Total Marketing Solutions is a full-service marketing and advertising agency dedicated to helping small- to medium- sized businesses reach their goals. We provide a range of services and specialize at leveraging Social Media, Video Content Creation, Websites, Traditional Advertising, and Branding.
Owner | President
Erick grew up in Lynchburg, VA and graduated from Liberty University. He has been a seller and marketer his entire career. After gaining strong experience in broadcast advertising he accepted a position at Banker Steel Company where as Marketing and Sales Manager he contributed to the growth of that company from 8 to 9 figures in annual volume. He managed all marketing efforts and was responsible for the Mid-Atlantic sales territory, selling over $100MM in steel contracts. When he’s not working, Erick enjoys spending time with his wife Cassie and their five children.
SKILLS
AND
EXPERIENCE:
We are privileged to work with some of the best talent and vendors in the industry.
Digital Marketing Strategist
Owner
Senior Video Content Producer
Technical Writer
Project Manager
By providing an essential group of marketing services in a high-quality capacity, we are able to help your business with all of your strategic communication and branding needs. From websites and social media posts to print and promotional products, we have you covered.
From strategy to content creation, including copywriting, images and graphic design, we can handle every aspect of our client’s social media marketing. We know how to leverage the right platforms and content to produce the results you are looking for. We can also manage social media paid advertising campaigns including custom audience building, conversion tracking, and reporting.
We provide our clients with professional video production services for everything from TV commercials and custom branded video content, to motion graphic videos and corporate explainer videos. We handle all the creative aspects such as copywriting, storyboarding, on- location production, graphics, and post- production.
We have a proven process of delivering high-quality websites that our clients love. We provide design, copywriting, custom coding, hosting, maintenance, and on-site SEO. Our ongoing maintenance plans have been a hit with our clients – it’s almost like have your own web development team ready to jump on any project at a moments notice.
We love helping our clients come up with a creative vision for their brand. We will help you with concepts and final artwork. We’ll even consult you on naming your business or service!
Whether it’s a commercial or a billboard, we have experience with handling the creative as well as media buying for your campaign. We also offer brochure and business card design and printing.
Need advice on the right CRM platform for your team? Looking for ways to increase your company’s closing ratio? We’re here to help! Our rates are affordable, and our clients always come away feeling like they received way more value than what we charged for.
Web Design and Develpment
and Video Content Production
We were approached by Veritas Steel to refresh their website and soon discovered that a comprehensive approach was needed that would include photography, copywriting, video production, and more. Oh, and it all had to be substantially complete for an annual shareholders meeting that was less than 8 weeks away! The new website and company video had to have a tightly- focused message that communicated the company’s values and unique position in the marketplace with relevant design and strategy.
Within days we had a new mobile-responsive web design for approval, while simultaneously developing the assets for video production. Taking a unique approach of designing and coding the new site before all the images and content were finalized enabled us to deliver the website and video on time.
We achieved exactly what the client was looking for – a website that can speak to customers, vendors and potential new hires for recruitment. With the new clean and modern look along with a comprehensive video strategy enabled an emphasis on unique skills and an impressive project resume. We also delivered on other KPI’s such as faster load times and a consistent site maintenance plan with regular updates, back-up and security. This project also led to TMS being entrusted to handle their social media strategy along with many other services including print advertising, and graphic design.
Graphic Design
and Printing Services
Acquiring a business with a well-known name but with virtually no branding presents a peculiar challenge. On the one hand, you’ve got a great reputation, but on the other hand, any sudden moves in the way you present the company could result in miscommunication and damage to the brand. When US Erectors acquired Memco Erectors, they approached our team to come up with a new logo and corporate identity package.
Working with US Erectors corporate team, we came up with 3 options for identity and helped them at each stage to narrow it down to the final logo. We also provided the new printed materials needed for this corporate makeover, including business cards and stationery.
We were able to research and come up with a tightly-focused way to convey the longstanding reputation of Memco while also creating new branding that was consistent with their legacy and the long-term goals of US Erector’s overall strategy in the marketplace. Additionally, we created a custom online store for their team to manage the internal procurement, including printing and shipping, of printed products such as business cards.
Photography
and Graphic Design
With private aviation, the message may seem simple, but how you deliver it can be arduous since aviation is a well-regulated industry. Fly305 needed a firm with the right experience and a skill for onboarding to specific technical requirements for their marketing materials in order promote their dry-lease partners.
Total Marketing Solutions worked diligently to create the right message that focused on the important key performance indicators such as range and capacity. We also provided on-site photography, videography, consulting, and graphic design, all to deliver an elegant e-brochure targeted at high net worth individuals and businesses in need of private charter flights.
The client almost immediately landed a new charter client and developed other relationships that worked well for their dry-lease partners. It worked so well, in fact, that they just added a new plane to the fleet!
Video Production
and Social Media Marketing
A member-owned credit union is not just another bank, especially one like Beacon Credit Union, that serves and supports our local community. That’s why Beacon found themselves needing an innovative way to communicate their unique value proposition to prospective members as well as the community. They wanted a strategy which encompassed all aspects of digital marketing, while also building relationships with key stakeholders that could drive new business in both consumer and business lending.
We created a new content marketing strategy that leveraged the power of custom video production and social media, and “Make it Home” was born! We essentially created a video series and social media strategy that featured Beacon’s community involvement while showcasing key individuals that could drive a strong referral base for consumer lending. We provided scriptwriting, talent, video production, strategy, social media content, and more.
The Make it Home campaign resulted in new relationships, new business, and thousands of video views on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. We also developed other digital campaigns including OTT (Over the Top), locally delivering video pre-roll ads on top rated programming as well as other single projects including trade show advertising and consultation on social media strategy.
Web Design, Print Design,
and Video Production
Banker Steel Company has an ever-expanding business model that includes not only winning large projects but also bolting on new subsidiaries in order to deliver even more value to their customers, all while remaining competitive. With this new model they needed a way to communicate this vision to their customers, vendors, and associates.
Total Marketing Solutions provided services for a completely new campaign – One Steel Source! We created a new website, motion-graphic video, email marketing and social media strategy. We also came up with a unique and targeted direct-mail campaign that included designed and printed pieces along with an sms texting strategy. TMS has a history with Banker Steel of providing social media content marketing, video production, recruitment campaigns, and other services.
We successfully delivered the campaign assets while maintaining a cohesive message that communicated how all of the various Banker subsidiary companies can work together to deliver maximum value to Banker’s customers in the large-scale construction market.
You’ve heard the phrase “talk is cheap”? Well in marketing and advertising there’s a lot of cheap talk about data, targeting, and clicks. That’s because the ad tech has never been more accessible and inexpensive. Never before has so much data on your prospective customers been available to you just for the cost of some…
You’ve heard the phrase “talk is cheap”? Well in marketing and advertising there’s a lot of cheap talk about data, targeting, and clicks. That’s because the ad tech has never been more accessible and inexpensive. Never before has so much data on your prospective customers been available to you just for the cost of some digital advertising. Targeting on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have the ability to get your content in front of specific segments and “lookalike” audiences to deliver highly efficient campaigns. We know because we do this for our clients regularly.
But, data and targeting isn’t enough to get you where you want to go.
All of the “conventional” wisdom of the last 5 to 10 years has been to invest heavily in data, targeting, and technology while completely ignoring branding, storytelling, and creative work. That’s because targeting is easy (and cheap) but branding and storytelling is not. Here’s the good news: investing in branding, creative messaging, and storytelling pays back a much better dividend. It was hardly surprising to me that Forbes published a recent article on marketing trends for 2020 and declared “Marketers Will Rely Less on Data and More on Great Storytelling”. More on that here: https://bit.ly/2tguvdE
That’s why it’s important to rely on a marketing team for your business that understands your story, your brand, and the marketplace you serve, not just the prevailing technology of the day. Clicks are cheap, but storytelling is what matters.
Several years ago, one of our clients tasked me with having their website redesigned. It had been years since any updates were made, and they needed the site brought into the modern age, and quickly. They also decided on implementing social media content marketing (something that was new at the time) mainly because none of…
Several years ago, one of our clients tasked me with having their website redesigned. It had been years since any updates were made, and they needed the site brought into the modern age, and quickly. They also decided on implementing social media content marketing (something that was new at the time) mainly because none of their competitors were doing it, so it was an easy low-cost way to stand out. The point of this story is not that we came through with a great looking website (we did) but that we, along with our client, discovered some very positive unintended consequences along the way. When you launch a new website, you expect a few things to happen – compliments, increased traffic, a bump in sales, but sometimes you get surprised. Turns out they were in the middle of recruiting the next executive to lead their sales efforts during this time. I later learned from the successful candidate who told me that one of his deciding factors in taking the offered position of Vice President of Sales was that he was so impressed with the website because it projected the image of a company that shared his values, was light years ahead of it’s competitors, and matched the expectation he had based on my clients reputation in the marketplace. That sales executive went on to develop the largest sales backlog in company history and increase annual revenue by over $200M. Make sure your website and your social media presence reflects who you are and where you want to go. Marketing matters!
If you are like me, you’re constantly asking yourself “Why am I doing this?”. For me, I’m constantly thinking about why I endeavored to help others with marketing. Often, I find that many businesses don’t even really understand what marketing is or its importance to them. The truth is that marketing is everything right now….
If you are like me, you’re constantly asking yourself “Why am I doing this?”. For me, I’m constantly thinking about why I endeavored to help others with marketing. Often, I find that many businesses don’t even really understand what marketing is or its importance to them. The truth is that marketing is everything right now. Marketing touches every aspect of your business, from employee engagement, to sales, to the bottom line. Because the tools have never been more affordable there is a huge opportunity to leverage the power of marketing for your business. But, there is a lot of noise out there. Before you rush to get a new website, implement that social media strategy or get that video presentation idea off the ground, make sure you are asking yourself – why? What is the unique problem or problems you are trying to solve? That’s where Total comes in. We are the solution to help you solve those problems. It’s important that you tell your potential customers what you do and what you stand for. Otherwise you are doing them a huge disservice. Marketing not only solves sales problems in a direct way, but there are also huge benefits to your recruitment efforts that have direct impact to top-line and bottom-line growth. I will be sharing in the next post how we leveraged a website to drive an important recruitment initiative that led to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for one of our clients.
