Business Reflections Podcast Bonus Episode - Business Growth through Marketing with Take One Daily Media

Episode Transcript

Meredith Matics: Welcome to Business Reflections with your host Meredith Matics, and we are here to reflect on the business topics that are affecting you today and how you can better run your business. Today I have Cherie Marquez, Founder and the Creative Director of Take One Daily Media.  I'm so excited to have you on today. Could you tell us more about how you got into marketing and the media field?  

Cherie Marquez: Yes. I have an interesting backstory, so I actually started off in film and television. I worked a lot behind the scenes. I did a lot of production work. That's actually where I formed my love of storytelling. I did that for a while. I traveled the world. Got to do some really cool things. I just came more involved in any form of media really. What I wanted to do was I wanted to be able to kind of take that in some way, shape or form and apply that to a different field that would allow me to be with my family. 

So, I started working with an agency that focused a lot on experience design and helping some really big brands like Apple and Nike. I helped them in the very early, early stages before social media existed. Really just form campaigns, build relationships in different types of platforms that obviously are completely different today. I worked in an agency for a very long time and  I then branched off on my own to Take One Daily Media, but overall I've been in this space for probably over 15 years. 

Meredith Matics: Wow. What inspired you then to start your own company versus continuing with the agencies?  

Cherie Marquez: Yeah. When I worked in that big agency lifestyle, it was dealing with a lot of fortune 500 companies, it allowed me to really see many different aspects of business. It allowed me to really explore innovation. Maybe I want to say six or seven years in, I started working with some of the nonprofit companies and that really emotionally drew me to the project.  

I was always taught that no matter who our client is, we're not really working for them, we're working for their customers. The first nonprofit that I worked with was a company called Donors Choose.  Donors Choose helps teachers in public schools fund their classrooms. It kind of opened my eyes to really what media and marketing can do for someone. And that's that's basically kind of what drew me there. 

I would say there's no better sense of passion then when you're really doing something that you love, it's something you own. You can really tell that when you're working with these small businesses. I want to be able to help them as much as I possibly can. A lot of these organizations are getting their feet wet or off the ground. They need support, but they don't know how they need support. When I'm working with these different companies, I'm really forming this really great relationship with them. It's something I'm really proud of because even to this very day, no matter if they are occurring client, past client. I've had some really good relationships. 

Meredith Matics: It's always really fun to see our clients, when in a business to business setting, see our clients grow and change within their own business and to succeed. It's always a really positive thing.  Let's dive into the topic of our podcast today, which is going to be business growth through marketing. What are some different ways that good marketing can lead to business growth? Because I think a lot of small businesses get a little shy of marketing, because when we think of like a new marketing campaign, it's usually like, well, I don't know the funds for that, but let's talk about what is good marketing and how does it help a business grow? 

Cherie Marquez: I think that good marketing revolves around honest marketing. When I say honest marketing, I really mean making sure that no matter you are product based or you are service based, that you're really understanding what that foundation of your business is. Especially when you're small or maybe you're one person and you're doing it all, that you sometimes forget why you're even doing this in the first place and the values that your business has carried. Every single thing that you do, whether it's your social media, your email, how your messaging your brand, if you don't remember your values and your why, that becomes problematic.  

This happens a lot too, when you have a small business that kind of takes off and they take off so quickly that they forget about their why. I always try to tell people make sure that the foundation is always, always set and that if you ever get lost that you go back to that original foundation. 

Meredith Matics: So that's what you feel makes it a good marketing strategy is when you are authentic or honest with your presentation of your message? 

Cherie Marquez: Definitely. I'm a true believer that people kind of buy into you and your why.   

Meredith Matics: When we talk about good marketing, being honest or authentic, let's transition to the other side. What are some misconceptions or mistakes people make in marketing?  

Cherie Marquez: I think probably one of them was common things that I see is that people focus on numbers too much. That could be revenue. That could be I don't have enough followers on Instagram. It can be focused on the wrong thing. Sometimes when you focus too much on that, then you lose vision again on why you're there in the first place. When I work with my clients, I really have them focus on what their values are and really implement that in every single opportunity that they're presenting in front of an audience. Whether that is on social media, an interview that they have for PR purposes, a visual representation of your brand.  All of those different components definitely need to shine. And if you're constantly thinking, if somebody's going to buy from me, is someone gonna follow me - those kinds of things would definitely detract you.  

Meredith Matics: You bring up a good point about if you're presenting yourself in a non authentic or non honest way, you're really off brand per se and giving the wrong message and wasting your time in the first place.  

Cherie Marquez: Yeah. Looking at analytics and looking at those things are very important, but if you're focused on that, then I think you lose a lot of the innovation. When you focus too much on one thing, you limit yourself. I think as an entrepreneur and as growing your business is you have to be optimistic all the time. And some of those things like numbers and stuff can actually bring you down. 

Meredith Matics: What are some tangible tips or small steps a business could take to better improve their marketing and their business growth? 

Cherie Marquez: I always say, look at the data and look at what's working and look at what's not working. And again, this is where we're learning from our analytics. Sometimes small businesses also pour a lot of effort into something that's not working. 

Meredith Matics: I'm just wondering if our listeners will think that's a little bit of a contradiction. Don't worry about the numbers, but look at the numbers.  

Cherie Marquez: But what I'm saying though is that look at it to learn. It doesn't even have to be numbers. It can be like if I were to post something on Instagram and I were to compare one photo to another, what kind of comments am I getting? 

Am I not getting comments on another one? Why am I getting comments on this one? Like, what do people resonate with that? Using that information to really propel you forward. There's a lot of things that you actually can learn from the things that go wrong. One of the most important things that I've learned throughout my career is that all of my failures have probably been like the biggest learning experiences for me.  

Meredith Matics: I think that's epically true. We learn so much more when we've messed something up then when we did it 100% perfect and are just trying to replicate it. Well, and I think too, when you say don't get hung up on the numbers, but evaluate the data,  even though they sound contradictory, I think from the way you're explaining it, they're almost two different elements. Like don't sit there and like stare at it the whole time but look at it in comparison to which posted better or which picture did better or which one got more engagement. So I think you bring up a point too, of utilizing the data in a creative standpoint versus an obsessive they like me, they don't like me.  

Let's flip back and go back into today's topic a little bit more. We got a nice little tangent in there that I think was really useful. The main component though, of successful creativity and marketing is to really think outside the box. I was curious if you had an example of something that was successful that took some risk and some extra creativity that ended up working.  

Cherie Marquez: Yeah, so there's been a couple of examples that I can think of where we actually use the pandemic as an example of growth. A few of the companies that I work with were in a place where they were able to help the others that were being challenged by the pandemic. 

They wanted to be able to create some campaigns out of this. And, hopefully be able to obviously elevate themselves, create brand awareness, and then at the same time, be able to give back to some other businesses or people that were struggling.  

One of the interesting things is they set out to have a certain campaign thinking that they were going to go into this, and it was an influencer campaign, and when they executed that, it actually created a different kind of flow that we were not expecting. What happened was it created this massive amount of user generated content. We were telling organic stories and that's all we were doing. We were basically telling stories of all the healthcare heroes that were out there and what we were looking for was we were looking to give out product to these healthcare heroes. People were coming in and flooding us with all these different stories of how great someone was. It was probably the most beautiful thing that ever seen because it was community driven. 

It was definitely brand awareness for the company, but it was a whole different type of brand awareness. So, it really brought a lot of empathy and emotion to the brands. What we received was not what we were expecting, but what we did was we acted on that in a very different way. We had to think really quickly and we had a really great result from it.  

Meredith Matics: I think that's awesome and amazing. Definitely able to generate something that brought a higher value that will be out there in the world. Something that's more of a movement based and that's something that's really hard to do. And I don't think a lot of companies ever get that opportunity to be part of movement. 

 If we have a small business that wants to funnel some of their marketing resources like money or time towards one particular area, what is your biggest recommendation for them? 

Cherie Marquez: Well, I would say that a really good foundation is important. A really good website presence is really important. Making sure that your website is completely optimized as much as possible. I know we have apps. I know we have social media and things like that, but at the end of the day, people will still go to your website. No matter if they are purchasing your product or reading an about us page. It also connects to all of those other elements, right? You can't have email marketing without drawing back to a website. 

You cannot have social media without saying click the link up and above you can't have all of those things without that foundation. I would say that would be something really good to invest in. And then everything else can be tiered out. 

Meredith Matics: I think that's true. You don't have a website in the world of business. You kind of don't exist. Because I work in medical, I've dealt with some doctors that are like, why do I need a website? And I'm like, trust me. If your patients can't find you on the internet, they don't think you're real.  

So as we close up, what is one piece of advice that you've received that you want to share with other small business owners?  

Cherie Marquez: I would say Always embrace your lived experiences. Whether that is a certain campaign that you're running, whether that's a relationship that you have with a client every single one of those moments is going to take you to the next step. I know that there's so many different resources out there on the internet. There's a bazillion different guidelines and webinars and all of those kinds of things, but nothing will ever compare. You can definitely take those things embrace that, learn that, but it's not going to be the same as the lived experience. 

Make sure that you're mentally, always taking notes when you're meeting somebody for the first time, when you're learning about their business, when you're learning about their struggles and see how you can help them. Every single company or business that you encounter with is going to be different. It's going to be unique.  You're gonna learn something from that bad or good, you're going to learn something. It's definitely going to take you to the next step.  

Meredith Matics: Yeah. And Cherie, if our listeners want to learn more about you, where can they find out more?  

Cherie Marquez: They can go to my website, which is take one daily.media, or they can find me on social which is again take one daily media. And then I would say lately, I've been on clubhouse a lot.  

Meredith Matics: Thank you so much, Cherie for coming on. It was a pleasure having you.  

Cherie Marquez: Thank you so much, Meredith. Happy to be here. 

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