subject: Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 5 Marketing Partners [print this page] When I was laid off from Centex, while I knew it was coming, it was still a hard blow. For the first time I really loved my job and the people I worked with. Now, this is not to say I didn't love the others but to say, I thought I found my home. I thought I found a company where I could work for at least 5 years and really develop my professional career.
Being a fighter and a driven person was what was keeping me going and to this day, is what keeps me from giving up on a career that I love. I am passionate about marketing and advertising. I had learned that I wanted to do something in this industry in Jr. High and once I figured out what that was, I have been going for it!
While looking for a position, I got a call from my friend Nikki telling me, someone she knew was looking for a marketing professional to help with a new condo conversion project and she thought of me. This was perfect for me! I could start up as a consultant and start a business based on my vision of what an advertising agency should be and what they should do for clients.
I knew I needed to provide my clients with measured success and be accountable for my recommendations. I often used a famous quote by John Wanamaker , "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the problem is, I don't know which half."
Using foot traffic numbers provided by the sales team, Internet traffic provided by Google Analytics and using a phone tracking service, Who's Calling, I was able to see exactly where people were seeing us and how many responded to those tactics I was recommending. Each month I provided my client with a detailed report calculating the cost per lead (CPL) by tactic. I planned all of our media on a monthly basis so that at any time I could change what was being done in order to drive more traffic and decrease our CPL.
Side note: My first client was Property Financial Group and the community was named Eleven11.
The method was effective and proved that if an advertising/marketing agency wanted to, they could tell you what half of your budget was being wasted. What I believe was the key to buying the right media and knowing what messages to send was the use of the Acxiom segmentation I had learned about while working at Centex. I was able to take the data gathered by them and use it in conjunction with demographic data provided by the various media outlets. I had a specific target buyer profile and was able to find the radio stations and publications they used.
The fun part of each month when I put all my results together, I was able to call up my media reps and discuss how well the media buy went and it gave me leverage to negotiate prices based not on what they said the numbers were but what I could prove were the real numbers for my client. I can appreciate that the radio stations base ad rates on listeners, but how many listeners doesn't matter to me if none of them are interested in buying what I had to sell.
Sharing the CPL during media negotiations of the other stations and publications was never a problem. It was important for each of them to know that I was ready and able to stop my buys with them if they could not help me improve my CPL by reducing rates. The clients needs were most important and I was not about to report to them that we were buying media that was below par.
This is not a common practice for agencies because they mark up media 17.5% and the higher the buy, the more the commission they receive. My media buying fee was 6% and because I was paid either hourly or on retainer the 6% was not a factor for me. The way commissions are being done has been changing over the years. It used to be that all media fees automatically included the agency mark up. More often now the mark up is not included and it is up to the agency to bill for those fees.
During my time with this first client they referred me to others and the sales team referred me as well. They all saw that I could market their product and do it in a way that was most profitable to them. I was honest and straightforward and was a quality alternative to the larger agencies in town.
I was having a blast! Here I was again, doing what I loved, doing it well, and changing the way my clients viewed an advertising agency.
Then with some new laws on the books the already struggling real estate climate in Las Vegas came to a screeching halt. I was put to task at figuring out how to get our prospective buyers to not only fit the lifestyle profile but now to target the financially qualified buyer as well. So, how do you know if a person is a financially qualified buyeryou don't. But the realtor does! They understand much better the financial stability of their clients and if compensated properly, will bring buyers in.
Realtor programs had been a big part of the Centex marketing plan and I was very familiar with how they worked. I had tried to get in buyers without realtors so we could avoid the commissions and extra fees associated with them. But, now we were in position where we needed to tap that resource. So, I began developing realtor programs and incentives to drive the financially qualified buyer into the sales office.
And during this process, my client was struggling not having expected this turn of events in the market. With that, my time with them was halted but we maintained a good relationship. I did a great job and they knew it. Their money was well spent but they could no longer afford me.
I still had other clients and was doing okay until banks stopped lending to developers. Land values were dropping at incredible rates and for most developers the land was collateral for the loans already taken out. Slowly, my client base fell apart and my attempts at finding new clients was unsuccessful.
Eventually I closed the business and with so many layoffs I was unable to find a job with another company. My husband and I made a decision to move back to California.
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 5 Marketing Partners
