A new series of advertising strategy workshops is launching in St. Joseph, Buchanan, South Bend, and Elkhart next week, aimed at helping small and regional business owners better understand how traditional and digital marketing work together in today’s marketplace.
Mid-West Family Marketing and Media (owner and operator of Moody on the Market) is inviting area business owners to attend one of several upcoming “Advantage Program” meetings, designed to share information about how the world of marketing and advertising is functioning today and how to best operate within it.
“You’ve got traditional forms of advertising and then you have the new world of digital advertising, and people see those two things as separate,” General Manager Dave Doetsch said of the program. “The fact is all of those things are living and breathing alongside one another, and we’re trying to teach businesses how to utilize those tools.”
The strategy of integrating digital and traditional is powerful. While traditional marketing still wins with building consumer trust, breaking through online clutter, and expanding reach, digital marketing is seen as a way to target a precise audience, generating significantly more interactions with customers compared to traditional marketing.
Start with storytelling
Doetsch said the first step for any business is not choosing a platform but defining its message. “People get caught up in the tactics — should I be doing this digital thing or that digital thing? Or should I be doing radio?” he said. “The truth is, ‘What is your story?’ That’s truly the first thing.”
The program focuses on helping business owners identify that story and then align marketing tools to support it cohesively.
“It has to have force,” Doetsch said. “The force is everything moving in the right direction together.”
Focusing on ROI
Doetsch said return on investment (ROI) often gets neglected in evaluating the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. He added that businesses often place too much emphasis on surface-level digital metrics.
“They get caught up in clicks. They get caught up in the data,” he said. “But the most important data is the bottom line. Who cares if you’ve got X number of clicks if your bottom line doesn’t change?”
Who should attend
Doetsch said the workshops are geared toward small and local business owners who may lack the time or internal resources to manage evolving digital platforms, including search engine optimization and the growing influence of artificial intelligence in search results.
“Today you’re marketing to the AI as much as you’re marketing to the marketplace,” Doetsch said, noting that even industrial and manufacturing firms must consider how their online presence is interpreted by search algorithms.
Where and how
Multiple sessions will be held over three days, March 10, 11, and 12, at multiple locations including Shadowland on Silver Beach in St. Joseph, the Hotel Elkhart in Elkhart, the Indiana Dinosaur Museum in South Bend, and the Grant Hotel in Buchanan. Each session will last about an hour, featuring a 45-minute presentation followed by a question-and-answer period.
There is no cost to attend, though registration is required due to limited seating. Organizers say the smaller format is intentional to allow for discussion and practical guidance tailored to participants’ businesses.
For more information, email DaveD@WIRX.com or call the main Mid-West Family office at 269-925-1111.
Disclosure: This publication is owned by Mid-West Family Marketing and Media, which is hosting the Advantage Program workshops described in this article.
