Just like all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon the same applies to the relationship between sales and marketing for your business. Not all your marketing for your business should be focused on sales, but all sales for your business are a form of marketing. Confused? Don’t worry.  In this blog, we will discuss why your marketing strategy shouldn’t be 100% sales-focused, but also dive into how marketing and sales can work together to help grow your business and attract new clients.

Winter is winding down, warmer days are on the way, and we can’t help but wonder: is your 2022 marketing strategy working? Like New Year’s Resolutions, marketing strategies can be easy to follow for a while, but oftentimes we find ourselves reverting back to the way things were before. To help you keep your sights on the prize of accomplishing your 2022 marketing objectives, we’re here to share four quick fixes to turn your strategy showers into marketing power!

How do we even start to market this event?

Ok, so you’ve decided to create an event to showcase your business, brand, products, outstanding growth, or whatever grand idea brought you to this point. You’ve spent the last two months securing the perfect venue, lining up the best speakers, convincing corporate sponsors to pitch in on the price tag, and mapping out a dynamic event agenda. Everything is in place. This is going to be a massive success, right?

Now that the last guest has left and the "Closed" sign is hung until spring arrives, you may be tempted to breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy a break until the fun begins again next year. However, you may want to wait on packing for that vacation, because now is the time to get a head start by building a sound marketing strategy to ensure a successful 2020 tourism season. Read on for some pointers to build your marketing plan so that everything is planned and in order well before opening day!

Wishing you good times, good cheer, and a memorable new year.

While technology continues to advance, Google has recently released a tool for businesses to see how well websites work across a variety of platforms (desktop, mobile devices, etc). This really isn’t surprising considering Google changed its algorithm in 2015 to give mobile-friendly websites more stature in search rankings.  People spend more time searching on their mobile devices instead of their computers, which pushes companies to make their websites more mobile-friendly. According to KPCB mobile technology trends by Mary Meeker, 51% of users view content through a mobile device compared to 42% on desktop.  The bottom line is this: if your website is mobile friendly, you’ve taken an important first step.  However, if your website’s load time isn’t optimized – for mobile devices or on desktop – your customers aren’t going to stick around on your website for long.

The 76^th Annual Sioux Empire Fair was a huge success again this year, with the help of Robert Sharp and Associates and their support of the event for the fourth year running. This year’s fair saw an increase in attendance of 14.5% from 2014, bringing in 321,443 guests to the annual event, which opened on July 31^st with the Sneak Peek Night featuring Goodroad in the Budweiser Beer Garden. The events did not stop there.

RSA staff helped to promote and execute the Sioux Empire Fair again this year, and Vice President and Director of Event Management Stacey Sharp attended the event and helped with on the ground operations and promotions. With the goal of bringing in more people and ensuring that everyone had a great time, Sharp worked to help at the fair and leading up to it to help promote the event and gather events that would attract large crowds.

… but it is definitely the wrong choice for your business website.

WordPress is by far the most popular website platform available, now powering one in every four websites. The reasons for this popularity are easy to see, WordPress is easy to install, easy to use, and is perceived to be low cost. It is also easy to make your website look how you want with one of thousands of available themes or add the functionality you need with a mix of the 40,000+ available plugins.