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Digital Marketing - David shares his journey
133 Plays2 years ago
David leverages his over 20 years’ experience in digital marketing and project management to help business owners accelerate growth. He has worked with hundreds of business owners, from multinational CEOs and college presidents, to advertising agency owners, tech startups, law firms, restaurant chains, and retail outlets.
In this episode David shares his journey and his expertise in digital marketing.
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Transcript
Key Client Lessons
00:00:00
Speaker
I think the lessons that I learned from me would be in working with clients. It would be to be detached, like Buddha, to be detached. So don't expect the business owner to want the same thing that you want. I know what I can do, but the business owner doesn't.
00:00:27
Speaker
They may be afraid. They, you know, may think they could do everything themselves for free and may not need help or it may not be as important to them as you think that it could be.
Introduction to Entrepreneur Speaks
00:00:42
Speaker
So for me, the lesson has been to be detached. Even if I feel that the business is so great or the nonprofit
00:00:55
Speaker
Welcome friends to the Entrepreneur Speaks. I'm your host Kufi Anumaidu. Each week I host an amazing entrepreneur on their journey, successes and challenges. It is my hope that we will learn from their experiences as we all work towards living a life of passion and purpose.
Guest Introduction: David Summerfleck
00:01:20
Speaker
My guest today is a digital marketing specialist with over 25 years experience working for marketing and advertising agencies across North America. He has also worked as a marketing copywriter, a web developer, a project manager, a mediator, a political campaign consultant, a professor,
00:01:42
Speaker
and an adult education program coordinator. He has also served as a business mentor for multiple non-profits organizations.
Influences on David's Career
00:01:52
Speaker
My guest today is David Summerflick. Welcome to my show, David. Thank you for having me, Kofi. I appreciate it. Okay, so let's get to know you some more. Please tell us a bit more about yourself and how your childhood was like.
00:02:08
Speaker
Sure. Well, basically, as a child, my mother was an English teacher. My father was a military man in the United States Navy for a long time. I always grew up with a love of reading and writing and appreciation for art.
00:02:28
Speaker
So that was very important in my childhood.
Transition to Digital Marketing
00:02:33
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And as I got older, I pursued creative writing and literature in high school and college. I studied English with an emphasis in creative writing.
00:02:44
Speaker
And I worked at several internships in college where I was a copywriter, a journalist. And during that time, I realized there weren't very many positions for writers in the area where I grew up. So I began studying website design and development and SEO, which were still very new in the mid-1990s back
Early Career and Marketing Edge
00:03:08
Speaker
then.
00:03:08
Speaker
So you've talked about your childhood and the things you've studied so far. If I should ask, has anything in your childhood influenced what you are currently doing?
00:03:20
Speaker
Well, absolutely. As I said, I loved creative writing. I loved being creative. So when I did finally graduate from college, the first job that I held was at a marketing agency where I could apply.
00:03:39
Speaker
Writing but also editing and web design as well so i was one of the very very few. Commercial copy writers working at the marketing agency who also was familiar with the web design design standards and project management principles,
00:03:56
Speaker
when I first went in there. So it kind of gave me a little bit of an edge that I needed to get started working for marketing agencies. And since that time, I've always enjoyed doing work that was more creative.
Origin of 'DMS Blue'
00:04:10
Speaker
Now let's talk about your company. You have a very interesting company name. Let's start off with that. Why the name DMS Blue? And what's the story behind it set up?
00:04:21
Speaker
Sure. Well, DMS Blue are my initials. Those are the initials for my name, David Martin Summerfleck. But it's also what I do as a digital marketing specialist with over 20 years experience. So
Rebranding for Authenticity
00:04:37
Speaker
I'm a digital marketing specialist who provides digital marketing solutions to businesses and nonprofit organizations that are really focused on rapid growth.
00:04:48
Speaker
And blue just happens to be my favorite color. So it makes it very easy. So my name, what I do, and then my favorite color. And it's also me more authentically as opposed to a business name. That's me. It's what I do.
00:05:07
Speaker
And is there a story behind the setup of this company, DMS Blue? Is there a story behind the setup? Sure. Absolutely. Well, before I had a digital marketing agency several years ago, that was called Sudden Impact Web Design, LLC.
00:05:28
Speaker
And when my wife and I moved to Florida, maybe four years ago, I wanted to change. I wanted to have a different name because I felt that I had grown as a person. And I didn't want to represent myself as an agency. I wanted to say, this is me. I'm one person. I have professionals I can go to for help or hire if I need assistance. But usually I don't.
00:05:57
Speaker
So the name is more authentic. It's more to the point. It's more direct. It's more honest in every way possible. So in that light, it feels better.
Digital Shift Due to COVID-19
00:06:10
Speaker
It just it feels more authentic. It feels more open. So how long have you been running this company and how has the experience been so far?
00:06:22
Speaker
Well, digital marketing specialists or www.dms.blue has been in existence for about four years and the experience has been very good. I've had to change how I work with people, with business owners since COVID began, but I will say that
00:06:52
Speaker
I think in a lot of ways, COVID has been good for businesses because it's really shown them the importance of digital marketing, the importance of working online, of offering video consultations, of offering home delivery or pickup for goods or offering your services remotely online. Whereas before, very few businesses would do it.
00:07:22
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They could do it. The technology was there, but many resisted that change. They didn't want to do it.
00:07:29
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So now as a result of what's happened, many more businesses are open to it. They appreciate getting the higher ranking in search results. They appreciate being able to take payments online for their services or for what they sell, or they want to, they're more open to spending money on internet ads, which maybe before this, fewer businesses would do it.
00:07:59
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You know, the ironic thing is that 10 years ago we had Skype.
00:08:05
Speaker
We had Skype all over the world. People could do the same thing you and I are doing now 10 years ago, but business owners did not want to do it. They did not want to sell online. They did not want to offer curbside pickup. They didn't want to do video consultations. Everything had to be in person. They were very resistant. Now more businesses are considering these things
00:08:30
Speaker
when they really should have been open 10 years ago. And then this really would not have been such a big transition, I think. So yeah, those are my thoughts on that. I don't think it's been all bad. Okay, all right. Now let's spend time talking about digital markets and its importance to companies and also considering your wealth of experience, I'll ask you to give some tips
00:08:59
Speaker
and tricks to companies on how they can successfully implement their digital marketing campaigns. If I should ask, how important is digital marketing to business? What would you say? Well, digital marketing is very important to businesses, especially in 2022, when every business that expects
Importance of Digital Marketing Today
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to turn a profit
00:09:27
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has to have a professional online presence. So, you know, having a generic do-it-yourself template that looks like a PowerPoint presentation really no longer is sufficient. Most consumers will look at a business website and make a decision within just a few seconds if they think that you are professional or not. If your website looks like a business card or PowerPoint presentation, most
00:09:56
Speaker
I would say most smart consumers will look at that and just say, you know, I could go to Amazon, I could go to eBay, or I could go to someone else who, you know, has a more professional looking presence online and it feels more safe to them.
00:10:13
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More professional so i would say it's extremely important marketing agencies around the world spend more money. Online marketing digital marketing now did they do a traditional marketing like billboards and add to newspapers so.
Advice for New Businesses
00:10:32
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Digital marketing is extremely important. And to your other question, I think that businesses should be receptive to change. They should be open to working with experienced professionals.
00:10:47
Speaker
And, you know, expect to invest in order to make more money. And, um, I'll tell you a good way to look at budgeting for results is like this. If you wanted to put an ad in a newspaper, it would cost you several thousand dollars. The newspaper or magazine cannot ever guarantee you results. And the minute you stop paying, the ad will disappear.
00:11:18
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With digital marketing, the amount that you would invest is almost always less than what you would spend to put an ad in a newspaper or magazine for several months or to put an ad on the radio or certainly for TV. And the results keep going even after you stop spending that amount. In other words, it's usually one time. Whereas with a newspaper, you have to pay the thousands of dollars every couple of months.
00:11:49
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So I think for businesses who are afraid to invest or don't want to invest, they should realize that this is very common and this is how they can be competitive.
00:12:00
Speaker
David, with your wealth of experience, I would like your advice and tips and recommendations to a number of or category of businesses. So my next question will be, I'll create scenarios and ask for your advice on the way forward for such a business. So I will start with the first scenario. So this is a company, a small business,
00:12:26
Speaker
about to engage in, about to commence business. They are not currently engaged in any form of marketing, any form of digital marketing, and then they come to you as an expert on how they should go about it.
Advice for Established Businesses
00:12:42
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This is a business that is now starting. They come to you for advice and guidance. What would be your advice and guidance to such a business?
00:12:52
Speaker
Well, that scenario is very, very common. That's usually the most common. So what I would do with them is I would say, hey, thank you so much for your time. We need to schedule time to do a video.
00:13:09
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chat Like you and I Kofi are doing right now, but we would focus on getting to know each other Answering their their most common questions such as you know What's holding you back? What do you think? the most important problems are that you have to face and
00:13:31
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How receptive are you to change? Are you open to actually solving problems or do you just want to complain? Sometimes that's all they want to do is just they want to be able to complain to someone. So I would ask them those things. Do you have a capability to grow? If you were to get 20 new phone calls, could you handle more phone calls and more emails? So during that first consultation, we would find out
00:13:59
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Are they really a good fit in business lingo that's called scale. Can they handle accelerated growth can they scale and grow along with that or is there going to be pushback resistance.
00:14:15
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So that's the first thing that I would look at. And if those answers are positive, then we would use that first video chat to lay the foundation for the best way to go forward. And that would usually be two or three other conversations where we would collect different information before beginning work on a project.
00:14:39
Speaker
Thank you. And the second scenario is a company that has been in existence for about 10 years, but has not been so big on digital marketing. It's only form of marketing.
00:14:52
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if I can put it, has been more of outside billboard advertisement, newspaper adverts, and occasional radio and TV adverts. If they come to you for advice on how they can in this new year, 2022, how they can engage in a very strategic digital marketing campaign, what would be your advice to such a business?
00:15:19
Speaker
My advice to that type of business would be to experiment, to be flexible and open to change. I would tell them to take the budget that you had set aside for putting ads on billboards or let's say in a newspaper ad or radio ad, I would say take a percentage
00:15:47
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of what you would invest in one of these mediums and try digital marketing for six months. Then after six months, take a pause and reassess, look at your metrics, the points that define success for your business growth, what you want, what you would like to see, and just see if you're achieving the growth that you want. If you are,
00:16:15
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Is it more than what you would have achieved otherwise in these more traditional methods?
Challenges as an Independent Consultant
00:16:22
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If the answer is yes, then you know what is better for you going forward. Very rich. Now let's spend our time talking about challenges. And this is going to be a two phase kind of question. You've been in business for a very long time now. What indeed are some of the challenges you've encountered on this agenda?
00:16:48
Speaker
I would say the challenges really have not changed over all the years that I've been working as an independent consultant. When I worked for marketing agencies, you had departments.
00:17:08
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So we had a human resources department that would handle all the the payment matters. You had a sales department who that was responsible for making phone calls and emails to find new clients. But when you work independently from those agencies, it's very different. You work as a freelancer or independent contractor or independent consultant.
00:17:36
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And in those circumstances, it's very different because you have to find your own clients.
Resistance to Change in Business
00:17:44
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you have to convince them that you can help them and work past any of their resistance or denial so that you can help them. So that really hasn't changed in 20 years. The irony, I think, is that as business has changed and the economy has changed, many, many business owners, in fact, I would say most business owners,
00:18:13
Speaker
Have not changed with these situations so the challenge has always been to Identify business owners who want to grow are ready for that You know are happy to invest $3,000 if it could mean making $30,000 six months later So the challenge is identifying those business owners and then explaining to them how you could help them and
00:18:43
Speaker
After that, everything is really pretty easy, at least from my perspective, because I know how to screen them for proper fit and then onboard them where you train them in how you work and what you need to accomplish in order to meet their goals. So we need to collect information from them.
00:19:06
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you know get their their usernames and passwords for their different social media accounts we need to get any kind of images or logos or content things of that nature that they want so you can begin developing a project for them um you so the challenges really haven't changed that much okay you've you've given me um answers to some of the questions i was just about to ask but then i'll still go ahead and ask so
00:19:34
Speaker
often engage with companies different sizes and skill. What indeed are some of the general challenges they usually present to you for assistance? Well, again, I mean, most of them, most of the business owners you encounter, at least in digital marketing, they may be resistant to change. There's a lot that goes into change. There's emotional,
00:20:02
Speaker
pain on their part. There's intellectual change that they have to go through in order to be ready for change. There's monetary. They may not want to invest money to get the results that they want because they don't value the growth sufficiently, or they don't understand it, or they're not convinced, or they're not able to work with more phone calls or more emails.
00:20:27
Speaker
I remember once talking to a store owner. It was a lady who owned a furniture. It was a clothing store. Excuse me. She had a clothing store and we were talking and I said, if you were to get 10 more phone calls per day and 10 more emails a day, would you be able to return those phone calls and respond to those emails so you could make the sales? And she said, Oh no, that would be too much work.
00:20:57
Speaker
So I said, well, there's nothing for me to do then because I could get the people to call you and I could get the customers to send you emails. But if you're not going to respond to them, how are you going to grow? You'd have to hire an extra person to do that. If you're not willing to do that, then why are we talking? You know, there's nothing to do.
00:21:23
Speaker
So it's kind of like that. They have to be ready to scale for accelerated growth and want to accommodate the changes that come with rapid growth.
00:21:34
Speaker
Very
Consulting with Detachment
00:21:35
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useful. And that is whether they're a small business or a large business, because in some cases a large business could be just resistant to change as a small business. They could have more employees, but not have employees set aside to
00:21:53
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respond to more phone calls or respond to more emails. They're just not ready for that. If you have e commerce set up for a big business, but no one there to monitor it or deal with the increased orders, then it's a problem. That's true. That's true.
00:22:10
Speaker
So you've been on this journey for a very long time and I believe there are a lot of lessons you've picked up. If I should ask you, what indeed are some of the lessons you've picked up on this journey? What will your response be?
00:22:25
Speaker
I think the lessons that I learned from me would be in working with clients. It would be to be detached like Buddha to be detached. So don't expect the business owner to want the same thing that you want. I know what I can do, but the business owner doesn't.
00:22:53
Speaker
They may be afraid. They may think they can do everything themselves for free and may not need help, or it may not be as important to them as you think that it could be. So, for me, the lesson has been to be detached.
00:23:11
Speaker
Even if I feel that the business is so great or the nonprofit organization, I may feel a real heart connection to what they're doing and want to really see them do well. But again, they may not share
00:23:30
Speaker
that passion. So if they're not interested, if they don't see it that same way, you can't help them. So you offer to help.
00:23:42
Speaker
and you offer to help very sincerely, relying on your experience, and you give them the stops to help them, and then you move on. So it's always a numbers game. Out of every hundred people who may contact me, only a handful are actually really going to want that help.
Pandemic Marketing Strategies
00:24:04
Speaker
Others will be shopping around for who's the cheapest price I can find or maybe I could get them to tell me how to do it myself if I think I can and all of these other things. So businesses represent personality types.
00:24:21
Speaker
So you can't take it personally and you have to be detached. So I'm here to help business owners who want to grow, but if they don't want it or they don't see the value in it or they're confused or what have you, then I blessed them and wish them well and I'm detached from it and you have to move on. Right. So since the year 2020, we've been confronted with this global pandemic, the COVID-19.
00:24:50
Speaker
and it's really affected the way we do business. So whether large or small scale company is affected the way we do business. Unfortunately, some companies have been, if they've collapsed, others have been very slow in adapting new ways of doing things. Others are engaged in new ways by suffering. As a digital marketing expert, if I should ask you,
00:25:15
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to to profess some some solutions or advice for businesses during this era.
Setting Goals with Passion and Purpose
00:25:22
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What would be your your response? My advice would be to embrace change. My advice would be to build a marketing plan that covers and includes digital marketing where you outline
00:25:44
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what your long-term realistic goals are, and then the short-term goals or strategies that would help you get to that point. Very few entrepreneurs will take the time to do that. You can read books
00:26:03
Speaker
online. You can read articles online. You can read books from Amazon and so on that will help you develop and build a comprehensive marketing plan that includes digital marketing. My own book on Amazon, The Road to Digital Marketing Profits,
00:26:22
Speaker
Goes into explaining what digital marketing is and how it works and also helps the reader come up with a marketing plan so you don't have to use my book you can use anyone's you know anyone's book or multiple books some may be better than others and some may feel better than others for some types of readers.
00:26:45
Speaker
But it's really important to know what you want, why you want it, what you expect before you start a business, especially if you expect to change it. Before we sign off today's conversation, what would be your general advice to my viewers and listeners? We've begun a new year.
00:27:07
Speaker
everyone is on fire to achieve a lot more than they did last year. What would be your general weight of advice before we sign off? My general advice would be that having New Year's resolutions are fine, but only if you're really going to pursue it with passion and purpose and organization, which is so critical.
00:27:36
Speaker
you have to really have a daily agenda. So my advice toward achieving New Year's resolutions would be to use something like Kanban or Trello or something where you have a list of your long-term goals and then the short-term strategies you need to achieve those goals and then break that down into what your daily agenda should be.
00:28:03
Speaker
You know, are there goals that you feel you should achieve in 90 days or in six months? And then what are you going to do on a daily and weekly basis to achieve those goals and work? try to work that out and Again be open to change because if you have these lists You're going to have to go in there and kind of tinker with them every once in a while
00:28:26
Speaker
And I use agendas when I talk to people. I use a list for work that I do. And I have detailed lists of long-term goals, short-term goals, quarterly objectives, monthly objectives, weekly objectives.
Conclusion and Future Episodes
00:28:46
Speaker
And then I divide that down into what my daily goals are so that every day I'm working toward this larger goal.
00:28:52
Speaker
Thank you very much, Davey Summer Flake, for sharing your rich experience with us today on the Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast. We wish you the very best. Thank you so much. I've enjoyed talking with you. So this has been an exciting episode of the Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast. Come your way next time with another exciting episode.
00:29:16
Speaker
I am main your host, Kofi Annemedou. As always, do take good care of yourself and let's continue to keep up our life. Cheers.