With the plethora of marketing education and advanced tracking tools available, sticking to coupons as a primary advertising metric is not just archaic but detrimental to a brand's long-term growth and understanding of its customer base.

Like it or not, advertising is the lifeblood of business visibility. It's no longer enough to simply have a great product or service and self-promote. Without the right exposure, even the best offerings will be lost in the sea of competition and grow slowly.

When your company is ready to really invest in advertising, the question begs to be answered – “Where do you start and how can you get the most for your investment?” Here’s how you can approach your marketing plan like an advertising agency would.

“How do I know if my advertising is working?” is not a question that can be answered by the question “How did you hear about us?” Business owners must fully understand the science of marketing attribution and utilize all the technology available to track ad engagement for a clearer picture of how your entire marketing funnel is performing, TOGETHER.

Marketers typically divide upper funnel marketing initiatives between offline and online strategies. We argue a better division to consider should be between chance and certainty style advertising.

Advertisers can expand the effect of any single marketing touch point offline, into something more interactive online, to further engage consumers moving them through the sales funnel of attraction, conversion and closing much more effectively.

Here’s how boutique brands can learn from big brands to make their marketing stand out even as a smaller company with a smaller ad budget.

Want your advertising to be more effective? Then it might be time to change the messaging. Here’s how brands can stand out and tap into the emotions of consumers so they stop and act on ads.