Marketing Implementation Options

Marketing Implementation Options

Tactical Implementation vs. Strategic Implementation

I am all about allowing a business to dictate what they require from a marketing perspective which is why I offer to ways of achieving your marketing goals.

Tactical Implementation of Marketing Initiatives

This marketing option is meant work as a true partnership.  Marketing, especially digital marketing (which is my specialty) has become very fractured.  Unfortunately the journey a customer takes to find and buy from you (even a customer has bought from you previously) has changed so much in the past 3-5 years that a multi-pronged approach to marketing is a must.  The ‘good old days’ of doing a newspaper ad, a radio and an ad in a Trader magazine are WAY behind us.

With today’s marketing landscape, you need to dabble in multiple digital marketing elements and generally some limited traditional marketing.  The problem arises when you don’t know which ones to invest in, why to invest in them (other than hearsay or sitting in on a seminar put on by your OEM) or most importantly, how to properly track and analyze who and where to invest your time and money.

My Tactical Marketing option essentially allows me to work with you to identify where/how to invest your marketing money without vendor after vendor pitching various ideas/approaches at you. Each one undoubtedly sounds great on their own, but as part of a FULL marketing plan, which a Tactical approach is, they may or may not truly fit the plan on how to most effectively achieve your business objectives and needs.

Strategic Implementation of Marketing Initiatives

Often time, businesses may already feel they know exactly what they need or simply can’t afford to invest in a full Tactical Marketing program.  Due to this, Smarter Business Solutions allows for the selection and investment of one or more specific marketing elements.

• SEO
• Local SEO
• Social Media
• Video Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Long/Short-term Strategy
• Vendor Advocacy/Vetting
• Data Tracking/Analysis
• PPC
• Website Management/Branding
• Graphic Design

Of course which service(s) you require all depend on your goals.  Looking to increase your traffic?  SEO/Local SEO.  Improving your business’ engagement?  Social Media.  Educating or Branding to prospective customers?  Video Marketing.  Of course several initiatives on this list can be dovetailed into others in order to improve from 1+1 equaling 2, into 1+1+1 equaling 4.  That’s how a true marketing strategy (Tactical Marketing) really starts to pay dividends… but small steps are WAY better than no steps… or worse yet in a lot of cases – doing the same thing you’ve been doing time and time again over the years.

Part-Time Marketing Expertise without Hiring an Employee

For many years now I have encountered businesses that have traditional roles within their business yet have a specific marketing need that never gets properly addressed.  First off, most business owners aren’t marketing gurus so don’t actually know what they are looking for in order to hire someone to look after their marketing.

I have quite a few funny stories around this but a couple of the funniest…

A Harley Davidson dealership wanted someone to look after their website and their social media so… they approached their youngest employee (who because they were ‘young’ would best understand social media???) who worked in their parts department to do their ‘marketing’.  Young doesn’t account for strategy, creativity or analysis.

I had a commercial truck dealer hire a person to run the detailing department of their business.  This person claimed to be a ‘marketing guru’ so he let him do his marketing as well… when he had time!  Well anybody who is a marketing ‘guru’, can make a lot more money this way then they can managing a detailing department so… do you really think they are a ‘guru’??  I’m assuming not.

Several years ago most dealerships didn’t need some of the roles that they have today.  In order to give yourself and advantage, marketing is becoming one of those necessary roles… although in most cases, there is no need for a full-time specialist.

Part-time specialists aren’t truly up to date on their stuff and therefore can’t claim to be experts.  I am.  Between all of the businesses I help, I’m more than full-time (which is why I’m building an internal team) so you are able to leverage my full-time expertise at the price of a part-time employee WITHOUT all headaches of scheduling, time-management, prioritizing, hire-fire and lack of knowledge.