{"id":2806,"date":"2020-06-15T13:38:30","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T13:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marketingdirection.com\/?p=2806"},"modified":"2023-12-28T17:25:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T22:25:58","slug":"one-direction-marketing-firms-business-surges-amid-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/one-direction-marketing-firms-business-surges-amid-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"One direction: Marketing firm’s business surges amid pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Article appeared in the Business Observer,\u00a0By:\u00a0<\/span>Brian Hartz, Tampa Bay Editor –\u00a0Read more\u00a0about Brian Hartz<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Christy Vogel is the founder and president of St. Petersburg-based Marketing Direction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Marketing Direction, founded during the previous economic downturn, has found validation for its unorthodox business model amid the chaos of the COVID-19 crisis.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
June 11, 2020 –<\/strong> During economic downturns like this one from COVID-19, the natural inclination for many businesses is to cut costs \u2014 and such trimming often starts with marketing and advertising budgets. Consequently, ad agencies take a financial hit.<\/div>\n
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Not so for St. Petersburg-based Marketing Direction, a 10-year-old company that has thrived on a business model that provides outsourced chief marketing officers to businesses that don\u2019t have the need or budget for a full-blown marketing department.<\/p>\n

Founder and President Christy Vogel says the COVID-19 shutdown was a boon for the firm, which took on three new clients and is in the process of securing a fourth. In May, Marketing Direction\u2019s year-over-year revenue was up by 86%, she says, and the firm is on track to crack the $1 million mark, for the first time in its history, in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, what we’re seeing with some other marketing agencies out there is that overnight they’ve lost most, if not all, of their clients,\u201d Vogel says, \u201cespecially those agencies that serve hospitality and other industries that are most affected by all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the key elements that’s helped the firm get through the crisis, beyond its model, is that it works primarily with B2B clients, many of whom qualified as providers of essential services under guidelines issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Case in point: St. Petersburg-based DDP Medical Supply, a distributor of health care products.\u00a0\u201cInstead of scaling down,\u201d Vogel says, \u201cthey’re saying, \u2018No, we need to ramp up quickly.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur clients only pay for what\u2019s needed. The lead marketer orchestrates the entire team.\u201d Christy Vogel, founder and president of Marketing Direction<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While more work was coming in from a variety of clients,\u00a0that also represented a big challenge for Marketing Direction, which has 21 staff members, the majority of whom are independent contractors. Vogel, 52, says the company had to quickly devise new communication strategies for clients that underwent major transitions in the way they do business because of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

For example, Tampa-based Product Fulfillment Solutions executed a big shift, going from a supplier to retailers like Bed Bath & Beyond to selling directly to consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cA B2B company switching to B2C, it looks completely different \u2014 and your marketing is completely different as well,\u201d Vogel says. \u201cSo as business strategies are shifting, your marketing strategy would have to change at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marketing Direction\u2019s most in-demand service is what Vogel calls \u201ctaking inventory\u201d \u2014 comprehensive reviews of clients\u2019 communication to their customers. That means examining and often tweaking the content of websites, social media posts, email communications and paid media campaigns.<\/p>\n

Vogel says the most effective change for many clients during COVID-19 has been\u00a0a simple shift in tone.\u00a0\u201cIt was less about selling and more about caring\u00a0and that we have a solution for you,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was more along the lines of, \u2018We are here for you\u2019 and \u2018How are you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But unlike the economic downturn of the late 2000s and early 2010s that unfolded slowly, this change in messaging had to happen extremely quickly, Vogel says.<\/p>\n

The financial crisis, she says, \u201cwas almost like a snowball that slowly got going and then really started catching speed. Whereas with COVID-19, everything’s been much more cut and dried.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social media posts, in particular, posed a challenge in that they are often set up and approved weeks, sometimes a month, in advance. Marketing Direction\u2019s CMOs \u2014 or lead marketers, as Vogel calls them \u2014 \u201chad to look forward to what’s already set up and approved and eliminate some that were no longer sensitive. \u2026 We had to make adjustments on the fly,\u201d Vogel says.<\/p>\n

Marketing Direction\u2019s lean business model proved to be another asset. The company employs a pool of experts in nearly every core marketing skill set, including\u00a0strategy, social media, content writing, search engine marketing or graphic design. The lead marketers can then activate whatever expertise is needed to help a particular client.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients only pay for what\u2019s needed,\u201d Vogel says. \u201cThe lead marketer orchestrates the entire team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marketing Direction\u2019s clients sign long-term agreements. But instead of having them pay a flat monthly retainer fee, Vogel spends about a month getting to know a client\u2019s specific needs and then constructs a strategic blueprint full of specific line items, work-hour estimates and expected deliverables.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach line item shows how many hours it will take for our team to complete it, as well as any kind of hard costs that are involved,\u201d she says. \u201cSo each month, they\u2019re paying for exactly what we’re providing them \u2014 no more, no less. It’s transparent to the client.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a time of the coronavirus, certainty itself can be a valuable commodity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Article appeared in the Business Observer,\u00a0By:\u00a0Brian Hartz, Tampa Bay Editor –\u00a0Read more\u00a0about Brian Hartz Marketing Direction, founded during the previous economic downturn, has found validation for its unorthodox business model amid the chaos of the COVID-19 crisis.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5808,"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions\/5808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingdirection.com\/.website_ef101ba0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}