Meet Local Search Marketer: Anna Curry

4 Reasons I Might Be The Right Marketing Consultant for You

Yes, it’s true. You can likely find a marketer or marketing agency in your city, your neighborhood, or maybe even next door.

Yet, marketers and agencies are not created equal. Marketers can specialize in industries and different types of marketing. They will also all bring different types of success stories.

If you are…

1. Interested in attracting a local customer
2. A small business in the startup growth stage and
3. In the Wilmington NC area

I’m going to understand a lot of your needs. But, a good partnership fit needs more than that. Discover 4 reasons why I might be the right marketing consultant for you.

Reason 1: I’m An Expert in the “Start” of Startup

My marketing expertise is in the “start” of a startup.

I actually began my marketing career helping launch ordinary people’s ideas. I worked with a PBS show called Everyday Edisons (pre-Shark Tank) and we traveled the country holding casting calls looking for the next great ideas. 

A couple of years in, a sister company Edison Nation launched and I was tapped to lead the Direct Response division where independent inventors’ ideas were selected for commercialization. My team was responsible for developing and market-testing consumer product goods.

Proven Product Launcher

In this role, my team and I selected hundreds of ideas. Of the hundreds of ideas, we would ultimately test upwards of 60 products on TV to see if they had mass-market viability to launch into big-box retailers. ⁠We were testing the products with “But, wait…call now” type of commercials. 📞⁠ 

During this time, we successfully sent 8 to big-box retailers. The green lights for the 8 were definitely a series of career high-fives! Mass market viability by definition means there’s not just a niche of people who want the item but masses do which for an inventor feels like winning the lottery. One of which was my own product called Hot Huez. Hello, tween hair fans! 💁🏼‍♀️⁠

But, as a Marketer, it was the disappointing losses that gave my marketing career the perspective it needed. I walked away from the professional opportunity having learned and witnessed firsthand many of the barriers to growth during the “start” phase of a startup.

Reason 2: I’m An Auditor

I bring the eye of an auditor to consultancy. Identifying potential marketing barriers for business growth comes easy at this point in my career as the hiccups many businesses face in terms of marketing in the first 5 years are often quite similar.

Helping business owners avoid unnecessary setbacks towards growth, specifically when it comes to decision-making with marketing or advertising initiatives, is something I love to do.

For example, if you are a young business and planning to spend your entire advertising budget on a yearly initiative, I might recommend that you consider an advertising strategy that is more diversified until your revenue is healthy enough to be “relatively” unfazed if it were to drive zero sales and be a total flop 🤦🏼‍♀️ of a campaign.

Spotting Pitfalls Before They Happen

Marketers need to be testers but not without first weighing the risk versus the potential reward for clients. Spotting pitfalls before they happen for my clients is my way of saying I don’t green light initiatives for my clients on a whim. I audit the opportunity looking to see the potential for more upside than downside in order to recommend that you pursue a marketing or advertising initiative.

Reason 3: I’m A Launch Advisor

Getting ready to launch is an exciting time! 🚀 Helping a client launch their business, open a second location, or kick off the next campaign gives me energy and produces competition-like adrenaline that I have grown to love. I’d like to think these days I’m a pretty good launch advisor.

Commercialization Strategy

The commercialization strategy I utilized to take an idea from a sketch on a napkin to a retail launch is the same style of strategy I take with clients.

It’s well-thought-out, never haphazard includes planning roadmaps, and is not without boots-on-the-ground management.

As an advisor, I own and stand behind the launches I recommend.

Reason 4: I’m A Deep Diver 

In order to develop a local strategy that’s relevant and tied to goals, I believe you’ve gotta dive into the weeds to learn the business.

Into The Weeds

I invest the time at the outset of an engagement to go into the weeds of your business prior to road-mapping a strategy for how to position the business within the local market for revenue success!

It’s this deep dive that gives me the intelligence to understand your brand’s differentiation. And, differentiation is a key element of the strategies I build for clients. Without it, your ideal customer is more likely to change the channel, walk to a different aisle or scroll on by.