When I was a 22 year old marketing punk fresh out of college, I bounced around corporate jobs butting heads with managers who insisted that it was never the job of the marketing division to sell anything, they said that was the job of the sales department. I knew then, instinctively that when a small business owner spends a dollar for marketing, that dollar should return with friends attached.
So after quitting 2 jobs in 2 years, I left my Dilbert Cube of office politics and corporate bulls*&t to do my own thing. At the insistence of a close friend I ended up starting a commercial cleaning franchise in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is where my REAL marketing education started. I earned my street marketing MBA quickly.
I have been exactly where you are, dealing with a large digital marketing company. My biggest expense was local digital marketing and a horrible book called the Yellow Pages. The Berry Company, Vivial, Ruben Donnelly- the companies always kept changing names and changing my representatives to keep me off balance, I guess. I'll bet you in my first two years of my cleaning business I spent over $50,000 trying to corner the local market.
My friendly reps kept urging me to "develop my branding" and "keep my name out there", and "just have patience", and eventually I would wake up one to day to discover I had an 80% market share.
No, not so much.
Here were a few of the maddening frustrations I remember. Any of them feel familiar to you?
Until now, the concept of an agency of record has been the exclusive province of large corporations. The Nike's and Microsoft's of the world will hire one main marketing company to represent them and control all of their multiple marketing channels, branding and purchases.
At its core, an agency of record is about building a long-term relationship with your advertising partner. You want a partner who takes the time to fully understand your industry, your business, and your market—and perhaps most of all, your brand.
Does a small business owner need an Agency Of Record?
Up until 2005, probably not. Small business owners could manage running some advertisements in various local publications. But when Google took over the internet search landscape- everything changed.
Small, local businesses have to keep up with a TON of digital marketing information and they must be extra sharp at branding themselves so they can compete with every other business online.
The difference our personal Digital Marketing Agency Of Record makes for you, is the difference between order and chaos.
We immediately develop your unique selling proposition and strategy in the beginning. How else could we choose the message and digital marketing tools needed?
Mader Marketing has developed critical two way communication systems to make sure you are able to give us important changes and we are able to update you on quickly changing technology.
I am your agency director, solely responsible for the performance of your marketing. I must answer to all outcomes to you, the client.
Digital marketing tools such as Google Ads, landing pages, email marketing, SEO, video marketing, etc. are selected based on the strategy we developed for you and your budget. As your marketing partner, we are judicious about your budget.
As your Digital Marketing Agency Of Record, we have one primary metric for success. Are you generating more leads, sales and profit based directly from what we are doing as your digital marketing agency?
The most important distinction of all. There are 4 systems that are absolutely critical in any successful business.
Many successful small business owners are very good at 3 out of those 4, Sales, Operations and Finance.
The function that is necessary for your business to go to the next level is Marketing.
And when it it comes to digital marketing, very few small business owners know what to do.
That is exactly why you don't need software or large digital marketing companies selling to you, you need your own agency of record. And MADER MARKETING is the only one in existence.
They won't understand the concept of your unique selling proposition, nor will any time be devoted toward your marketing strategy.
Large digital marketing companies are setup for one way communication. Messages that are broadcast out to you by the different divisions and vendors and also the billing department, notifying you of past due invoices.
With a large digital marketing company, you will have multiple points of contact. You will have a revolving door of account reps, you will have someone creating your website, you will have someone else handling your domain name and passwords, you will have someone else repsonsible for your Google Business Profile, etc.
Make no mistake, digital marketing tools will be up-sold to you at every turn. Your account reps. are sales reps. They are trained to offer bright shiny objects for you to try out.
The way your large digital marketing company measures success will depend upon the account rep you are speaking to. They will mention page impressions, likes on your Facebook page, clicks and many other things. The problem is that you can't take clicks or likes to your bank and deposit them.
None provided. They offer "all in one" software packages for you to manage. Best of luck keeping up with digital marketing changes.
“Working with Scott Mader and his team has been life-changing. Over time our backs were up against the wall with Vivial, as change requests were ignored, among many other things. Scott and his team took their time to listen and understand our design needs and wants. Quickly they came up with a plan outlining the time frame and deliverables. In my opinion, Scott and his team exceeded expectations by delivering a world-class site before the deadline.
You are in good hands with Scott Mader.”
”The difference between where we were with Vivial and having a full time agency, while working closely with Scott is night and day. They have enabled me to start a new company in Florida and are also managing Google Ads and now Facebook Ads! Thanks for the great work!"
I've been a customer of Mader Marketing for over 2 years and have been very satisfied. Scott created my website and is always coming up with innovative ways to market my business and improve my standing on line with his SEO strategies. He's also very customer service oriented."
Scott is great for small businesses and does an exceptional job of leading marketing efforts while business owners can focus on their core competencies. He utilizes a variety of digital marketing tools and analytics to help us focus on the keys to growing our brand/business in the local marketplace. Highly recommend!"
Can you easily transfer everything from my current company? Yes, absolutely. We have transferred 24 "ex-large digital marketing customers" in the past 19 months to our digital marketing agency.
What are your fees? Glad you asked! My objective here is to get away from bait and switch tactics of starting with an overpriced monthly rate and then adding in things later. We have a simple flat monthly rate that gives you everything you need from starting with an incredible new website, to SEO work, to full access to our personal agency of record.
Do you create a new website for my company? Yes, that is the first order of business since your website is at the heart of your digital marketing program.
Can I contact your references? Some of the most recent references who came over from Vivial, Hibu, Reach & other large digital marketing companies are listed directly above, and you are encouraged to contact any or all of the owners to see what life is like since they switched to our personal digital marketing agency of record. Each of these wonderful business owners have become not only clients but friends!
I'm still confused- what makes your digital marketing company different? Vivial, Hibu, Rev, Reach and many other large digital marketing software companies provide access to digital marketing tools that your company can use. There's nothing unethical or wrong with that. But here's the reality...you have neither the time, nor the undertsanding to be able to skillfully and effectively IMPLEMENT digital marketing technology successfully on your own.
Your time, talent and treasure should be spent ON YOUR BUSINESS, not on trying to learn and implement digital marketing.
Is it possible for you to be your own digital marketing manager? Yes, its possible to do that, and it's also possible for me to perform an appendectomy on my daughter if she ever needed her appendix removed, but it would probably make more sense to find a surgeon.
What specific services do you provide? From a digital marketing perspective we are highly effective with:
From a real, local marketing perspective (something you are not receiving now), we are highly disciplined in:
Strategic local marketing plans of action
Developing your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Establishing a two way communication method to keep your new marketing action plan on target
Creating methods to track and measure all results
Performing professional marketing consulting with you
Representing you as your digital marketing agency of record
Establishing a marketing budget for your new goals and expenses
and more.
Hernan Cortez- Explorer. Conquered the Aztecs (we think)
In 1519, the explorer Cortez planned an invasion of the Aztecs, he only had a few hundred men and a few ships. The Aztecs were fierce fighters who outnumbered his men. Cortez made a decision that he was not going to retreat or allow any of his men to retreat. The night that Cortez arrived on shore, he got all his men off the boats and then burned all the ships. The message was clear. We will fight and we will win because turning back is no longer an option.
Because turning back is no longer an option. That's a powerful motivator.
My Burn Your Ships moment
I remember vividly, one bright Monday morning in October when my Vivial rep. walked into my business. Without expressing any emotion I informed him I was pulling out all the digital marketing and yellow page ads and that I was bringing everything in house. I can still see the shocked look on his face as he put his large briefcase full of new sales material back into the trunk of his red Ford Focus and sped away.
That was my Cortez moment. I burned my ships.
I would never return to paying "large digital marketing companies" so they could simply keep piling more and more bright shiny objects onto my credit card.
MADER MARKETING- the only digital marketing agency of record was born, even though I didn't know it at the time.
I spent the next 2 years building and perfecting systems that would enable my cleaning company to take advantage of all the Google Ads and online SEO stuff I was learning.
It worked, I went from a 3 truck cleaning operation to 6 trucks and the leader in my market. I sold the business and started a local marketing consultant practice.
In the Cincinnati market I developed a reputation working with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and eventually branched out on a national level helping local franchisees develop their local market. I was contracted by franchise corporations such as Marcos Pizza, Planet Fitness, Buffalo Wings & Rings, and more.
A funny thing happened while I was travelling the United States and helping these franchisee business owners. Almost ALL of them were spending large amounts of money on - you guessed it- large digital marketing companies! Vivial, Reach, Hibu, etc.
My life's destiny came into clear focus. I stopped consulting and built my current agency, MADER MARKETING, the only digital marketing agency of record for small business owners.
You, my friend now have a chance to end the vicious cycle of sending off hard earned dollars to large digital marketing companies.
Instead - you can form a partnership with us and allow us the distinct privilege of helping you create your marketing message and then representing your company as we help you find more customers, who pay more money and do so more often.
Ready to burn your ships?
You are investing money each month into digital marketing services right now. On top of that, you are investing a lot of time and stress tracking down results for that investment!
Your business should exist to serve you. Not the other way around. You and your family have personal goals and dreams that your business can provide to you.
Stop wasting valuable time and money trying to micro-manage your own digital marketing stuff. You can't do it. You can't master digital marketing on your own, it changes too rapidly.
You now have the ability to partner with your very own digital marketing agency of record. Dedicated to you and your unique business. I hope you take advantage of this opportunity.
Imagine having a partner on your side of the business, down in the trenches, who happens to have over 21 years combined experience in digital marketing and local store marketing.
We're not selling you digital marketing tools. We're not selling you a digital marketing program. We are offering you the ability to go back to your business and do what you do best.
We are providing you with results. Guaranteed results.
After all, with your expertise in your business and our local digital marketing expertise, how can we fail? We won't let you fail.
Because your failure is our failure.
from the desk of Karen Kennedy...
Here's a special offer for new agency clients who make the switch
Scott wants me to set 10 new meetings before the end of next month! Ahhhrg! Like I'm not busy enough handling other client work!
So- if you click the Discovery Call button below- I'll make sure you receive 15% OFF your first month , PLUS, we will design your new custom website absolutely FREE. (Normally a $1950 charge!)
But, hurry, and don't tell Scott - I'll take care of it, I handle the billing. :]...
Thanks,
Karen K.