How (and Why) to Hire a Pro for Your Marketing Needs

Your shop represents your livelihood—but more than that, it is a reflection of you personally, and your years of hard work and diligence. You pride yourself on providing the best customer service, expert support staff, and quality merchandise available, and if you’re lucky, your community has taken notice and your message has reached the people who need to hear about it.

But what if it hasn’t? What if your store is starting to seem like one of the best-kept secrets in town? Perhaps it’s time to bring in reinforcements—and one of the most effective ways to do so can be to hire a professional.

A common misconception is that hiring marketing firms or individual experts is only for the giant conglomerates—but look around and you’ll see that there are plenty of opportunities to partner with companies that offer affordable and creative marketing strategies capable of boosting your bottom line in a short period of time. There are even specialty teams that operate specifically within the hunting/shooting sports and outdoor markets.

Agencies can bring valuable industry expertise and category experience to the table, and many offer in-house resources from account management, extensive databases, media analysis, market research capabilities, creative and production services—to ultimately provide you with communication tools to meet your needs, your budget, and your timeline.

Marketing partners can offer a fresh perspective into the competitive landscape, your customers, and your products and will work with you to develop new ideas to effectively get your message where it needs to be heard. All too often, retailers get so bogged down in the day-to-day requirements of running a business—at the risk of getting carpal tunnel syndrome from keeping too many plates spinning at once—that they simply can’t take on the added stress of personally implementing their own marketing program. Whether it’s creating a high-impact print advertising campaign, designing compelling in-store merchandising tools, developing press materials or public service announcements (PSAs)—a strong agency or individual can do for you that which you find you can’t do well (or at all) yourself.

Lisa Moriguchi is the Advertising Coordinator for Kittery Trading Post, an independent, family-owned business that boasts the largest shooting sports department in New England. They’ve worked with several outside marketing agencies both in designing and maintaining the store’s website, negotiating media placements, and creating a series of highly effective 15-30 second TV ads. “The agency we found to develop our TV ads was able to give us ideas that we had never even thought about,” said Moriguchi. “They integrated humor, flair and creativity—it’s been great. We’ve been working with them for about a year and have heard lots of positive feedback from new and existing customers, and received tons of calls regarding the product lines featured in the ads, so we know the word is getting out there.”

The best way to begin your search is to determine your needs and goals. Are you interested in more visibility locally or regionally? Do you need to bump up your woefully outdated website that a friend threw together for you years ago? (Here’s a tip: think about removing that Y2K party information and the details of your grand opening back in 2004 from your home page…) Are you planning a big sale during hunting season or for Father’s Day that you’d like to turn up the heat on?

Once you’ve done your due diligence and taken stock of what you’d like to accomplish, it’s time to put some feelers out to invite candidates that will work well with you.

All About the Chemistry: This is a partnership, so make sure you are moving forward with someone who, frankly, won’t drive you nuts. Often an initial exploratory phone call will separate the wheat from the chaff, and help you determine if it’s a good fit. The marketing individual or team that you choose should have a deep understanding of your target market, be excited about sharing your message, and demonstrate the creative capabilities that will provide measurable ROI—while being able to play well with others.

“We found a fairly local New England area agency that fit the bill for what we needed in creating our new ads,” said Moriguchi. “They were familiar with our industry, as they are avid outdoor enthusiasts, and had even shopped in our store prior to our bringing them on board. They came with great references, and we really liked the work that they’d done for other companies. It was a nice fit—very comfortable.”

Talking Turkey: Don’t be suspicious or insulted if the agencies you talk to want some pretty direct information about your budget—in order to tailor a plan to meet your needs (and not grossly overshoot them) an agency will need open dialogue with you about how much you plan to spend. That way, they won’t be wasting your time (or vice versa) by formulating a plan that involves TV spots during the Super Bowl when what you should really be planning is a series of brief ads on your local radio station.

Remember, regardless of the size or scope of your business, it’s likely that you can benefit from a little outside help when it comes to spreading the word

about who you are and what you do. Help them help you and watch your business grow!  -SSR

Bear Enthusiast Marketing Group is a leading marketing, advertising and public relations agency serving the shooting, hunting and outdoor industries. Visit www.bearemg.com