Ready to build your marketing budget but not sure where to start? Establishing a strong marketing strategy that boosts your brand and propels your business starts by synchronizing your goals with your marketing budget. Check out our tips to help kickstart this process.

In the social media arena, engagement is the name of the game. As an inbound marketing tool, social media content helps create strong bonds with your audience and gives them an opportunity to get to know your brand. Research shows that social media strengthens brand positioning, increases trust and improves online visibility. As a bonus, organic content is extremely cost-effective versus traditional marketing methods.

First-party data—if you’re not already reading about it, you soon will. As technology evolves to meet growing expectations regarding online privacy, first-party data will be an important factor in how successfully organizations can target their marketing messages. Unfortunately, many marketers aren’t prioritizing or directing the right resources to collecting first-party data.

While in-person events may be off the menu for now, it’s important to maintain relationships with your audience in creative ways. More than ever, people are seeking meaningful connection with others. Virtual events present unique opportunities for safely interacting and reconnecting during a time when we can’t gather in large groups.

In April, we wrote hopefully about how disruption from the COVID pandemic could force us to be creative, problem solve, and innovate. As we approach the five-month mark of social distancing—and in our case, working from home—we’re reflecting on our ‘new normal’ and sharing the things we’ve learned and experienced. What we found has included new perspective, deeper appreciation for things we once took for granted, and more willingness to try our hand at something new. Here’s what our team has been up to: