What Is Marketing That Matters, and Why?
I love stories and the power of storytelling. To the extent that my language is often flowery and my prose verbose. But I’m also cognizant that I’m writing for an external audience – you! And I hold everyone’s time – one your highest commodities – in high esteem. As such, my promise to you is to keep these small business marketing tips brief, salient, even scannable. (Ok, maybe this introductory blog is a tad longer). So, here goes …
#MarketingThatMatters
My love affair with marketing has enabled me to lead marketing functions in numerous sectors including education, nonprofit, technology, and eCommerce. From large-scale multinational organizations to small-scale startups, I’ve seen the results that marketing can drive for organizations; I’ve driven a lot of them!
I have always been compelled to ‘give back’, (see below for my current Executive Committee roles); that’s my #MarketingThatMatters, where marketing serves on the intersection of strategy and meaningful community impact.
My commitment to this work isn’t just professional, it’s deeply personal. Alongside my career in communications, I’ve served on boards and in community leadership roles that keep me grounded in what marketing can be used for.
Where It All Began
This innate compulsion to contribute to the greater good escalated to new heights in the midst of Covid-19, where, among its many ravaging effects, I was acutely aware of micro-entrepreneurs who lost the businesses they dedicated their lives to build, virtually overnight. It brought tears to my eyes. Literally.
What could my ‘giving back’ contribution look like in this globally disastrous scenario? What agency did I have? What assets did I have in my arsenal that I could leverage to offer help and lend support?
My superpower … Marketing!
I started a marketing agency designed to provide low-cost services to businesses looking to maximize their visibility and reach their target audiences, services that I provided at fixed costs, which is unheard of in the marketing service industry (more on this in blogs to come).
My marketing agency took off – fast!
Learnings
What I very quickly learned was that entrepreneurs know the value of marketing, but they’re not marketers (why would they be?!). Neither do they have the resources to pay the exorbitant marketing agency fees, leaving them stuck in a marketing abyss. And without the ability to effectively promote their wares, well … many of those businesses, suffer, falter, and fail.
This is when strategic communications become a lifeline. Not a luxury. Not a “nice to have.” A lifeline.
Needed Now More Than Ever
Even more now than then, we’re living in a time of profound noise. Audiences are overwhelmed. They are increasingly skeptical as trust in institutions erode. The pressure for businesses to prove their value has never been higher, all while resources remain incredibly stretched.
And here’s the clincher. My marketing deep expertise can help to change that!
My knowledge, experience and expertise are my contribution, my way of ‘giving back’.
What You Can Expect Here
I will be using this as an extension of my initial Marketing Agency offering – a platform for disseminating marketing tips, free and low cost marketing best practices that any individual or organization can use to help promote their businesses, their products, and their services.
Interested? Watch this space for more.
Marketing That Matters 