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Like many marketers, David Reimherr began his marketing journey in sales — cold calling and selling magazines in his early 20s.
4But since then, David has been all about marketing. He founded and has successfully grown his own marketing agency, Magnificent Marketing. In conjunction, he runs a high-performing blog and podcast and collaborates with TOP industry experts.
Today, David is sharing what he wants you to know about marketing.
Location: Austin, TX Current Role: Founder, Magnificent Marketing One word that best describes how you view the state of marketing today: Ever-changing Tell us a little about your background and how you got to where you are today.
My story started when I was 21 years old working as a college magazine advertising sales rep.
I ended up having some success selling, so the owner of this company asked me to come back at 22 years old to head up the sales and marketing function for a commercial printing company that he was looking to start up. Truly, I wasn’t qualified to be the VP of anything at that point, but I always had an entrepreneurial mindset so I decided to go for it.
The first couple years was a bunch of “dialing-for-dollars” and lesson-learning. Over time, I ended up getting on a nice roll and things were humming along. We were growing at a nice clip. Eventually (after about 8-9 years), we got to a point that we needed to expand the sales force and concentrate more on branding, marketing, and bringing in leads, so I promoted my then-assistant to head up sales, and I tasked myself with learning more about marketing and branding.
So, I did what most of us do when tasked with something new, and I started learning from the best marketing experts around. I still remember my old assistant/new sales rep coming into my office and almost fainting when she saw my legs propped up on my desk as I was reading a marketing book. I had always moved at such a fast pace with my sales activities that it truly was a shocking site to see me like this. One book and marketing post led to another, and we ended up formulating our marketing plan which was built around a content marketing strategy (thanks Joe Pulizzi!). And if we fast forward 5-6 years, we ended up flipping the sales funnel from 95% outbound sales to 90-95% inbound sales.
Fast forward another 5-6 years, and I got the itch and feeling that that I needed to start my own thing — so I made a deal with the owner of the company we helped grow and took my team and started Magnificent Marketing.
What do you wish marketers knew (but you’re pretty sure they don’t)?
That we live in an abundant world and not a scarce one. There will always be enough to go around for everyone so there is no need to compete with each other. We should always help one another as it only helps ourselves in the long run.
“We live in an abundant world — there will be enough to go around for everyone. We should help one another as it helps ourselves in the long run,” says @DavidReimherr CLICK TO TWEET
What do you see as the biggest challenge faced by marketers today?
Definitely showing ROI as well as attribution for specific and overall efforts. As marketers, we all know that marketing drives the bottom line — but it’s sometimes a challenge to prove this, which leads to knee-jerk reactions and putting a hold on certain activities that are actually working.
And for our own knowledge, we need to know what is working best. With so many touch points that lead up to a sale or inquiry, it’s a challenge nailing this down. I don’t think I am alone here, as I constantly hear about the need to solve this.
How can they overcome this challenge?
There are companies popping up that are focusing on attribution, and we currently are utilizing a software that will help clear up these muddy waters. I do think it is going to take higher level technology in order to accomplish this because free tools like Google Analytics do not paint the full picture.
If you could tell all marketers just one thing, what would it be?
To always always, always continue to learn more. The marketing landscape changes at a faster pace than pretty much any other industry in the world. And I think you need to do more than just say you want to continue to learn and stay on top of things. You’ve got to work this ideology into your weekly to-do list. I also strongly suggest passing this mindset along to your entire team because the smarter they are, the better it is for your company and your clients. And to take it one step further, I would work into your budget at least one high level marketing conference per year for each of your teammates to attend.
#Marketing changes at a faster pace than any other industry. Do more than just say “I want to learn more” — work it into your ideology, says @DavidReimherr CLICK TO TWEET
Technology has already transformed marketing in so many ways. How do you see tech continuing to revolutionize the marketer’s role?
The best uses of technology are to save time and provide insights. I think as technology continues to evolve, it will continue to provide value in these very important areas. However, technology does have a trap door of sorts in that if you rely on it too much, you lose your creative edge and move too far away from your gut. So, you always need to be very careful about utilizing technology in the right ways so as to free up yourself and your team to do the real magic.
What are you currently reading, or what would you recommend for marketers?
From a marketing standpoint I just read Julia McCoy’s Practical Content Strategy & Marketing and I HIGHLY recommend it. From a personal growth standpoint, which I believe helps me be better at what I do, I just read Robert Christiansen’s The Bug In Your Brain and am currently reading U.S. Andersens’ Three Magic Words.
Fill in the blank: I’d love to see _________ answer these same questions.</strong Gini Dietrich
Is there anything else you’d like to add that might be interesting to marketers?
To always think of other small things that you can do to help your clients when you are working on something specific for them that will move the needle and hence add more value with little additional effort. For instance, if you are helping a client with their e-commerce needs, make sure they are also focusing on continuing to market to their current client base. So, adding email marketing along with some simple automations after a new client is acquired might greatly help them. And if you are executing a content marketing plan for a client, with a little additional effort you can achieve massive SEO and organic benefits for them by applying best practices. These tie-ins will only call for a little bit of extra upfront and ongoing efforts — but the dividends can be what puts them over the top.
David Reimherr is the founder of Magnificent Marketing, a full service marketing agency with a specialization in content marketing, SEO, email, social media marketing, advertising.
He brings 20 years of sales, marketing, strategy and branding to the table. He is a lover of dogs, marketing and life!
