Our Philosophy

1) Discovery

Our very first process when speaking with any potential client is what we like to call “discovery.” This is the time we take together to uncover the business and agency relationship.  We go through a series of questions to learn about what our clients’ products and services are.  What are the selling points and benefits that they provide to the consumer.  We want to learn about competition, their challenges and what they feel they need to improve.  We discuss their current or past marketing efforts, in addition to their return on investment from each specific effort.  Who is our target audience? This is where we typically determine if there is a fit for a working relationship and if we feel that we can really provide a value to the client.  If so, we continue in the steps, (listed below) and if not, we do our best to recommend the client to someone who can help them achieve their goals.

2) Intent

After discovery, or during discovery, we need to determine intent.  It is so important that we segment it as a separate step in itself.  Any marketing process whether it be branding or direct response has to have a specific intent.  What is the goal? What are we trying to do? How are we defining success?  Is the grand goal to grow the business by 15% in gross profit by the end of the year?  Or are we simply looking to brand a message to a specific audience so that we have a more recognizable image? This is extremely important to both the client and the agency, and will be continuously discussed throughout the entire campaign process from beginning to end.

3) Budget

Many times we find that potential clients do not know their budget.  They are either confused about what they should be spending or shy about disclosing what they can or think they should be investing into their marketing.  This is not helpful to the client or the agency.  There are many initiatives that agencies can undertake to get a client new exposure and leads if the sky were the limit from a budget perspective.  Although most of the time, that is simply not the reality. All small and medium-sized businesses have budgets for their advertising and that they need to adhere to – we understand this.  If the potential client takes the time (and this can be in conjunction with the agency’s help) to determine a budget they can start with and sustain for at least a 6 month time period, this is ideal.  During this time, the client and agency can make adjustments to the campaign to maximize results while staying in front of the target audience and building their message.  It also enables the agency to make the most of the dollars they can spend for the client instead of there being confusion about what the investment can be.  In addition, for the client, their planning is key.  For example, it behooves them to spend more than they can sustain because most often they cannot allow time to build results and, in turn, end up wasting their initial testing dollars by stopping the campaign prematurely.  This is why knowing the budget and being able to be consistent is extremely important for both the client and agency.

4) The Plan

The 2 most important elements for the agency to nail is the marriage of the creative and the media – this can take a little time for all agencies. Ultimately the consumers decide what will and will not make them respond.  At RMG, we strive to bring in the experts here for all our clients.  With creative, it is important that we have the best writers working on the creative whether it be for radio, t.v. or print.  Knowing the audience and selling points (uncovered during Discovery) is crucial during the writing and creative process. Also the writers must make their message compelling with the limited amount of time or space that they have depending on which marketing medium we are using.  The most effective creative is that which connects emotionally with you ones’ audience. This is a niche skill. While the creative process is occurring, simultaneously, the media strategists are going to work.  Equally as important, they are deciding which media to buy and how to buy it.  For example, this could include: radio station choices, time slots, active listening vs. passive listening, t.v. programs,  online visibility options, magazine circulation and direct mail list segments and geographies.  As nice as it would be to just plug and play, media buying strategy is much more complex.  Finding programs that will drive results, operate cohesively and all within a recipe for scalability is no small task; this is something we thrive on for our clients.  It’s complex and it’s imperative.  Creative and Media strategy are the two biggest reasons why companies should hire agencies and let the experts build their business through successful marketing.

5) Tracking & Return on Investment

Once the client and agency agree on the proposed creative and media strategy, the campaign launches. From day one, tracking the results is essential.  This gives the agency a gage on what creative and media is working the most effectively.  It provides the data to strengthen the campaign and make it more effective.  It also enables the agency and client to measure results and return on investment while eliminating anything that is not producing the desired result. How do we track effectively?  By using tracking phone numbers and specified urls on our creative, we can see exact quantity and quality of leads, in addition to where they are coming from.  Reporting this to the client in a timely manner and modifying marketing plans accordingly makes for successful campaigns for all RMG clients.

6) Adjustments

As the tracking begins, we determine when and how we need to make adjustments.  As mentioned in the Tracking and Return on Investment step, adjustments almost always occur. This is where we refine the strategy after looking at our results and data over a measured and pre-determined period of time.  These adjustments may entail new creative, the dropping of certain creative while building others.  It may involve media adjustments to a certain program or day part, while cutting back on another. Only the tracking and data will lead this process and is another reason why step 5 is so important – it literally guides this step.

7) Scaling

Once the adjustments have been made and the campaign is driving active results and return on investment, it is now deemed what we like to call, “scalable.”  This means that, if and when desired by the client and his/her budget grows, we are able to take the campaign to a larger level. For some clients, this simply could be adding more markets one at a time, while for others, it may mean rolling the campaign out nationally or globally all at once.

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