MK Group, Inc.

Priority (in order): 1. Get the Shot 2. Have Fun 3. Be Safe

This project hit home...literally. One of our Realtor clients needed a city spotlight reel for her page. As La Crescenta natives, this was truly a special project. We still reside in our hometown, but being able to capture all these areas where we have multiple memories, then to put them together and come up with this small little showcase of our town, it’s a surreal feeling. What’s your favorite part of beautiful La Crescenta?

A new day. A new location. A new product Our client wanted to add some life to their social media aesthetic with new backgrounds, textures and vibes. Here is a small #bts look at what it takes to make our clients vision come true.

Got a nice surprise during a photoshoot for @hardrockoffroad. Pretty sure everyone stopped and stared but somehow @0neunid managed to get this crazy shot.

The best part of working with so many diverse companies is that we get to play with some awesome products. Prepping these @curvawheels for a small lifestyle shoot for our client

Today’s post is a bit different from the practical content we typically post. Today we want to talk about your marketing budget. Dealing with many different businesses in various industries, we have come across all types of business owners, but one thing we find in common with all these business owners is that they have this great big marketing plan, but they have not even begun to think about a budget. Under the marketing umbrella, there are a bunch of tactics you can use. O...bviously the most effective is going to be your organic marketing strategy, but even then you’ll need to set aside a budget to accomplish your goals. They say a medium sized business should be spending 2-8% of their annual revenue on marketing depending on how aggressive they wish to be. Regardless of the amount, it is crucial to set a side a number you are comfortable with spending on marketing. Most companies include the salary of their in-house marketing manager as a part of the budget while others strictly set aside the budget for the marketing efforts themselves. Point is, in this digital age you need to pay to play to stay relevant. For example, growing organically on Instagram is getting increasingly more difficult. Companies today are dropping loads of money into advertising to grow their awareness and build their audience base. What used to be featured on the explore page organically is now cluttered with ads on top of ads. There is no way around this.

Don’t let your marketing efforts fail due to uncertainty. When small business owners start considering their marketing efforts it’s always about the cost and results, but more often than not, they disregard the analytics and insights. Use your insights to clear out any uncertainty from your efforts and use this newfound knowledge to optimize your current strategy. Track your efforts with UTM parameters.... Think of it like this: You’re a first time baker. To create a delicious cake, you need the perfect ingredients and recipe. You follow the instructions to the tee but you’re cake is less than sufficient. So what do you do? Try and make it the same way hoping for a different result? No! You learn from your mistakes and repeat the process. Maybe this time you will need less egg whites but more flour? You won’t know unless you further analyze your results. Same concept applies to marketing! See where you fall short and try to capitalize on the error. Dig deep and understand where the downfalls are and build upon them. 99% of platforms today offer you analytics to better understand your audience and campaign. If you fail to analyze insights, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Showcasing our latest website launch for our client in the legal industry. . . Our client had an existing website that was generating traffic through various marketing efforts. When we approached the development of the new site, we strategically placed multiple types of CTAs throughout the site to efficiently covert website visitors to qualified leads. .... . The design & development of the website including layout, color palette, mobile responsiveness and more were all completed in house. See more

What is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)? Simply put, it’s the amount of money you expect your customer to spend on your business in their lifetime. This is important because it will help you determine how much money you should be investing into new customers and retaining existing ones. Here are some quick calculations to give you an idea of how to gauge your budget and focus.... Let’s say you sell shoes to all demographics. One of your customers is an avid runner and the other is a mother of a toddler. The runner buys shoes from you at $100 each. The mother buys shoes for her toddler at $20 each. The runner goes through 4 pairs a year versus the toddler at 5. You’ve had the runner as a customer for 8 years, but only have sold to the mother for 3. So quick math! Runner - $100 per shoe x 4 buys per year x 8 year relation = $3200 Mother - $20 per shoe x 5 buys per year x 3 year relation = $300. Even if the mother was to the remain a customer, after 8 years her CLV would be $800. Based off these calculations, you can determine where you want your marketing attention to go.

When it comes to marketing, the word SOCIAL almost feels like it has been desensitized to only pertain to social media like Facebook and Instagram, but there is a much deeper meaning to social - social responsibility. Today’s consumer, especially the millennial generation, is extremely conscious of who they consume from. A recent report shows that 66% of consumers are willing to pay a premium if the product comes from a company that shares the same values as them. If you ha...ve a product, chances are you’re not the only one selling that item, which means you need to find a way to set yourself apart from the crowd. This is where you can use Social Responsibility as your competitive edge. So what exactly is social responsibility? It’s when a company has the duty to act in the best interest of their environment and society as a whole. What are some examples? Reducing carbon footprint, charitable giving, improving labor policies, volunteering in the local community, etc... Say you own local market in a decently sized town with a few other markets within walking distance. What is going to make people come to your store? Well, they will come because you source products from local farms that are grown organically. In turn, you are supporting the local economy as well cutting out any preservatives or GMOs that might come from large corporate farms. Not only that, you take a portion of your weekly sales and provide lunch to students in lower income households in your community. These are just some ways that you can implement social responsibility into your brand mission. People like helping others. If your business can do it on a large scale, the support will follow.