Welcome to Marketing Search, Australia’s frontline value-driven marketing effectiveness growth platform.
We save business owners time, consolidate their knowledge focus on the strategic issues that really matter, reduce their marketing wastage, help them make better decisions, optimise their resource allocations, and stay continuously informed and up to date on the practices and cultural changes that are redefining marketing effectiveness today so they can thrive in the new experience economy.
Our overarching vision is for Growth & Search to become the default destination and practice framework for small business growth and in time decentralise the platform and its ownership to its member community.
Our overall mission is to self-enable businesses to more efficiently discover and realise their untapped hidden growth potential through promoting greater awareness of prevailing best growth practices and connecting them to
‘best fit’ specialist market solutions.
OUR VALUES
We place the customer front and center in our design and service.
We center our decisions and recommendations on value not price.
We will always maintain a humanistic approach to service delivery.
We preference genuine specialists over jack of all trade generalist solutions.
We take a candidate’s first approach to job fit.
We continually strive for greater simplicity and transparency.
We exclusively promote independent small to medium specialist marketing providers.
We see average marketing as the enemy for small businesses today.
We support the open web and strengthening of local and national Australian journalism.
We promote differentiation and distinctiveness in marketing.
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THE CUSTOMERS WE SERVE
- Australian SME owners and leaders of product and service-based companies who are actively seeking improvements in customer growth from their marketing.
These businesses will be growth-focused and generally employ between 20 to 100 persons, with turnovers greater than AUD$5M.
The business will operate across all sectors, include both b2b & b2c. - These business owners will typically be very strong technically and in their market domain however, will be time-pressed with limited strategic in-depth marketing expertise to call upon in order to optimise their marketing themselves.
- As such many will have outsourced elements of their marketing to providers or consultants to manage, or are considering doing so.
- They are discerning as to where they invest their marketing dollars and have high-performance expectations on returns.
Several will have had poor experiences in outsourcing in the past, which may have arisen from poor selection and/or management of provider performance from outset of the engagement. - Owners of these businesses will generally align and subscribe to the philosophy “do what you do best and outsource the rest” and especially when it comes to realising and keeping up with best marketing practices.
- They will be curious by nature and yet actively drive, seek out and be open to adopting better solutions to meet modern marketing demands.
- They will also recognise that their path to sustaining competitive advantage is increasingly dependent on how well they market themselves, how well they communicate, and the customer experiences they deliver.
- Technology is speeding up everything we do but the fundamental principles and truths in marketing remain unchanged.
- Businesses need to stay informed and aligned to best practices, trends, and the prevailing culture.
- Businesses should avoid having an over-reliance on one type of marketing or one channel and adopt a fuller marketing strategy.
- Businesses need to better balance their energies and investments between brand building and performance.
- Businesses need to allocate more time to good strategy formulation and a better understanding of performance measurement and attribution.
- Businesses need to re-prioritise strategy and creativity as their key competitive marketing differentiators, not technology or data.
- Businesses need to re-evaluate their sales funnel and content strategy and spend more time on retaining and adding value to their existing customers. The traditional buyer journey is no longer simple and linear.
- Strategic growth responsibility rest with the executive, not the time-pressed tactical marketers.
- You need to re-evaluate and re-think your business & brand strategy at least ever every six months to make sure it still connects.
- Your market orientation needs to be squarely on the customers and not product/sales.
- Everyone in the business takes responsibility for the marketing of the business, not just marketers.
- You outsource what you don’t do well and apply rigour to the selection and performance
management of providers.
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FAQ’s
WHAT MAKES MARKETING SEARCH UNIQUE?
Marketing Search has no direct competitor that offers a comparable level of integrated value.
Marketing Search supports a local and specialists (not generalist ) centric approach to the selection and listing of its supply chain and will always promote value over price in selecting shortlisting prospective providers. We prioritise local providers and those with high specialisation. Many competitors especially marketplaces list agencies regardless to secure listing fees. Service providers are vetted, so clients do not have to do all the leg work in terms of ensuring the expert is really an expert.
Our central application MM7 offers registered members with a ready made marketing strategy for growth and system to
identify and manage growth initiatives efficiently and at their own speed.
Members can readily post a needs brief and have us undertake the heavy lifting for them in identify their best fit solution and providers, and then if required engage additional services relating to co-ordinating requests for proposals , quoting and final selection.
Our focus and target market is a niche ( sme / marketing / local / growth-orientated / size ) and its customer base is largely defined and associated through a mutual alignment of MM7 core values and underlying marketing philosophy. Values drive behaviour. We do not seek nor wish to be a solution for every SME.
We do not provide an escrow service, favouring a model where buyers and suppliers develop their own project terms and the seller invoices the buying organisation directly.
HOW DOES MARKETING SEARCH MAKE MONEY?
Marketing Search gets paid the equivalent of a finder’s fee from providers it has searched and shortlisted for that are subsequently selected and appointed by the buyer. This is paid upfront within 7 days by the successful supplier.
Commission is in accord with the value we provide our customers and suppliers and ranges between 10% and 15% dependent upon the complexity of the search request. Service providers pay the fee upfront.
We receive a flat % non-risk contingent fee for our standard talent sourcing service.
Marketing Search negotiates and agrees on a fee for service based on an hourly rate for any additional RFP assistance requested – on briefs where budget anticipated is greater than AUD $10K and/or project brief is complex and/or time-consuming.
Marketing Search charges a small annual listing admin fee for its browse profiles of its ‘Marketing’s Magnificent Seven’ featured suppliers on its website.
Marketing Search also seeks to attract 7 categories local/national sponsorship advertising partners, with mutual not direct competitive interest in supporting its growth across the SME marketplace.
MM7 also seeks to build a limited affiliate program from which it may receive commissions for products and services that relate to each of its seven key categories.
REGISTRATION / TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Anyone registering on Marketing Search needs to be fully or in part responsible for driving the strategic growth of a business, this will invariably rest with the business owner, a member of their executive team or a senior marketer.
Multiple persons can register within any one business, which provides for a broader sharing and collaboration on growth initiatives and activities across different strategies.
The application is shared freely and exclusively to sme businesses upon completion of a simple registration process.
Marketing Search membership has no lock-in contracts — Marketing Search doesn’t need to tie people to its platform to make it viable and provides businesses with both DIY and assisted support options beyond its initial shortlisting for helping buyers undertake and coordinate RFP’s and final selection as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Marketing Search promotes fair and reasonable terms and conditions — our T&Cs do not force you to waive your rights or create an arrangement that is unfairly favourable to one party at the expense of others and is governed by local law.
OUR SEARCH & SHORTLISTING PROCESS
Registered users can post a private needs brief and expect to receive a direct response call to further clarify matters to ensure the search process is clearly defined and understood from one of our search specialists to determine readiness to proceed to the next steps.
Search requests for projects with an anticipated budget expenditure <AUD$10K are generally provided freely. Buyers receive contact directly from 2 to 3 providers, who will, in turn, may discuss their brief needs in greater detail before submitting their proposal for final approval. Buyers can of course consult with MM7 by way of general guidance in making their final selection decision.
Business’s search requests for projects with an anticipated budget expenditure > AUD$10K and /or those that are more complex and require high specialisation may be better served by requesting further support from MM7 in preparing detailed briefs and coordinating requests for proposals/quotations/presentations.
This approach is generally recommended and encouraged to ensure their buyer’s selection risk is minimised and deliverables are managed in as efficient and effective a manner as possible.
Given the risks associated with search and shortlisting of providers, we do not recommend nor support our members in undertaking this activity in isolation unless they have significant experience and knowledge of their local provider market’s capabilities.
Marketing Search’s search specialists will undertake this process in tandem with you and ensure that sufficient rigour and discipline has been applied to the process to qualify the best possible options for you, saving you significant cost and time.
A fee for service will be negotiated and agreed upon upfront dependent upon the scope of service supported needed and complexity and anticipated duration of the assignment.