Faster Alone, Further Together

Faster Alone, Further Together

Mark Zuckerberg once said, “Move fast and break things.” For a while this was a motto that you could find on my lips daily. While I do believe that there is still a lot of value in breaking things, I am rethinking some of my thoughts on speed. 

This does not mean that delivery to clients on time is not valuable or that some things need a hyperfast turnaround to be effective. Rather, I’m rethinking what it means to be successful in the long run. 

An African proverb reads, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” At the beginning of our business, I was alone and lots of things happened quickly. But even with my propensity to work hard for a long period of time, there is only so hard I can work and only for so long. There is a point of diminishing returns.

Additionally, while I am good at many things, I am great at very few. When breaking into a new service field with lower rates than others, there is room for services of varying quality. To improve the quality of our service and the quality of our products, other people who can SPECIALIZE and FOCUS on things more than I can are essential. 

“Specializing” and “focusing” are two themes that have become increasingly apparent to me over the course of 2020 and 2021. The theme for 2022 reflects this: Faster Alone, Further Together. 

For Adelsberger Marketing to become both The Best Place to Work  in West Tennessee and the Premier Creative Agency in West Tennessee, I have to embrace this thought that we can go further together. The sprint of starting a business leads to the emphasis on speed, the building of a company and leaving a legacy, requires a team working together over a marathon. 

Points of emphasis on our theme in 2022: 

Additional training and delegation to the team. 

Making intentional choices to bring team members on things that would normally be a solo activity. 

More transparency and inclusion in leadership and business development decisions. 

New Avenues may be started alone, but will be planned to expand to the team as part of the planning process. 

Are you still trying to go faster alone or have you transitioned to further together?

Conclusion

Conclusion, References, and Suggested Materials

“Ideas are (expletive deleted), execution is the game.” – Gary Vaynerchuk. 

This book contains many thoughts on marketing. They are thoughts we use to grow our client’s businesses. They work because we put them into action. We execute on these ideas. Many people have great ideas for content or marketing, but they fail to execute. 

I hope you enjoyed this work, but more so hope that you will execute some concept from this book. Start with who you are and define it. Understand who your customers are and where they are in the process.  Build the pieces you need to communicate with the world. Then, get someone’s attention and motivate them to take your call to action. 

If you found this valuable, consider leaving us a review on Facebook or Google. If you know you need to help with marketing, send me an email: kevin@adelsbergermarketing.com. 

Thank you for your time and attention and don’t forget how valuable both of those things are. 

Kevin

References and Suggested Material:

I love reading so I prioritize it in my daily life. I find it’s a great way to keep thinking about things that are helpful and also a great way to wind down from the day. Here are some of our top marketing books we recommend: 

Juicing the Orange: Fallon- A great book talking about how a big deal advertising firm approaches creative. 

Permission Marketing: Godin- In my opinion, this is the seminal book that shifted marketing from interruption to permission-based. Very formative. Also, just read everything Seth Godin has ever written. 

Building a Storybrand: Miller- An excellent book on how to treat marketing writing to engage the reader and sell products. 

Attention Merchants: Wu- A startling look at how businesses have been selling our attention for decades, and increasingly so. 

Ask Gary Vee: Vaynerchuk- Gary Vaynerchuk is the leader in social media marketing in my eyes. His books, including Crushing It, are excellent resources for anyone considering marketing in the modern era. He also has an enormous online presence and gives away a lot of information. He often sets the pace in online marketing.

The End of Advertising: Essex- A thoughtful look from inside the big ad system about how the system will change in the near future. 

Breakthrough Advertising: Schwartz- A classic, but be warned, it’s expensive online. It’s insightful on the human condition. Originally published in 1966, some of the examples are dated but the core truths are applicable to all humankind.

Customers for Life by Carl Sewell- My favorite book on customer service. In the book Carl talks about how he used customer service to build his dealerships. I can personally speak for these services and how we were treated as out-of-towners in one of his dealerships.

This blog post is a portion of Attention and Action. The book walks you through the marketing process that Adelsberger Marketing follows with its clients. You can read this book for free as a blog on the Adelsberger Marketing website or purchase on Amazon.com.

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Introduction

Our Pillars of Marketing

I wanted to make note of what we have done to market Adelsberger Marketing. We have had success since opening in 2015 and as a marketing company, it is something we think about all the time.

One reason for our immediate success is that we came on the scene at the right time. Our affordable video options were something our market needed. Fulfill an unmet market need and your business will be set up for success. To realize that success, though, we had to market our marketing agency well. We have used a variety of builders and drivers to help grow the business. But we have really leaned on these three areas: community, expertise, and building stark raving fans. 

1.Investing in our Community. Working with local organizations and nonprofits is great for serving your community by helping them do better work and promote themselves. It also exposes you to their base of support and board of directors. It’s a great way to make connections. We support Madison County CASA because it is close to our heart.

We work hard to stay involved with nonprofits in our area. Sometimes our involvement is as customers and sometimes as donors. In our earliest days, we did nonprofit projects for free. Today we often offer them discounts on services. I am also a graduate of the Leadership Jackson program and have remained active in it for years. Recently, we were able to strike a deal to become an annual sponsor of the program which gives us great visibility with many of the business leaders in our area. 

2. Demonstrating our Expertise. We love the opportunity to educate people and help them grow their business or understanding of marketing and entrepreneurship. Very regularly we have had the opportunity to visit with and teach at theCO’s Co.starters program and the Economic Development day with Leadership Jackson. These give us opportunities to meet a lot of folks who become potential friends and customers. Additionally, we have had the opportunity to teach at different events and Chambers of Commerces across West Tennessee. Each one of these opportunities gives us the chance to meet new contacts and expand our business. 
 
3. Building Stark Raving Fans. The most important thing we do for our marketing is building stark raving fans. Stark raving fans will tell others about your business which creates invaluable word of mouth. How do we do this? We strive to treat people right. Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you will. Under promise and over deliver. If you make a mistake, make it right, even if it costs you money. Sometimes eating some cash to help correct a mistake is well worth the long run relationship that you have with clients. Always play for the long term. Short term gains can sometimes sacrifice long term success. If you nickel and dime customers, you will leave a bad taste in their mouths. We want to leave every customer with a great experience to encourage them to talk about us with their friends and be repeat customers. Think of each customer as a long term opportunity.
 

 This blog post is a portion of Attention and Action. The book walks you through the marketing process that Adelsberger Marketing follows with its clients. You can read this book for free as a blog on the Adelsberger Marketing website or purchase on Amazon.com

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Introduction

Experiential Marketing  

(This chapter is written with a pre/post COVID-19 world in mind. Clearly, in-person events have been affected by COVID-19 but it’s unclear if they will be permanently affected.)

There is a difference between seeing and experiencing. Experiential marketing gives people a chance to go beyond seeing and get to know your product in a tangible way. This often happens when a friend shows you a product and you decide you want it, too. Recently my wife has considered getting an Apple Watch. She’s seen me wear it and tried it out herself. Sam’s Club, or “the Club” as I have heard it referred to, has been doing this for a long time. Walking through their store on a lucky day will give you the opportunity to try various different food products they are promoting. There have been multiple occasions when I have purchased the item I sampled.

When thinking about how to include experiential marketing into your plans, you can start somewhere small like a sample kiosk or delivering sample trays to businesses. Or you can go big like hosting an enormous conference such as (the conference formerly known as) Chick-fil-a Leadercast. Consider these questions when implemented these tactics: 

  1. What’s your budget? Giving out samples at the store or setting up a popup tent at a local fair can be really affordable. Putting on a branded event for 100 people could be expensive. What you decide to do will be determined in part by your market value and your type of product. Maybe it involves sponsoring an event for a nonprofit, which would increase the cost but add social value. Will you need to bring in a partner organization like a food provider or a marketing company to help things be successful? 
  2. Does it align with your mission? Don’t just do anything. Make sure it also aligns with your mission and company values. Our company invests almost exclusively in issues regarding foster care for children. So it might be a little outside our wheel well to host an event regarding animal welfare. But if your organization has a cause at its heart, you can combine the marketing of your organization with an event to benefit those things you care about. 
  3. Can you do it with excellence? If you are branching out into experiential marketing, can you do it well? A well executed event can add value to your brand. But if you invite 100 people for a test drive and the cars do not work right, you are potentially ruining the market for yourself. Do whatever it takes to ensure execution excellence. The more complicated the event, the more likely something will go wrong. Consider steps like rehearsals and dry runs of the event to help work out bugs. Hiring a professional event planner can be a worthy investment for companies. 
  4. Will it really promote your product? When planning an event, ensure that you don’t forget to promote your product/service. I am sure you will not do that on purpose, but if your event overshadows what you are trying to do, or if it causes enough controversy to distract what you are trying to promote, you should rethink your approach. 
  5. Do people care? Consider this event from the perspective of someone who is an outsider to your business. If you are in a fun industry, this can be easy. But not everyone is. So do people care? You have to make it attractive to people who don’t yet care. Try reaching across the aisle with a shared interest that can bridge the gap between your product and other people’s interests. One of the best ways for a restaurant is to simply get a test bite into someone’s mouth. If you produce food worth eating and give someone an opportunity to eat it, they easily become customers. 

This blog post is a portion of Attention and Action. The book walks you through the marketing process that Adelsberger Marketing follows with its clients. You can read this book for free as a blog on the Adelsberger Marketing website or purchase on Amazon.com.

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