely a buzzword in marketing. With all its musings about "the algorithm" and the extra work it sometimes requires, it can be tempting to ignore this step altogether. However, being strategic with keywords and ensuring that your webpage is highly discoverable on Google will help to make sure that more people get to appreciate your hard work! 

Mistake 3: Using too many fonts
We've all been guilty of this one. With hundreds of fonts at our fingertips, it's easy to sprinkle every form of typography and calligraphy across your pages. From a user experience standpoint, however, you'll want to stay consistent. Selecting a few favorites to use across all of your social media platforms and website will be easier on visitors' eyes and help to make your brand more recognizable. 

Mistake 4: Complex navigation
Sometimes it's trendy to have a mysterious, long-scrolling webpage. Still, user attention span on the Internet is shorter than ever! You'll want to make sure that every visitor to your website can quickly find the information they're looking for, using navigation tactics like hyperlinks, tabs, and suggested pages. 

Mistake 5: Poor choices in images
Images make your website more eye-catching and should definitely be used. When selecting pictures for your website, be sure to find ones that are high-resolution. These will pop out more and add a sense of reliability and quality to your brand. To protect your assets and ensure that your website is truly yours, it's also important to check copyright protections on any images sourced from the internet. 

Web design is a learning process, but every mistake dodged is a victory (and every mistake made is a lesson learned)! For help navigating the brand-building process and growing your online influence, Clairant is here! After giving you five mistakes, we'll also give you one easy win: call Clairant today! 

The marketplace has shifted to digital mediums, underscoring the importance of content marketing. The role of content is to provide answers to your audience, which sets in motion a business relationship based on trust.  Consequently, great content plays a central role in retaining an audience, enhancing brand awareness, building authority, ranking better, and lead generation. 

So, how can you generate great website content? 

Step 1. Define Your Website's Purpose 
You can achieve a lot with a website. However, you need to identify its purpose to be effective. For instance, you can use a website as an e-commerce site for branding, enhancing your online presence, generating leads, or selling products. Having a defined purpose is critical in generating content ideas, keyword research, and coming up with an effective marketing strategy. 

Step 2. Know Your Audience 
Content that is not user-centered may not achieve its objective. Therefore, businesses need to factor in audience aspects like motivations, goals, behaviors, pain points, needs, and challenges. This knowledge helps create meaningful content with relatable vocabulary and an enhanced user experience. 

Step 3. Research Competitors 
After gaining an understanding of your audience, perform a competitive analysis. The process reveals gaps and opportunities that you can utilize to attract more traffic and rank better. First, create a list of 3-5 competitors, ranking keywords, and overall content strategy. Also, look at the number of blogs, content length, and diversity of topics. 

Step 4. Implement SEO Keywords 
Keyword research is crucial in creating focused content and attracting specific traffic from search engines. Short-tail or long-term keywords tell you how internet users are looking for information. Use keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, or SEMrush to find content ideas. 

Step 5. Content Writing 
It's time to create website content using keywords, research, and inspiration from the above steps. The secret of great content is an SEO web copy that's adequately formatted with H1, H2, and H3, with localized content or long-form texts. 

Are You Ready to Transform Your Marketing? 
Great content is the foundation of marketing that generates leads, enhances brand growth, and ultimately increases sales. Therefore, it's essential to undertake key prerequisite steps like identifying the audience, keyword research, and competitive analysis.

That said, Clairant is here to help you. We offer various services like web design, lead nurturing, social media maintenance, and video marketing. Call Clairant today!