You’re Either in Or You’re Out

Minimal-Margin Hell

Retail is not for the faint of heart. In fact, you need great big balls of steel to even entertain the thought of going into the online retail space. Once you’ve been brave enough to get started, another concern tends to set in…a fear of the wolves at your door. The big online retailers like the dreaded Amazon, and how they have the power to push you into minimal-margin hell.

We’re here to tell you that not only is it possible to make money despite these digital giants, but there is the chance to get a big retailer sending you love notes. So what turns the wolf into a cuddly teddy-bear? It’s simple – brand positioning. But, not just any old digital marketing campaign will work.

For example, a cute ad from some tiny, husband and wife-owned Austin creative agency you found in Community Impact isn’t going to cut it. Or when you decide to hire a full-time ‘marketing’ person. Eventually, you will find yourself micro-managing this master-of-none, jack of all trades person where your job title becomes “Finding Out What My Marketing Person is good at”. You need a specific set of skills because this is not as simple as a single, sexy Instagram post once a week. 

There is no need to be afraid of the big bad Amazon (and other retailers like it). There is still plenty of room for you to build an empire around your brand. Companies are doing this all the time. So, we’ll give you a few tips for free, cause we’re nice like that.

Muscled-Out or Bought Out?

As marketing consultants we always talk about differentiating factors; ours starts and ends with you: your narrative, your journey to business ownership, what you are proudest of today and that becomes your differentiator in a highly competitive market. We are out to get you brand loyalty. What makes consumers loyal to a brand is your authenticity, and if they fall in love with your company culture, we’ve just taken price off the table.

Consumers want a story, want some personality, and want to purchase that identity they covet from you. So you better be confident as we will push you to own it in your brand messaging.

As B2C marketers our goal is to help turn the wolf into the blushing bride. We have helped many of our e-commerce clients get bought by larger retailers. In fact, it’s become something of a specialty of ours. This is where partnering with one of the top advertising agencies here in Austin, Texas, will be the difference between being muscled-out and being bought out.

No matter how dynamic that ivy-league college grad you hired is, your advertising campaigns need to be more varied and require different perspectives at the table, which is more than one person is capable of. Not only that, but after we position you with all the authority and your salesforce is getting meaningful ‘thank you for your time’ emails, the last thing you want is your ad placement to cheapen that authority.

The reason for this is simple; you need to be everywhere your audience is, at the right time, with the right message, and with the kind of sharp content that will capture more than just their attention.

You need a branding agency with digital marketing chops that can convert your unique identity into digestible media that leads people to know they will be served far better should they buy directly from your site. We are pros and making the smallest independents look big enough to start a movement. The rest, as they say, is history. If you are the 0 or 110% kind, now is not the time to skimp on having an agency that is invested in your success from day one. It’s inherent to our growth hacker mentality. In fact, it should be considered business critical to spend money on a top advertising agency that has the same bootstrap mentality and gets the kind of press you’d want for yourself, because we respect the hustle, know the hustle and know what sweat equity is. You need an agency with true respect for that.

Advertising With No Fear

Here at Rock Candy Media, as one of the best branding agencies, we are not afraid of the big bad wolf. We barely give them a second thought, that is until they are knocking on your door with a bouquet of roses. We don’t even know who our own competitors are. We are just aware every day to not sell out, and to remember we got in this to be recognized for who we are and what we believe in.

We don’t want to make the road there sound easy. It’s long and filled with hard work. But when a mistake happens, and it will, you will see what agency really cares in how they solve that problem. We operate on transparency. We use our clients’ accounts so they can see how we’re doing at any time, we don’t host your sites for extra money, we are not in it to charge hidden fees for making edits to your site (which is why we are known for the cleanest CMS’ around Texas. But when we e-comm together the end goal is not a dream anymore, it’s a reality unfolding one conversion campaign at a time.