Successful marketing requires strategy, tools, tactics, expertise, and people. It also involves execution with consistency over time. Fortune 500 companies like Dell, Oracle, and EMC have the budgets and the technology to do all of these things. Jim Anthony, Founder of So-Mark, knows this from spending 30 years selling for these top companies. Throughout his career, he became enamored with sales and marketing technology but wanted to make it available and affordable to small businesses and non-profits. So-Mark, a mashup of ?social? + ?marketing? combines email marketing, content curation, blogging and social media to ?leverage technology to help small businesses grow.
To learn exactly how our methodology works go?here?
The So-Mark service uses a content marketing approach to inform, attract and engage your audience by curating and posting high-value content on a continuous basis. The key is to stay in front of the people you want to connect with and to provide them with educational and informative content that is truly valuable to them.
As a former minister and church worship leader, Jim asks the question ?Do you know why Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to?the church door in Wittenberg thus kicking off a world-changing reformation? The answer, ?because in 1517 the church door was where the eyeballs were. Today, the eyeballs are focused on small screens held in our hands wherever we go.
To connect with Jim on LinkedIn please go?here?
After 30 years in large corporate America, Jim has a new focus in the entrepreneurial realm. His personal mission is to pursue self-mastery daily to honor God, love his wife, serve his kids and bless the community. His professional focus is on crafting a service to help small businesses and non-profits grow practically and affordably.
By the year 2020, 85% of all buyer-seller interaction will happen online through email, websites, blogs, social media, and video. So-Mark will help your company?get your message out?by designing and sending emails, curating informative blogs, and posting relevant content daily to social media.Then you?ll receive analytics that shows you who is most interested in your content and your brand!These are your warm prospects.
Jim says, ?we are not sales-y, spam-y or promotional. Instead, we are informative, interesting and helpful. This approach is the key to getting your message through all of the ?noise? and into the minds of your audience.
What has changed in recent years is how people buy from you. Approximately 60% of a prospect?s buying decision is complete BEFORE they ever have the first contact with you. Jim poses an interesting question, ?How do you suppose they will explore solutions and research vendors? He knows your prospects are going to do online research. Jim asks ?What are they going to find when they research your product/service, company or industry? Will you have an active blog with good relevant content? Is your message consistent and active? Are people interested and engaged with your content and does it look like digitally your lights are on?
So-Mark was created for the small business where time and energy are stretched thin, and there is a limited marketing budget. Small business leaders often don?t have time to learn about best practices in email marketing including the need for knowledge and expertise in CAN-SPAM compliance. Without even knowing it, your IP address could be blacklisted if you are not following Best Practices.
So-Mark takes the ?grind? out of social marketing giving you time to grow and manage your business.
Bringing Clean Water to the World
So-Mark helps make an impact across the globe by bringing clean drinking water to one of the poorest and most remote places on earth,?the?Central African Republic. So-Mark is making clean water their cause and mission by partnering?with?Water For Good. Jim Anthony, Founder of So-Mark, is on the Board of Directors of Water for Good and is investing in winning the war on water poverty. So-Mark donates a portion of their profits to fund the water-well drilling and maintenance initiative. You can share the impact too. Five dollars will deliver?clean water for one person for a full year.
What Others Say
In order to compete in today?s market, small businesses must increase visibility, brand and reputation. Jim Anthony knows it must be affordable, manageable, realistic, ongoing, sustainable, consistent and effective. Don?t take his word for it. Here is what his clients say:
Marlin Jackson, former Indianapolis Colts NFL player, Super Bowl Champ, and Founder of?Fight for Life Foundation?uses So-Mark for internet marketing and has this to say, ?So-Mark has helped Fight for Life Foundation establish our brand. We started using So-Mark at the point where we had only a few thoughts written, but we did not have a clear plan for how to communicate our message. So-Mark helped us to develop the right message and to do it clearly, concisely and consistently to communicate to our crowd who we are. They really took the time to understand our organization and what we do. I am impressed with the quality emails they produce for us. So-Mark has great attention to detail, and Jim Anthony and his associates deliver a high level of professionalism. In the time we have used So-Mark, we have increased our supporters which have increased revenue.
Tom Jackson, President of?SpendBridge, has been using So-Mark for over a year and he says ?Jim Anthony and Kevin McKeown are customer-centric, creative and just fabulous. As you know, marketing is not an exact science and sometimes it is more of an art. If something is not working, they excel at brainstorming solutions. Jim and Kevin respond quickly. Jim uses the analytics to get results, and he is exceptional at strategy. Kevin sends out the emails and procures the content and is extremely flexible even willing to make changes at the last minute in an easy-going manner. We are building recognition with our clients and awareness that we did not have before. We made an attempt before using So-Mark to try and do it ourselves. There is no way we could do what So-Mark does.
Audrey Budig, Office Manager?Caton Commercial Real Estate Group? has been a client for about a year and Audrey says, ?So-Mark has helped us establish our reputation as trusted advisors with intelligent solutions in the commercial real estate arena. We cover a large geographic area as well as being involved in many subsets such as land acquisition, retail, office buildings, sales, and leasing. So-Mark has been extremely receptive to curating content very specific to each of these areas. We worked with Jim Anthony initially to establish our direction. Jim clearly understands the parameters we have set regarding what we want to focus on in our social marketing. We work with Kevin McKeown and Kim Logan on the day-to-day blog posts and newsletters. They curate and post all the general educational posts made on social media which frees us up to post about the specifics of what we are doing. Jim is especially knowledgeable about the technology and analytics which allows us to measure our engagement. So-Mark was recommended to us by an industry associate. We regularly receive compliments on our informative content and are clearly building brand awareness.
So-Mark Consulting
Jim Anthony
317-517-7282
info@so-mark.com
Polly Riddell writing under the pen name of G. Polly Jordan is The Story Teller. She is a freelance journalist writing business spotlight promotional stories and positively in love with telling the God stories.?The Story Teller