by  Dave Hiebeler and Mike Higgins  |  Apr 13, 2021 You might want to audit with a fresh eye the claims or statements your business makes about your team’s capabilities on either your Website, marketing, or in conversation. Is there anything said that comes across as things everyone else is saying? Some business claims have become meaningless and not believable because, in all fairness, everybody is saying similar things. Superlative statement claims such as the best, the largest, the fastest, the biggest, the sales leader, and award-winning. Any of these could be true about your business, but most have lost their juice since the claims are rampant. More examples that may not do your story justice are no-pressure consultation, free, no obligation, you have come to the right place, city of your choice’s best solution, in these difficult times, we are ahead of the curve, we love doing what we do, honesty, transparency, commitment, and dedication to customer service. How about these? We always put our clients first, take your _____ to the next level, we partner with you, let’s chat, let’s have a conversation, our competitive rates, our expert team of… and we want to earn your business. Blah, blah, blah.   In its own category and in its own paragraph is the term “Bespoke.” I have encountered this one several times in the last two weeks as a description of business service offerings. I had to look it up, and I did not know what it meant. “Bespoke” means a customized offering made for a client, a one-of-a-kind like a custom-tailored suit.   Come to find out, the term goes back hundreds of years. Sounds fancy. It is better to say customized just for you and tell them how you do it.   Your business’s story will strengthen when the language used is simple and authentic to your top prospects. Describe at a deeper level, for example, how it is that your prices are so competitive, or give story details on why your team gets so many customer referrals. Otherwise, you can come across as just another commodity, like a grain of wheat, because everybody says that.  Dave Hiebeler  is an Agency Principal at Align2Compete, LLC. He writes about small business marketing, audience strategy, and demand generation. Based in Colorado, Align2Compete is a specialized marketing agency that helps emerging businesses turn strangers into customers. He is also a freelance writer. Mike Higgins   is an Agency Principal at Align2Compete, LLC. For the past 25 years, he has worked in all things digital sales and marketing. Mike also founded Brushfire Sales, which assisted companies in optimizing outbound sales channel efficiencies. As a digital pioneer, he was on the ground floor at MapQuest and Weather Labs, a start-up that the Weather Channel acquired.

BY: Dave Hiebeler | June 8, 2023 Disclosure: The following article was authored 100% by a human with experience in the category; it includes proper sourcing and fact-checking. If you feel your business is in real growth mode and you wonder how much you should spend with a marketing agency per month, I have your answer. This article will give you an agency owner's view on what it will take to get started. I will assume you are already in pure messaging mode, which means you have done all the heavy lifting to build a website/brand that asks prospects to do something and nudges them along to consider you a viable option. And like many businesses right now, you are not looking to increase your overhead; you are instead looking at where you can make cuts. The other assumption is that you have a solid Google footprint, which means prospects like what they see when they do a direct search. Will Google change this due to their own A.I. adaptations? Yes, and it’s coming soon. Start at $1,600 to $3,000 per month. It's funny because I don't get asked this question often when we are in the discovery phase with clients, but I know it is at the top of their minds. And understandably, you may think you need help to afford the counsel of a marketing agency. Eventually, everything comes down to how much. And soon after that, it's either a "yes" or "no" decision. As a business owner, you may budget for Web hosting, high-speed Internet, tax advisors, employees, and insurance. Sure, marketing is a deductible expense; a better way to consider it is as a monthly utility, like electricity, heat, and water. Marketing should not be any different. Commit to a starting agency marketing budget like this for six months or more. Why that much per month? The $1,600 to $3,000 monthly agency spend level is the opinion of this agency after working on thousands of campaigns over the years. This minimum level gives your marketing agency the resources they need to get the momentum started. When you begin, you will have less profit to play with; your gross revenues are not yet significant. You could be in the friends and family funded or in a pre-venture capital pitch stage. And when budgets get more extensive, your agency can add more channels and frequency to get things buzzing for you. In a recent Forbes article about "How Much You Should Spend On Marketing," Thomas Minieri recommends that businesses have two advertising-level budgets: "If you want to maintain your current sales level, then do 5 to 10% of gross revenue. If you want rapid growth, then 20% or more, depending on your industry and type of business." I agree with his budget advice. When your business is in its early years, your goal will be more ambitious to grow your brand. Or, if you are an established company launching a new product or service initiative, your budget could be much larger than $3,000 per month. Why start at this budget if things are tight for you? You'll get a more actionable critical mass of data from your agency campaigns on how prospects are relating/reacting to your most viable product (MVP). This data is precious to you, the failures especially. It puts time on your side to build demand generation in one channel, maybe two, if you are very efficient. Proper marketing involves trial and error. Trial and error require time. Every one of us hates the error part, especially. We have found that the most successful marketers identify their audience patch, soak it, and own it over their competition. We have an East Coast luxury auto franchise we work with that advertises to local "auto intender" residents by local counties with email blasts once per month, every month since 2014. They 'soak their patch.' An agency budget of $1,600 to $3,000 per month will allow you to use channels like Permission-Based Email or Instagram with some modest frequency. Larger monthly budgets above $3,000 enable your agency to add channels you could be unfamiliar with, like Podcasts, YouTube, and Connected TV (CTV). You will be happier doing marketing yourself if: Unfortunately, there is this expectation that marketing is easy, "Just spray and pray to an audience, set it, and forget it." There are also numerous sexy rags-to-riches articles. These are tales of significant revenue gains that occur overnight. What gets omitted from the story is how long it took said owner to succeed; those details are boring, aren't they? In my morning Flipboard app regimen of reading many articles (a pleasure and a curse), I see them too. One would think, "If only I could find the same magic elixir they have found; it seemed clear how they were successful." But as business founders, we pride ourselves, especially on DIY actions; it's how you built your thing, sweat, brains, dark days, and grit. You are my sisters and brothers. I love you. It is also sometimes hard to gauge whether your current upward trend in revenue will sustain itself, gulp. If so, hold on investing in agency expertise; you will be putting too much short-term results pressure on yourself and your agency. Stand-down. Marketing effectively is challenging and time-consuming. It is hard. What worked so great last quarter could have worked better this quarter. Is it my competition? Is it the economy? Did the audience channel lose its mojo? Did I over-fish the pond I've been in? The sexy stories you see can cause quick-fire judgments on what works and does not. Too often, time gets removed from the equation when the only goal is lead generation over demand generation. Do marketing yourself in-house if a committed agency budget makes you nervous and your team has a fair amount of time. Your current revenue and cash flow may not support a dedicated budget with an agency's expertise. It's a ‘nice to have’ down the road for you. Are your expectations of what marketing can do realistic? Your expectations of marketing's proper role and effectiveness are crucial. If you think an agency will drive immediate conversions to sales for your business, you need to be more realistic. On average, only 3% of your best prospects are buying right now. We call that a low-funnel conversion. Your agency will guide you to the correct demand generation strategy to move the 40% that are just starting to look for what you got. That takes time. Your agency is responsible for the top of the sales funnel; your business is responsible for mid and low-funnel conversions to sales. Fewer businesses want to own this, but it's true. What defines an emerging business? It can be a start-up in its 3rd year, an early-stage company that just got a second round of funding, or an existing business with a new product or service to grow market share. Any business with a unique market opportunity with new funding for expansion or a time-sensitive event that needs to get the word out is in the emerging category. You could have a familiarity problem. Low familiarity is widespread, especially with emerging businesses; if you ask them what they wish they could have more of in their business, they would say: "If only more of our best prospects knew about the unique service or product we offer and how it will solve their problem." More brand familiarity is a legitimate desire and lament. It speaks to why anyone markets and advertises anything. Mike Higgins, Co-Founder of Align2Compete and my business partner said it best: "There are more people in the world not on your website right now than those on it." A cold and undeniable truth. In a client discovery meeting, we will ask, "OK, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, where do you think your company ranks on the familiarity Index with your best prospects?" The client pauses and fires back, "I think we are a 2". We then ask, "Where do you want that number to be in two years?" If you say, "I want to be at a 7 or an 8 ". That is an ambitious goal, and we all have extensive work to do. That work requires money, resources, and an equivalent measure of expertise. But everyone wants easy, correct? Growing brand familiarity requires time and consistent, agile actions; there is no easy way around this. Getting the word out the right way. Getting the word out the right way requires disciplined audience message repetition that a talented agency is ready to handle, just like you know how to run your business like no one else. Agencies have channel, audience, and messaging cadence expertise you most likely need. A one-time or annual big event could be coming up, or you have to nail a limited time frame open enrollment period as a success. I call that significant short-term pressure. Allow me to share a story of when I was in the newspaper industry decades ago. A local air show featured the famous UNITED STATES NAVY Blue Angels flying their jets. Excellent stuff, yeah. The problem was that I was an Ad Director for a chain of suburban papers that was temporarily understaffed. We promised The Air Show leadership a 16-page section published to our audience on a particular date, which meant we had to sell 12 advertising pages to meet our advertising/editorial profit matrix. If there are not enough ads, then there could be no section. Time was short, and my team needed to move the needle. I had to step up and sell 10 of the 12 pages myself. The Air Show folks loved our section. I didn't sleep well for those two weeks; that was real pressure. If you need to turn up the messaging flame fast, then a monthly budget does not make sense, but a more extensive project budget does. In this case, your agency can do many good things for you on a $4,000 to $10,000 budget. You may not remember what you spent on marketing. However, you will remember if your event was a complete dud and people got fired. Use an agency if you lack in-house expertise. As an owner or senior leader of an emerging business, marketing is a hat you should not be wearing any longer. It's a total time-suck; the detailed work necessary can be overwhelming. Your work-life balance could be suffering as well. Some owners are good at marketing; they built their business cost-effectively as a low-cost provider. I call you "consciously competent." We love talking to you because you know the power of a well-executed campaign and have a feel for channels that work well for your business. But if you have fished every "word-of-mouth" fishing hole, and marketing is starting to crush you from a time and energy dimension, there is trouble brewing. You don't file your corporate tax returns without a tax advisor, do you? You hire experts to save you time, avoid costly errors, and give you an edge. Hire an agency and give them a monthly budget to support the resources to get the job done right. Key takeaways: One of Warren Buffett's, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, advice tips for any business is to reinvest profits back into the enterprise to fuel its growth. This is a hard pill for owners to swallow, especially when the money starts to flow. When I have an electrical or plumbing issue at home, I pay a professional to fix the problem. I believe they will do it right, and I will save time. I will gladly pay for their expertise and experience. A marketing agency can do much the same for your enterprise. They know the right tools and when and how to use them. As a metaphor, the great agencies will tell you when you only need a bolt tightened, and they will charge you for the minimum service call today, or they will also tell you that your water heater is about to blow because someday, very soon, it will flood your home with 3 feet of water. Dave Hiebeler is an Agency Principal at Align2Compete, LLC. He writes about small business marketing, audience strategy, and demand generation. Based in Colorado, Align2Compete is a specialized marketing agency that helps emerging businesses turn strangers into customers. He is also a freelance writer.

by Dave Hiebeler | Jul 29, 2022 Click here to listen to the podcast From the show notes: Every business, every owner, every employee has lots of great ideas. The crucial part is how one should nitpick and prioritize their tasks. “Experience” is not getting what you want. You can hire seasoned mentors to avoid making mistakes, period. Hiring trained professionals saves you time, avoids costly errors, and gives you an edge. If you think that doesn’t make a huge difference, think again. At Align2Compete, you have access to industry experts who could drive you to your fullest potential. Today, we invited Dave Hiebeler and Mike Higgins, co-founders of the organization, to give you a run-through and a clear picture of what they do. Dave Hiebeler is an Agency Principal at Align2Compete, LLC. He writes about small business marketing, audience strategy, and demand generation. Based in Colorado, Align2Compete is a specialized marketing agency that helps emerging businesses turn strangers into customers. He is also a freelance writer. Mike Higgins is an Agency Principal at Align2Compete, LLC. For the past 25 years, he has worked in all things digital sales and marketing. Mike also founded Brushfire Sales, which assisted companies in optimizing outbound sales channel efficiencies. As a digital pioneer, he was on the ground floor at MapQuest and Weather Labs, a start-up that the Weather Channel acquired.

Marketing Services & Pricing for Small Businesses. You know you shouldn’t be DIY-ing your marketing—but a full in-house team or big agency retainer isn’t realistic. We offer experienced, done-for-you marketing built for small businesses, with clear services and pricing. Explore our core services and itemized menu to see exactly what you’ll get and what it costs. We design an AIO-driven SEO strategy that makes your brand discoverable inside AI assistants and traditional search results at the same time. Visibility is tracked across ChatGPT, Gemini, and your top local competitors so you can see exactly where you stand. Visibility tracking : Benchmark how often you, versus competitors, show up in AI answers for key prompts and topics. AI-optimized SEO strategy : Best-in-class tactics built for AI answer engines, not just classic Google rankings. Gap analysis : Identify high-potential local prompts, questions, and categories where competitors are absent or weak. Local Prompt Intelligence : Ongoing surveys and testing of AI-generated queries that reflect how people are solving problems relevant to your brands. From $1,500 per month* *For Businesses with 1 -5 employees AIO/SEO Prompt Strategy for AI-First Visibility Services, Packages & Pricing Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Heading 6 Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, Agency of Record (AOR) View More We design an AIO-driven SEO strategy that makes your brand discoverable inside AI assistants and traditional search results at the same time. Visibility is tracked across ChatGPT, Gemini, and your top local competitors so you can see exactly where you stand. Visibility tracking : Benchmark how often you, versus competitors, show up in AI answers for key prompts and topics. AI-optimized SEO strategy : Best-in-class tactics built for AI answer engines, not just classic Google rankings. Gap analysis : Identify high-potential local prompts, questions, and categories where competitors are absent or weak. Local Prompt Intelligence : Ongoing surveys and testing of AI-generated queries that reflect how people are solving problems relevant to your brands. From $1,500 per month* *For Businesses with 1 -5 employees AIO/SEO Prompt Strategy for AI-First Visibility Services, Packages & Pricing Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Heading 6 Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, Agency of Record (AOR) View More Heading 6 We design an AIO-driven SEO strategy that makes your brand discoverable inside AI assistants and traditional search results at the same time. Visibility is tracked across ChatGPT, Gemini, and your top local competitors so you can see exactly where you stand. Visibility tracking : Benchmark how often you, versus competitors, show up in AI answers for key prompts and topics. AI-optimized SEO strategy : Best-in-class tactics built for AI answer engines, not just classic Google rankings. Gap analysis : Identify high-potential local prompts, questions, and categories where competitors are absent or weak. Local Prompt Intelligence : Ongoing surveys and testing of AI-generated queries that reflect how people are solving problems relevant to your brands. From $1,500 per month* *For Businesses with 1 -5 employees AIO/SEO Prompt Strategy for AI-First Visibility Services, Packages & Pricing Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Heading 6 Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, Agency of Record (AOR) View More Heading 6 We design an AIO-driven SEO strategy that makes your brand discoverable inside AI assistants and traditional search results at the same time. Visibility is tracked across ChatGPT, Gemini, and your top local competitors so you can see exactly where you stand. Visibility tracking : Benchmark how often you, versus competitors, show up in AI answers for key prompts and topics. AI-optimized SEO strategy : Best-in-class tactics built for AI answer engines, not just classic Google rankings. Gap analysis : Identify high-potential local prompts, questions, and categories where competitors are absent or weak. Local Prompt Intelligence : Ongoing surveys and testing of AI-generated queries that reflect how people are solving problems relevant to your brands. From $1,500 per month* *For Businesses with 1 -5 employees AIO/SEO Prompt Strategy for AI-First Visibility Services, Packages & Pricing Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Heading 6 Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, Agency of Record (AOR) View More Heading 6

State Government marketing case study success story. Our agency specializes in customer marketing and growth tactics that demonstrate our expertise in adapting to change and seizing significant opportunities. Specializing in marketing and advertising solutions for various industries, including Hiring Talent, Automotive Dealers, Charter/STEM Schools, Local Events/Festivals, Home Services, State/Local Government Programs, Health Care Open enrollment, Charter Schools, and B2B Business Development. State Government gets the word out fast about health care open enrollment. MARKETING CASE STUDY: Client: State government health care plan. Location: Northeastern United States. Industry: Health Care Insurance. Time Frame: 4 weeks Services used: Permission-based Email Marketing. Results 35,778 ENGAGED SESSIONS EMAILS OPENED 3,139 CLICKS TO LANDING PAGE $1.60 RETURN ON AD SPEND COST PER CLICK This is a respected regional marketing agency in the East Coast United States. They are a full-service strategic communications firm that prides itself on pushing the boundaries of creativity, strategic thinking, and aggressive execution – and they do it all to exceed expectations and help their clients succeed. Their clients are the best in the business – from NY to DC, CA, and abroad. Their model succeeds because they always put the right people and plan together. About this client . Their challenge . One of the ad agency principals told us they were looking for a cost-effective and creative way to get the word out quickly to create demand generation for a limited-time healthcare plan. "Open enrollment was approaching quickly for our customer which was a state government-sponsored health care plan for current and former government employees. The state told us we had six weeks to get the word out. At the time, we were looking for additional marketing channels for our agency to complement the local channels we already had intended to use in our marketing plan. We wanted something unique to present to our customer that would be a creative twist. Our other media in our plan gave broad coverage but needed specific targeting capabilities to reach current and former state employees like teachers, highway workers, and police." Teachers Highway and Sanitation workers Law Enforcement and Judicial Employees What we did. 1 We isolated a specific audience list of 87,000 current and former government employees from our proprietary datasource who qualified for the healthcare plan that resides only in their state. 2 The list we pulled was for the demographics of State Employees. Municipal occupations: Teachers and School Staff, Police and Sheriffs, Judges/Defenders/Clerks, Roads/Highway, Infrastructure and Sanitation workers. The channel we recommended was permission-based email marketing. 3 To maximize frequency and reach, we sent (2) permission-based email blasts on behalf of their client in late April and early May. Over 175,000 emails went out. We built their custom HTML creative art consistent with the design they sent us. Audience curation. Chose the channel. Permission emails sent from our list. So given what you have just read, do you feel that your current marketing team and resources are fully aligned with your business objectives? Where do you see disconnects or areas for improvement? Results. 35,778 Emails Opened 3,139 Clicks to Landing $1.60 Cost Per Click 175,722 Emails Delivered only 45 unsubscribed 4-week time fame "Each time the email campaign was sent out, the state health care plan's website visitors doubled based on Google Analytics. We appreciate how quickly your agency could execute this campaign in our given time frame. We are pleased with the results of working with you, and expect more work from us every month" -Principal Ad Agency of record for a state government health care plan. Build fast awareness just like this state health care plan did. If the next step is a discussion, then choose your preferred means. Contact Us

Cookie Policy for Align2Compete, LLC This Cookie Policy explains how Align2Compete, LLC ("we", "us", or "our") uses cookies and similar technologies on our website. By using our website, you consent to the use of cookies as described in this policy. What are Cookies? Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently and provide information to website owners. Types of Cookies We Use We use the following types of cookies on our website: 1. **Essential Cookies** : These are necessary for the website to function properly and cannot be switched off. 2. **Analytics Cookies** : These help us understand how visitors interact with our website, allowing us to improve our services. 3. **Functionality Cookies** : These enable enhanced functionality and personalization. 4. **Advertising Cookies** : These are used to deliver relevant advertisements and track ad campaign performance. How We Use Cookies We use cookies for the following purposes: - To provide a better user experience on our website - To analyze our website traffic and performance - To personalize content and advertisements - To remember your preferences and settings Third-Party Cookies Some cookies on our website are placed by third-party services. We do not control these third parties or their use of cookies. Please refer to their respective privacy policies for more information. Your Cookie Choices You can manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings. Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings preferences. However, limiting cookies may affect the functionality of our website. Changes to This Policy We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Contact Us If you have any questions about this Cookie Policy, please contact us at: Dave Hiebeler Telephone Number: (720) 218-2374 Mailing Address: Align2Compete 9928 W. Morraine Pl. Littleton, CO 80127 Last updated: February 11, 2025