We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelly Stark. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelly below.
Hi Kelly, thanks for joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
When clients think about “marketing,” they assume you only provide social media services! I’ve been in consulting for over 22 years and there’s so much more that covers “marketing” than social presence. I have been a Director for Marketing, analyst, sales manager, content writer, designer, professor, photographer, videographer which helped me create a full-scale strategy for businesses. I don’t think you can evaluate marketing needs within a business unless you look at multiple components of a business! At Stark Social Marketing, we look at strategy, exposure, marketing practices since inception, we dig deep in analytics & metrics, we even look at employees, business culture and brand! It all works together to give us a clear vision of their storyline! It’s just not posting things on Facebook and Instagram, it’s understanding how you audience found you in the first place, what they’re hoping to find on your website and the science behind how to keep them browsing your content!
Kelly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
People are surprised to find out I started our in Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University while attempting a minor in spanish and technical writing. I was working as a Sales Engineering Assistant building fuel cells testing systems and going to conferences which felt more in-line with the type of job I wanted. I enjoyed writing and communications, so I switched my degree to Technical Writing and Rhetoric as my major before graduation. I started a job in technical sales and was thrown into the marketing and sales position while rewriting their tech manuals. I enjoyed working with people and loved sales strategy and creating content! I was approached to work as a ghost writer and content coordinator for a property management analytics company and from there the opportunities soared! I’ve been a Marketing Director for a Property Management company out of California, I was an Adjunct Professor in English and Communications for 2 years at a Technical College and I just fell in love with business consulting about 20 years ago! Since then, I help people start or find scalable solutions their business or find the missing opportunities in their online exposure. Business owners are always skeptical about hiring a marketing strategist because I don’t think a lot of people are truly offering marketing services! It has been my job to help people create a clear vision, actionable strategy and find systems and automations that serve them. Marketing is not the same for every client. You have to look at Operations, exposure, metrics, competitor brands and the entire picture! Some days, I’m a therapist, a cheerleader; but mostly, I try to help people take the step into leaving their comfortable jobs and move them into a business that honors their dream. My message is that ANYONE can successfully have their own business if they structure, strategy and consistency is there.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My platform is empowering people to step out and make their business a possibility regardless of their financial situation. My friends that see my life understand that I’m always busy! I take every opportunity, I walk into new challenges fearlessly and I always have my hands in new businesses. When I do consults, I ask people the hard questions about what they want to achieve, the “whys” and how they intend to make their business sustainable. Sometimes their business idea just isn’t ready to be a business! Sometimes I have clients with AMAZING ideas but they just don’t know how to structure their business– that’s where I shine! If you have a solid business model and lack a plan, it’s my job to create the strategy! I’ve given people the gift of leaving their old jobs with survivable pay and thrive into a passion or mission that brings them 3 and 4X the income. AND, they LOVE what they do! Sometimes people just need to hear from me that it’s possible and here’s how we do this…
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
I get a lot of calls from people saying they are closing businesses and it’s a last ditch effort to keep their doors open. After the dreaded “C” word, it demolished businesses for people. You drive past empty stores that forced “mom and pop” businesses to shut down. That breaks my heart! I see real estate agents saying they can’t make their mortgage or business owners selling their entire inventory because they can’t afford brick & mortar. The e-commerce world has been pivoting for some time. Honestly, I think it’s wide-open for potential business owners to step into ownership with all these automated, AI systems! There’s incredible possibility!
My favorite story was a man who said, I have about 3 weeks to make magic happen or I lose my business! I looked at his online presence and realized he had been missing a massive opportunity to reach people in a targeted area who spent about 90% of their time on *one* page on his website for local pick up! It was a CASH COW and it was right there in the analytics! I’m a numbers girl and I consulted with him for a month, redeveloped his analytics & reporting, put some clear strategy and ad structure in his business model and he kept his business open! He’s making more in the past year than he has in 30 years. I have a lot of those stories and that’s why I do what I do! It’s never the end. *Never.* I just don’t believe it. But people are skeptical to reach out for marketing help because someone has taken advantage of them or they don’t understand the relevance of my skill set. It’s unfortunate! EVERYONE wears the “I’m a Marketing Manager” badge, but very little people ACTUALLY understand what marketing encompasses.
Contact Info:
- Website: StarkSocialMarketing.com
- Instagram: /kellystarkphotography
- Facebook: fb.me/starksocialmarketing
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellystarkftw/
- Other: LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/KellyStarkFTW
Image Credits
Photos by Kelly Stark Photography