Growing my business required me to grow with it. When we were smaller, I did all of the marketing. I did newspaper, direct mail, flyers, and magazines. I also had some experience with radio that I added into the mix. When it got large enough to afford a real radio campaign, I interviewed all the local ad agencies and picked the best to be my marketing department. I did not realize it then, but that day would change my life - and it may change yours too.
Are you too busy running your business to study marketing? That is what I thought. It seemed smart to leave marketing to the “experts” and focus on the daily priorities of my business.
I had held my marketing accountable to my sales but it turned out my ad agency did not. When things started to fall apart, I had to learn marketing to save the business. I had no other choice, but you do.
Does this sound familiar?
I had a problem. My phones weren’t ringing and I had lost faith in my agency.. You see, the agency told me my direct mail efforts were too expensive and TV would serve me better. Why would they give that advice, when my efforts were already working pretty well? They did not make money on direct mail, but they would make 15% of the $30,000 a month I spent on TV, plus they wanted $17,000 to produce two commercials. It sounded like a conflict of interest to me. The current agency model is bunk. The fee structure is designed to encourage the agency to get you to spend more where it best suits them, not you, and maybe even more important, the agency has no real accountability for your growth. They keep on sending you a bill, whether you get results or not.
So I shifted some of my management duties to others and began working with my printer for direct mail and newspaper, the agency for radio and billboards, a web guy for website management, and an SEO guy for search engine optimization. This kept me busy on the phones trying to keep it all together; each of them wanted to deliver a different message. It worked, but it was barely possible to hold it all together. I knew there had to be a better way.
The birth of a new approach
Wouldn’t it be great if there was an Agency that would market your business instead of spending their energy selling you on the programs that make them “fat”? Wouldn’t they work differently if their success hinged directly on yours? Most Agencies today are expert at producing what I call “Ego Ads”. They brag about great customer service, a knowledgeable staff, and how long they have been in business. I hate to break it to you, but no one cares about this but you. Your future customer wants to know what you can do for them, not a recital of how great you are.
Ads that don’t sell say “knowledgeable staff.” But your audience already expects this, as a minimum standard. EVERY business in your market can say “knowledgeable staff” so it doesn’t exactly make you stand out.
Ads that do sell say, “Our staff spends 3 hours a week in training on the latest technology to ensure we save you time and money by making the right diagnosis and performing the treatment right.” Do you see the difference?
We won’t feed your ego, we will feed your wallet.
Our Agency is not a “one trick pony” founded by radio advertising sales guys or graphic designers who push their area of expertise down your throat. At PunchStick, we know business and we know marketing. We have found the marketing formula to make companies successful, starting with our own. We believe in our results and are willing to bet our income on it.
Partner with PunchStick and you can reinvest your savings into more marketing. Our methods have taken companies with modest growth to over 60% annual growth, 20% net profits and we have done it in a recession. Yes, we are that good.
