Stacey McCormack
We sat down with Women to Women Network member Stacey McCormack of Musimack Marketing, and here's what she had to say…
Who are your clients/customers?
Typically our clients are growing and expanding businesses of 5-10 employees that have been in business for at least three years or have a good foundation. My clients are generally at a point where they're evolving in some way. This may mean adding new positions, expanding their office or retail space, adding a new product line, or more.
I help my clients to get across their new and improved visions. As they enter into a new phase, they need their online marketing to follow suit. It’s common for the client to have built their own website or hired it done on a budget initially, but now they're in a place where they'd like to have it professionally designed to update their brand image, key messaging and more.
Launching a brand new business is also exciting, so we're happy to take on this type of client. We've worked with clients all over the world and we're flexible to work on Zoom or in person.
How do you help your clients/customers?
We help our clients to shine online! We're here to support people in creating and expanding their brands. We do that with website design and development, SEO, social media marketing, digital advertising, and more.
What brought you to this line of work?
I've spent my whole career working to promote local businesses with strategic marketing. I spent 20 years in traditional media like local radio, broadcast TV and cable TV. During my time at The Oregonian, I was in the advertising and marketing department. Even then, we'd start by finding a customer's target audience to determine their messaging and their unique value proposition. Discovering what gives a company a competitive advantage and authority in its industry, and crafting a compelling brand image has been a core theme my entire professional life.
Roughly eight years ago, I got laid off from The Oregonian, and I thought, "Well, I've done everything I can in traditional media. The world is moving online, and it's time to get on board."
What excites me about the digital space I'm in now is the better targeting and tracking ability. In my former life selling radio commercials, you had no concrete way of knowing how successful campaigns were. If you saw a bump in your business, you couldn't be sure how to attribute that success, especially if you were trying more than one marketing strategy at a time. With digital ads, the statistics and specific results can be clearly seen.
Online marketing is also more accessible financially. Traditional media requires a substantial monthly investment to get started and even more if you'd like to cut through all the noise. Small businesses can pay us an hourly rate to learn about everything they can do for free online to start getting noticed. On top of online advertising being more accessible, affordable, effective, and trackable, edits and adjustments in strategy and messaging can be made in real-time, whereas a radio, tv, or print ad can't be changed until the next cycle.
What brings you joy?
I love the one-on-one interaction I have with clients. Watching the lightbulb go on when they learn something new and giving them a sense of confidence is a big part of what we do. Sometimes I feel like I'm an accidental business coach because I talk to my clients about their pricing structure, their products and services, and what is most lucrative for them. I'm happy to go through the steps to show my clients their actual value. My clients gain confidence to charge more by optimizing their businesses' digital presence. It is exciting to see owners realize their value when seeing how professional they appear online after working with us.
Working one-on-one with clients gets my creative juices flowing. It's fun! In the digital world, you can be whoever you want to be. You can look professional, engaging, and authoritative through your website at a fraction of the price that it would take to have a storefront on Main Street. I love to strategize new ideas and get my clients out of their comfort zones.
What defines you and your business?
I care about my clients. I take my time to be sure that I know their vision. I am not about rushing the process. Integrity is very important to me. We work with small businesses, so we take budgets very seriously, and we're careful with people's money. We are honest with our clients and have a real mission to help people. I believe we do that well.
What's the most important thing you want people to know about you and your business?
We're a marketing company first. That's important because not all web designers are marketers or SEO specialists. Many designers and developers can build a beautiful site, but a pretty website design does not necessarily mean great usability or a high ranking on Google. Our team’s extensive marketing background and SEO expertise informs every decision we make.
Musimack Marketing