A Professional Certified Marketer (PCM), Edessa Polzin is the Chapter President of the AMA (American Marketing Association) Madison. She teamed up with Social Media Breakfast Madison this month to share her valuable insights, experience, and knowledge on The Power of One: Managing and Thriving as a One-Wom(x)n Marketing Team.

Being a one-person marketing team has its advantages and disadvantages. Edessa drives home focusing on your where your talents are best utilized and tapping into your resources and tools as much as possible and when applicable. While the results aren’t always measurable in likes, the impact of great marketing is beyond valuable.

View the event replay and check out the awesome photo recap of the event on the SMBMad Facebook page. You can also view the presentation deck here.

Marketing Crash Course: The Marketing Mix

Edessa kicked off the presentation with a quick refresher on “The Marketing Mix” and the importance of each of The Four Ps of Marketing and their importance. “For you to have something to market, you should have a product, a price, a place, and a promotion,” she said. Edessa reiterated that all are important.

The Four Ps of Marketing:

• Product – What products or services will be sold?
• Price – At what price will the products or services be sold?
• Place – Where will the products or services be sold?
• Promotion – How will the products or services be sold?

Having a Marketing Strategy Is Key

“For you to thrive and survive as a department of one, or a small team, you need to have your marketing strategy locked in.” Edessa explained The Four Ps of Marketing make up the core of the marketing strategy and to focus on making your strategy count and work for you.

Edessa showed two very relatable images of SpongeBob SquarePants, one with SpongeBob with eight arms, hyper-focused on the task at hand, and another of SpongeBob calmly sitting in a fire. She said, “Anyone can identify with this graphic.” And heads nodded.

Keep It Short, Keep It Simple

Edessa’s first tip for those working as a team of one is to keep it short and simple. Give yourself 1-3 main goals.

“I used to work for a tech company, and I was the marketing department. I did, you know – trade shows, website and content and graphics and I didn’t go to school for any of these things.” She realized to be successful she had to keep it short and simple, focus on one thing at a time, and set measurable, realistic goals. For example: Increase website traffic by 25% over the next three months through targeted social media advertising.

Edessa reinforced the importance of having specific goals where you can focus and be smart about where you put your resources which include your time, your effort, and your mental health.

She explained if you’re a small team, it can get overwhelming very fast if you are trying to do “all the things.”

Plan + Budget

“I have my goal, it’s specific and measurable and my tactic to get there. Next thing I did was plan and budget.”
Edessa explained how easy it is in marketing to get distracted and try new tools and tactics like Chat GPT. “As a one-person team, don’t allow yourself to be thrown off course by these things. Focus on the “high impact” activities.”

Here’s how she keeps herself on track:

• Tying her tactics to her goals.
• Measuring and iterating.
• Using data to make decisions.

“You need to use data to inform your decisions because otherwise what’s the point?” said Edessa.

Edessa gave an example of a marketing goal being: Increase sales of the new product by 15% in the next quarter with a marketing tactic of: Offering a limited time discount to incentivize customers to purchase a new product.

“Everyone thinks marketing as a spend department. Oh, you just buy pens and shirts, buy the fun stuff.” She took it as a challenge to prove them wrong and while it is a spending department, we are spending for a reason.

Organize & Prioritize

Edessa emphasized the importance of organization and prioritizing. While an obvious tip, it’s a very important one. “Even Shiv Roy time boxes,” she said.

Edessa organizes her day, work and personal, by time boxing. “If I don’t put it in my calendar, it’s not going to happen. I won’t remember it,” Edessa explains. “Right down to focus time and taking a lunch break.”

Calendars and lists are your best friends. Edessa strongly advises color coding since you can see where your time is being spent and distribute it more evenly as needed.

Leverage Tools & Technology

“If you leverage tools and technology, you can eliminate time sinks,” Edessa explains. She emphasizes embracing templates and automation processes like automating social media posts.

Edessa shared a live example of using generative AI to kick start her brain to generate content for social media posts using Google sheets. She added that AMA Madison members have access to over 300 templates and downloadable playbooks for free as part of their membership.

Know Your Strengths

“My mom used to call me the Jane of all trades and the master of none. Growing up I played sports and piano and I dabbled in many things and was never the master of any of them,” she states.

She recommends realizing your strengths, knowing them, and being realistic. Then decide what to be an expert at and what to outsource and what tools you need.

If you need help deciding what your strengths are she advises using “The V-Shaped Marketer” to figure out where your strengths lie. “You need to decide what you’re going to be an expert at,” she states. It’s worth your time to channel your strengths and outsource the things that others may excel in.

Making Friends – Build a Team of Helpers

“I’m what they call an extroverted introvert,” Edessa explains, “You really need your company as a professional on a small team.” She advises to ask for help and pay it forward.

One of the tips Edessa shared is to find your team and community. While you can learn how, it’s more effective timewise to find the expert to do it for you. Find those experts whether it be software, parttime help, or local contacts.

Closing Thoughts

A to Z is just A to B 26 times. Find your Z.
“Find your Z. If you’re a small team, keep doing the small chunks,” Edessa coaches, “It’s baby steps..keep it manageable and simple and give yourself grace.”

Resources

You can use the QR code at the end of her presentation to see a list of the tools she talked about and download them for free.

Thanks to SMBMad volunteer Genéve Friede for writing this month’s event recap.

NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT:

Since 2001, the Madison Public Schools Foundation (MPSF) has been raising money and engaging the greater Madison community in support of our public schools. Through programs like Teacher Support Network, we provide our schools and teachers access to resources that make learning easier and enjoyable for students. They advocate on their behalf for more school funding and connect our community to schools through things like our Adopt-a-School program, making it easy for individuals and organizations to get involved and help students.

Over the last 20 years, Wisconsin has fallen from 11th in the nation in per-pupil funding to 25th, and we are near the bottom in the U.S. for per-pupil special education funding. Compared to neighboring states, Wisconsin has invested less in our schools. And every year, MMSD is paying more of its budget dollars to voucher schools. Right now, they are calling the community to action. 

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