Marketing is one of those necessary evils in business. Everybody hates to do it but if you don't your phone stops ringing. It is one of the most confusing and yet one of the most talked about aspects of running your business.
There are no lack of marketing experts, books, web sites, seminars and other resources to choose from. Everyone is loking for that magic strategy that will propell them ahead of their competition. Frankly, with everyone telling you that their system is the holy grail of marketing, it can become quite overwhelming.
I tend to approach the problem a little differently. I understand that each business is unique and that there is no one catch-all solution for any business. The type of business you own, the level of competition you are against, your marketing budget and a host of other factors have to be factored in before an effective marketing strategy can be implemented.
Unlike other marketing agencies, I am not going to tell you that I have all of the answers. If your marketing tasks are something that should be handled by other sources, I will tell you that directly. In fact, any marketing consultant that doesn't do that is probably shooting sunshine up your butt. I may recommend that you start a self managed Google Adwords campaign, hire a different company for a specialized task or other recommendations that will get me zero income. At the end of the day, if you succeed, you will be around to hire me for other things and will recommend me to your business associates.
But there are a lot of areas that I am quite proficient at and utilizing me for these tasks are going to be vastly more cost efficient than giving it over to one of the large marketing or advertising agencies. I know, because I have spent a large portion of my business career working for them.
The first thing we need to do is to sit down and talk about your business, what you want to achieve, who your competition is and what challenges you need to overcome. I will not charge you so much as a loonie for this meeting so you really have nothing to lose. At this time I will make specific recommendations and suggest what path I think you should follow to give you the best results for the budget you have. If at the end of the meeting you feel that I can help you with some of the tasks you need to have done, then I will give you a hard quote as to what is needed and how much it will cost. And if you are not convinced that I can help you, then we will shake hands and part ways. I am not going to try and sell you anything that I don't think you really need. I have made my reputation on results, not costly promises.
Let me assist you in these crucial areas:
- Marketing consulting and business analysis
- Internet marketing
- Graphic Design and printed products
- Commercial photography
- Web site design
- Search engine optimization
- Trade shows and displays
- Copy writing for press releases, promotional material and online documents
- Campaign management with outside services