Marketing agency starts new firm to help small businesses
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A Mechanicsburg marketing agency has launched a new company to help small businesses grow in the digital marketing age.
Staci Cretu, president and CEO of Uncommon Marketing Works, said she started MainStreet Modern Marketing with a soft launch in October to help small businesses afford to market their brand without having to worry about the details.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our communities,” she said. “Most agencies don’t focus on them.”
The official launch of the new business will begin this month.
“Our agency was founded on the principle that every local business, regardless of size or industry, deserves access to professional and effective marketing services,” Cretu said. “We understand the unique challenges and opportunities that local businesses face and have designed our services to meet their specific needs.”
Cretu said the idea for the new company came from an auto shop business Uncommon Marketing Works was working with that had a small marketing budget and needed social media help.
“Uncommon Marketing Works serves start-ups and business to business companies that need more strategic decisions, more hands-on help and have larger budgets,” she said. “When speaking with clients last year, I saw an opportunity to work with others [like the auto shop].”
The new company offers clients marketing options on a website. Clients get a private portal where they answer a questionnaire about their needs. Cretu said the staff at MainStreet Modern Marketing does the rest.
“We do the marketing along with the use of AI and a partner agency that will help in some areas,” she said. “This is all done online with a choice of three plans.
Customers choose the plan that fits for them, fill out the questionnaire and then the work is managed in the portal.”
Cretu said the company is still working out the “kinks”, but the site is up and running.
In addition to the three packages, she said customers can order customized services to meet their needs.
“All communication is done through the customer portal,” she said. “It is a self-service model; however, we are available to offer help if someone doesn’t know where to start or what the best platform is for them.”
There are also free resources on the site to help customers decide how best to market their business. Cretu said monthly reports are generated to show how the marketing services are being received.
“Small businesses don’t have a big budget and most only need to market one or two ways,” she said. “We are offering this so they don’t have to think about it and can focus on their tasks.”
Because many small businesses don’t know where to begin, Cretu said her team asks the questions to get them started.
“We are taking what we built in Uncommon and dwindled it down to a budget friendly option,” she said.
The services range from $200 for a one-time service to $400 for a monthly social media campaign that offers 18 posts with graphics.
“You can build as high as you want,” she said. “A custom package to start might include social media with blogs, email newsletters and custom images along with a monthly report for about $1,300. It would increase with the number of posts and videos, which at the high end could be $3,600.”
Cretu said the most important part is to make sure the message is on point to communicate to the right audience.
“We use one or two social media sites to find the right place for the client because small businesses need help with best practices to get the highest return for their money,” Cretu said.
While the new company is expected to generate income, Cretu said she is expecting about $100,000 in revenue the first year with about 76 clients.
“Uncommon Marketing Works has seen 30% growth each year for the past three years,” she said. “We are expecting about 10% growth [with MainStreet] because it is smaller. We built this out of a need to help small businesses. Hopefully, it works.”
