Hello
My name is Steve Doyscher and I love the roller coaster ride of marketing. Some days are filled with triumphs that are weeks, months, or years in the making. Celebrating these victories with my team is what makes all of the hard work worthwhile. Other times, when things aren’t working well, I savor working to pull people together to solve issues. The team is what makes the entire journey work for the long term in this everchanging landscape.
Kind words from a few friends
Tom Richards
Chief Operating Officer, The Bob Pike Group
B2B - 25% Growth
Bryan Delmont
General Manager, Bonfe
B2C - 25% Growth
Rich Hamer
Chief Strategy Officer, Deft Research
Strategic Support
Some of my work
The challenge
Reversing a several year trend of revenue and market share loss.
The outcome
After several years of decline, we achieved 25% year-over-year growth for 7 consecutive quarters.
The solutions
A full rebrand was required to give the company a voice and personality. Upon consulting with the client and studying competitors, I developed positioning that was bold and departed from the competition. I worked with the client to land on a tagline that embodied what the company did in two words: Engineer Curiosity. Working for the next two years with this client, those two words were the guiding star for all subsequent efforts.
Services strategy
Following the rebrand, I created a strategy that built quick wins on small engagements for this client vs. focusing on larger and potentially more lucrative offerings. Revamping email and direct mail campaigns to support these efforts paid off. Revenue increases were seen almost immediately. This was just the beginning.
Lead generation
A lead generation pipeline was needed to get people interested and continue to engage the client at scale to become customers. Valuable white papers on how to improve multiple aspects of training were developed. These were available for free download after filling out a form on tailored landing pages. Related blogs and social media posts were created to ultimately drive traffic to these pages. In addition to white papers, we created some amazing video content.
Event opportunity
Knowing that their customers were sometimes raving fans, I knew I should capture some of the enthusiasm from these people at the client’s annual conference. I hired a camera crew and interviewed their customers. The responses were huge. All captured on video and ready for use on the website. Which happened to be a project I was working on at the time.
New website
We built the website as we created the automated marketing pipeline. This was a collaborative effort to create the best performing site possible. Multiple aspects were delivered on: user experience, lead generation, lead nurture, e-commerce, and search engine optimization.
Summary
Through this entire engagement, I worked continually to improve my knowledge of the client, their sales, their customers, and how all marketing efforts were proceeding. This was invaluable as I worked with my team to track and improve results on landing pages, automated email campaigns, direct mail, website/e-commerce, and social media. Lasting results can only be derived from a deep partnership like this.
The challenge
This company needed to increase its rate of revenue growth.
The outcome
We increased revenue by 25% in year one. By the end of year two, we increased it by 31%.
The solutions
To deliver for this client, I needed to differentiate them from the competition in a seemingly commoditized industry. I began by auditing the company, interviewing leaders and employees alike. What I found was a very strong culture of service, teamwork, and genuine interest in customer satisfaction. Additionally, I learned how they delivered service to understand concrete reasons customers would opt to use them.
Television
I found a strong point of value in how the client delivered their services. I productized this service by creating a name that the client trademarked. I then created a 15-second television ad that focused squarely on this benefit. The immediate customer response was so powerful that competition tried to copy this concept.
A few months later, I found another solid point of high value in their service delivery. We refined and packaged this service under a new trademarked name. I created a new 15-second ad that received a response as strong as the first campaign.
I also developed a series of television ads to build awareness and connect with consumers. These ads featured a cute animated dog in different situations that required the client’s services. The ads were so well received that viewers called the client saying how much they enjoyed them.
Outdoor
I then developed a theme and concept for billboards that kept the client’s brand top of mind and gently reminded people that the client’s services could keep them comfortable. The billboards for this “Rest Easy” campaign ran for years and were also copied by competitors.
Website
A new website was created to differentiate the brand and encourage user conversion. I also gave prominent exposure to the client’s new popular productized services showcased in the television ads. SEO and paid advertising were high priorities for the new website. Consequently, I guided our team to deliver solid results in organic and paid traffic.
Direct marketing
Multiple channels were used to build awareness, engagement, and loyalty. I developed strategies and oversaw the development of omnichannel campaigns that used social media, email, and direct mail.
The challenge
Increase customer base and create quote requests through online channels.
The outcomes
KPIs
Increase of $750,000 in quote requests in first 6 weeks after launch of new website.
Increase of 240 new customers each month while removing the need for customer service touchpoint.
Organic traffic increase of 40%.
Website engagement increase of 70%.
New team
The company now has a high-performing digital marketing team excelling in search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, social media, email marketing, and e-commerce.
The solutions
This company’s brand needed revamping as the look and messaging of all materials didn’t reflect the values and value proposition of the company. I traveled to 10 locations across the country to learn from staff and customers what made the company successful. I then worked with leadership to create a sharp definition of the brand and unmistakable position in the marketplace. With positioning in hand, new brand standards to include a new color palette and font set were created.
E-commerce website
The company’s website was clearly outdated and needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. As I was sharpening the positioning of the company, I worked on the development of the sitemap and wireframes for a new website. By the time the positioning was finished, I had the blueprint for the new site ready. I worked cross-functionally to vet out a suitable website agency. Construction began shortly afterward.
Completing this website was a multifaceted challenge as I worked as strategist, vendor negotiator, creative director, copywriter, videographer, front end designer, and project manager. This was a complex project as, in addition to proper branding, this site needed to move people seamlessly from initial brand exploration to checkout. To do so meant navigation of pricing, 10 locations and thousands of products.
Team development
At the onset, the internal marketing and product teams’ focus was almost entirely based on sell sheets, a biweekly newsletter, and supporting trade shows. The team members clearly needed to grow into well-defined roles that would support the company’s needs. So, I began an internal training program:
- Personally train everyone on digital marketing to include SEO, SEM, emails, blogs, social media, landing pages and video.
- Augment training in these topics with structured coursework from a training partner.
- Support the team with tool-specific training to succeed.
As the marketing team was being trained, I worked with the product team and suppliers to develop campaigns to increase revenue. These campaigns used all of the aforementioned digital tactics. Additionally, workflows and training were implemented to activate the sales staff
The challenge
Large matrixed corporation needed a new team to meet growing online marketing needs.
The outcome
I built a high-functioning internal interactive marketing team that worked very well together in spite of geographic differences and corporate growing pains. Marketing teams across the country quickly chose using my team vs. outside agencies. The team was able to output over 1,400 projects per year and had high morale with zero turnover.
The solutions
As much of what this team would be developing would be new, I began by understanding the gap between the capabilities of the team vs. what was needed by the organization. The current team consisted of print designers who were converted to email designers and they were responsible only for pushing promotional emails. This was vastly different from what the organization needed.
Training and team building
After speaking with members of the product team and leadership, I prioritized new capabilities that were needed to include: video, animation, microsites, landing pages and banner ads. Another requirement was to bring these people, who were separated by thousands of miles, together and work as a solid unit. I instituted weekly meetings for the entire team to share what they learned and help each other solve issues. One important intended side effect of these meetings was to let people vent. Building a new team in a large organization going through massive change is stressful. Ultimately, creating this safe environment helped build trust which facilitated learning and process development.
Developing a process to learn
I worked with my team to develop standard operating procedures. These SOPs served two functions. The first was to cement learning. I would often ask members to create an SOP after I or another member trained them. Second, team members could learn at this centralized location. As they found better ways of working, they would share information in our meetings and update the files.