Danielle Reid founded the boutique marketing agency DR & Associates in Memphis, Tennessee, to help out clients who want to improve or resolve challenges in the marketing, public relations, and branding aspects of their operations. Their clients cover a wide range of industries worldwide. These clients include “small business owners to government and military organizations.”
At DR & Associates, Danielle Reid and her team also provide marketing, branding, and PR solutions to both startups and high-profile corporations, because they know that the same marketing challenges occur for every company in every industry. These industries also come from several different fields, from “auto, fashion, accessories, beauty, non-profit, health & wellness, banking & finance, entertainment, food, beverage, wine & spirits, tech, culture, and diversity & multicultural brands.”
For her work, Danielle Reid and her team bring a combined 30 years of experience into helping companies rise to the top of their industry thanks to smart and practical marketing strategies. Their practice helps their clients provide services that match the ideal clients in their minds. DR & Associates believes in the voice of their clients, and engaging with them truthfully and honestly.
Danielle Reid leads a team that is not afraid of telling their clients the cold and hard truth. With the expert help of DR & Associates, your company will be able to tell its story to consumers, engaging them to become loyal customers. Your customers should recognize who you are, and they should believe in your message. For your part, your company should also be able to tell them why they should believe in what you’re selling.
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Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Danielle Reid: One of the things that makes my company stand out is that I believe in being honest with clients and let them know I am not in business to only take their money: I am in business to help them become more profitable by becoming a partner in success. Many agencies don’t truly care about the success of their client, only that the invoices are paid. I believe in being transparent and pivoting marketing strategies for success. If something isn’t working or doesn’t have the impact that the client is looking for, I change tactics; I don’t allow them to continue to waste money that isn’t providing a positive ROI. While completing my MBA program, I was in a session with another agency leader who stated in so many words that even if they were not an expert in a certain area of marketing, they never would tell the client and would take their money while providing an excuse for not meeting expectations later. While that sounds good, there is nothing wrong with letting a client know that someone else on your team is more experienced in that area than you. I actually gain clients by telling them about my experiences with unethical “professionals” and the reason why I started my business.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Danielle Reid: Take mental breaks, don’t let anyone place a limit on your learning or creativity, and don’t become stagnant in your position. If you have the opportunity to travel, don’t be afraid to apply for positions in marketing that are outside of your city. Working in different cities, states, regions, countries, and areas of the world help you to gain knowledge that others you will be competing against for positions in the future will not have.
Jerome Knyszewski: None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Danielle Reid: One of my former Regional Managers that I worked closely with on a marketing campaign and remained associates with after actually gave me much career advice when I was deciding on the next steps in my career and expressing my frustrations with marketing on the corporate side. One of the best pieces of advice that he gave me was not to just accept a position based on the pay and that I had to find what made me truly happy.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. The Pandemic has changed many aspects of all of our lives. One of them is the fact that so many of us have gotten used to shopping almost exclusively online. Can you share a few examples of different ideas that eCommerce businesses are implementing to adapt to the new realities created by the Pandemic?
Danielle Reid: For most brands, while they already had an eCommerce business, many of them began to see the need to actually place an increased emphasis and investment into eCommerce, as some firms were still focusing more on brick and mortar operations. In an online world, there are many options for purchase, so brands began to focus on a multi-channel strategy including increased social media content and engagement. One of the ways that some of my clients with eCommerce businesses made sure to stand out among the competition was eliminating shipping charges, offering price matching with certain competitors, and creating loyalty programs for consumers to be rewarded for brand loyalty. Other simple ways that some of my clients adjusted during the pandemic were to communicate in different ways with consumers by utilizing text marketing, and even looking to decrease shipping and transit times by utilizing different shipping providers.
Jerome Knyszewski: Amazon, and even Walmart are going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?
Danielle Reid: Regardless of the industry, there will always be larger competitors. While many retail companies and eCommerce companies can’t compete with the prices of products coming from China, they can build brand loyalty in other ways. Brands and firms must always know who their target consumer is and how to reach them. Know what products the target consumer currently uses, and where they currently get their products from. Highlight what makes your company different. Do you believe you offer the best customer service or the best quality product? Highlight that in your brand messaging at all times to build trust and brand loyalty. Smaller retail companies and smaller eCommerce companies can’t always compete with Amazon and bigger companies, but they can ensure to have brand loyalty by ensuring to have a strategy that they implement successfully to reach their target consumer.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start an eCommerce business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Danielle Reid: The most common mistake is wanting to mirror an eCommerce business from another eCommerce business in another business segment or industry. Some CEOs and founders will see websites such as Amazon and want to have their website to look like that, not understanding the time, investment, and overall manpower that has been put into such a project. Other errors I have seen with CEOs and founders is not having a clear strategy on how entering the eCommerce business will support the goals of their organization, or even a clear strategy on how the eCommerce business will truly be successful. Another major mistake is that CEOs and founders think about what they would like to see on a website instead of considering what their target consumer would like to see on a website. Entering the eCommerce business is more than just having a website that customers can access, it involves multiple parts and support from professionals. Without having a successful marketing and business strategy to support an eCommerce business, it will ultimately fail.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running an eCommerce brand tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Danielle Reid: The most underestimated aspect of running an eCommerce brand is how to actually direct customers to the brand. I have provided consultations where the brands could not figure out why they were not receiving traffic on their eCommerce websites and if they were receiving traffic, could not figure out why consumers were not likely to purchase. The brands had done no research on implementing any type of digital marketing efforts alongside the launch of their eCommerce brand or didn’t understand their target consumer and how pricing was a turnoff. In the eCommerce world, you have to always look to remain competitive and consumers don’t know your brand exists unless they find you: therefore, investing in marketing to find your target consumers is critical.
Jerome Knyszewski: One of the main benefits of shopping online is the ability to read reviews. Consumers love it! While good reviews are of course positive for a brand, poor reviews can be very damaging. In your experience what are a few things a brand should do to properly and effectively respond to poor reviews? How about other unfair things said online about a brand?
Danielle Reid: Always respond to every review and comment, including negative and poor reviews. Most brands make the mistake of only responding to reviews and comments that speak about their brand in a positive manner, however, consumers will always look to see how brands respond across the board; especially when an issue arises. Online platforms are an extension of a brand’s customer service and can cost brands if not implemented and managed correctly. If a customer is not satisfied, apologize for the problem and ask how it can be resolved, along with asking for future business from the consumer.
Jerome Knyszewski: You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Danielle Reid: That is such a hard question, as I always have different ideas in my head to implement on different scales, however, the movement that I would like to start would be a program to teach proper communication skills to children. I believe one of the ways that many adults are not successful is that often time, they don’t properly know how to communicate on a professional or personal level. While many of us have the opportunity to take communication classes on a college level, many never are granted that same opportunity. Communication skills are crucial for success in life, and also assist with conflict resolution or preventing a conflict in itself due to miscommunication.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Danielle Reid: I am active mostly on Instagram and LinkedIn. I can be found on Instagram under @IamDanielleReid and on LinkedIn.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
