[Fully Managed] Dana Fluegge of Noble Fox Media Ep. 117

Daniela: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Fully Managed Podcast. This is a podcast where we’re going to be discussing marketing, business tips, and so many other cool things to help assist you in your business journey. I’m your host, Daniela, and I’m Penji’s Partnership Coordinator. Today, I am joined with a very special guest, Dana Flug. I actually don’t know how to pronounce it.

Dana: It’s Flugy, actually. Flugy, so I had it wrong the whole time.

Daniela: As we’re going, she is from Noble Media Fox. Hi, Dana. How are you?

Dana: I’m doing really good. Really good. I’m excited to be here.

Daniela: I’m so excited to have you as well.

Getting to Know Dana

Daniela: So before we get started to break the ice a little bit to get us going, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do, how you got into this whole thing?

Dana: Yes. So I live in Michigan with my husband and three-year-old daughter. I’m thirty-one and I kind of started in just business environments I would say early on. I guess I was like sixteen, seventeen when I was like an assistant manager at like a retail store and I had to do—it was a small town small business and we had to do a lot of marketing stuff for ourselves and I had to like just learn just by trying and doing it and trial and error.

And from then on, I was a part of a lot of nonprofits and churches and things like that. And it just seemed like every role I was in, no matter if it was just like purely operational or purely creative, it was just, it all like rose, led to marketing at the end of the day. And so when my daughter was born and I was trying to think of like, well, what, I feel like this is a good time to shift in my career. I decided to open up my own marketing firm because I have picked up all these skills over the last decade to help and yeah I started in Nobel Fox Media and other than that it’s it’s just been a slow growth but I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed it a lot. And I’ve been able to help businesses, which is the goal.

Daniela: That’s amazing. I think it’s always such a cool story when people sort of discover something as they’re going through life. I’ve talked to a lot of people who are kind of like, you know, I studied pharmacy and now I’m a video editor. And I always think the stories are the coolest.

Dana: Yes.

Daniela: So yours is definitely really cool.

Coffee Break

Daniela: Now, just to like keep things a little bit fresh, here’s a fun question and not marketing related. How do you like your coffee?

Dana: I like it black, which is what I’m drinking right now.

Daniela: Okay. So you’re tough. It’s marketing is a lot of hours. It’s a lot of, it’s a lot of energy put into it, especially when you’re doing it by yourself. So in the beginning, you know, we’re doing everything by yourself. You’re, you’re basically just living on coffee and you get to, this is the quickest way to have coffee. So.

Daniela: You know how I knew I was starting to get older was when I started to drink coffee and enjoy it. Also, when I started enjoying beers, because those were things that I distinctly remember in my youth thinking, this is disgusting. Why do people drink this?

Dana: Yes. It’s an acquired taste. Yeah, with maturity, with like, I guess, age and just being tired, you know, all of a sudden it’s like, I need that caffeine boost. I used to only drink Frappuccinos and then, you know, like it’s sort of just evolved. It’s just a simple, just water and then some coffee and then just call it a day. Like, you know, it just, this is all I need.

Daniela: Yeah. You get older and it’s like, I, I, this is like a really off topic anecdote, but when I got my first job, I graduated from college and I remember everybody got really excited because the company had given them like free bubble tea in the afternoon and coffees. And so like everyone was so excited because like they showed like these people showed up at the office with like a bunch of like drinks, you know, for everyone to have like in the afternoon. And I was just thinking like everyone like this one lady was like, oh, this just made my day. This is like the best part of my day was that we got free coffee. And I just remember thinking these people are pathetic. Like this is so sad. This is the happiest part of your day. That’s all I want now. That’s all I want is free coffee. I know. You do that to me today. I’d be so excited. I’d be looking forward to it so much. And that’s how I know. Wow. No, I’ve changed.

Dana: Yes. I’m still not. I still haven’t gotten into like IPAs yet. I feel like my husband’s there. I’m not. So I’m still going to go with like the Corona.

Daniela: You’re still. Yes. Yep. So we’re getting there. Slow steps. Slowly, but surely for sure.

Daniela: Yeah. No, like the same when your friends start to have kids and it’s not a teen pregnancy.

Dana: Yes. Yes. I’m still, I’m thirty one and I’m like, oh, is everyone going to be excited if I tell people I’m pregnant? I don’t know. Like I’m married. Are they going to be worried? Like, oh, my God, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniela: Definitely. It’s happened to me. Like I’ve gone to my friend’s weddings. My friend started to have kids and I’m like, when did this happen? Like I was, I was yesterday.

Dana: Yep. Yeah. It’s a lot. It hits you in the face actually.

Marketing Across Different Industries

Daniela: So to actually talk about marketing, I was wondering, since I know that you guys do a lot of small businesses and you’ve also done things related to nonprofits and you’ve also worked with churches, what is the difference in marketing for all of these three very distinct industries? You know, you have very different buckets of clients. I’m imagining that the marketing is going to be very different for all of them.

Dana: Yeah it’s even like I’m trying to like send out a newsletter to my clients and I’m like I have to do like three different ones it’s like it just doesn’t but all three of those industries are a part of my past like I was I grew up in church my my grandparents were pastors I was like doing ministry at an early age and it was just such like a part of who I was and so helping churches grow is just always going to be a part of my life whether I’m like advertising it like you go to my website I don’t really put a lot of a lot of effort into like speaking to churches specifically but I half of my clients are churches just through word of mouth and connections I’ve made.

But yeah I would say like for churches you’re not selling product as much as you’re selling community and just you’re it’s, it’s different completely. Almost you’re, you’re kind of just trying to show what you have going on. It’s more like event very huge like events focused and and like periods of time like we’re going through the christmas season there’s always so much going on we’re doing it’s very fast-paced oh easter’s coming up and like what do we you know so it’s kind of like something’s always happening to advertise but we’re not like pumping out campaigns like paid campaigns like on google ads like we would for products that I’m doing for other businesses or for service-based.

And it’s so it’s a little bit different. And nonprofits is huge for like giving and trying to get donations and fundraising and things like things like that. So you’re you’re trying to for nonprofits, you’re like you’re selling a mission that people are a part of. And that’s like more story related. I mean, everything is story related, but you really have to tell the story on a nonprofit. So that’s, I guess that was sort of just some differences that I’ve seen, but I enjoy doing all of them. I probably see myself in nonprofits and churches more, but small businesses are, are great.

Daniela: No, I mean, it sounds like to me, like nonprofits and churches are definitely more about the message. Yeah. Whilst small businesses are a little bit more focus driven. Like, you know, there’s a lot more of like a marketing tactic behind it. Right.

Dana: Yeah. Yeah. And definitely I feel like nonprofit and church work is a lot more of like community based and come get our help. Come join us. Come, you know, like donate if you can. Whereas small businesses purchase our product. Come here. Buy. Yeah. We can solve your problem. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s very different.

The Community-Focused Approach

Daniela: Which is good. I grew up my my parents were small business owners my husband’s parents were small business owners so we know that world and we we love it but do you think that specializing in these three different categories has allowed you to better help market each client by sort of you know seeing the difference or do you think it’s just really separate from each other and you really just have to like create a different world for each?

Dana: Well, I, I’ve kind of come to terms now, like what are we like three years in to this three and a half years in that my marketing that I, cause every agency is different and you kind of have to like find your groove. Is it even the small businesses that I serve? I really am like very community focused in like marketing strategies. I don’t have any clients that I’m like, it’s just an e-commerce site and there’s no other message and there’s nothing. It’s a Shopify thing. I would be fine doing it, but that’s not who I attract.

And so even my small businesses, like I’m helping a coffee shop right now. I’m like, how can we get the community involved? What events can we put on? How can we make them feel a part of this launch? It’s very community focused and so the non-profit and church side of who I am has definitely bled into the small business and that’s what I like about it I don’t I’m in a small town right now we just moved from tampa and we moved back to our hometown which we’re really excited about it’s a very small town and so like the clients here the small business owners here are very community focused so I think I’m in a good spot for this.

Daniela: Amazing. Yeah. And I think like, you have a very unique approach, because your agency is very much like, like you said, mission driven, right? It’s an organization of, you know, you want to target organizations that have missions that have a voice that have like, a heart behind it, even if it’s just a small business.

Finding Your Niche and Mission

Daniela: What inspired you to specifically want to target this niche and not just brought into anybody and everybody who wanted to do marketing? How did it approach like shape the way that you approach to this marketing?

Dana: I think that being in, it all started with the churches and nonprofits I was a part of. I did a lot of mission trips. I worked with like some international organizations that like help with orphanages and things like that. In my very early years, I was interning at a church and I really loved what that was all about I think that just imprinted in an early age that it’s all about people and how we can help and when you’re focusing on helping people and you use your business to help people it’s never not going to work out for you.

And so just when I’m thinking about how to like a new business approaches me and says I need to get my name out there or I need more sales or I need I’m just not as influential in the community as I want to be. I’m thinking about how they can help the community. I’m thinking about how ways that they can be integrated and not just sitting, saying like, I got something you want. You know, that’s not, especially in small towns and every, and honestly every town, but you’re asking the community to give and support your business, but you’re not willing to give the community anything in return, it’s going to be a slow growth for you.

And I think the goal is, because there are some larger companies I’ve worked with, the goal is to also make the larger companies seem like small businesses with how you present their employees, how you present their stories. You never want to seem out of touch with reality. You always want to seem like you’re a small community, even if you are a large company. And I think that working with nonprofits and churches in the beginning, because that’s all, that’s all that they are. I mean, like that’s, it’s all about story. It’s all about people. Just help me learn the value of that and how it actually does just help everyone in the community and people will support you.

Daniela: Amazing. Yeah. And I feel like nonprofits a lot of times are the ones that need it the most. Churches, too, because I feel like when you start a business, you’re definitely doing that in a more analytical way. Right. Not to say that there aren’t businesses that need it, but a business owner is going to start a business with a marketing plan or some marketing knowledge. Whereas like I think you see a lot more of these community based organizations that struggle with that, you know, because it’s very new to them. And running a church or running a nonprofit is very similar to running a business, except, you know, it’s not for revenue. It’s for other people.

Dana: Yes, which has a bigger impact and also a bigger fallout if you mess up.

Balancing Digital, Print, and Community Strategies

Daniela: No, for sure. And actually, we were checking out your services, your website, all of this. You emphasize a lot digital print and community-based strategies. Obviously, you have the clientele that is very community-based. How do you decide, though, what the right balance is between all of these channels for your clients?

Dana: Yeah, that’s hard. I think I honestly, digital and community-based are, are mostly what you see in a campaign. And I think like when I tried to do a campaign, but print just kind of follows along. So like if you need business cards or a billboard or it’s, it’s a help to the already campaign or flyers or things like that. Like, but most of it’s going to be how you present yourself on your website, your social media, and that ties into the events that you’re going to put on or the people that you sponsor or the causes that you want to get involved in. Cause you’re going to be putting it.

I mean, like if you want to do it, if you want to help a charity and you document your experience with them as like when you were there helping them. You’re not going to put that on a flyer and be like, look what I did. That’s just like a social media post or just part of your ongoing conversation that you’re having with the community all the time. And print is something that is kind of just a tool.

So I would say I focus mostly on digital and community-based, but it’s a balance. You can’t just do outreach. Community-based strategies are a lot of work. you’re going to events you’re you’re maybe setting up booths you’re you’re paying your people to be there you’re it’s it’s a lot of extra extra work that’s not always trackable you can’t always think like oh this is a very successful community event I’ve gotten this many sales like it’s not as trackable but you have to do it or you’re going to look just like a empty shell of a corporation. But you have to do it in an authentic way. You can’t just be like, oh, I got to do this to make people think I look good. You need to actually care about your community. And then just telling your story all over your platforms is just part of it.

Daniela: Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I feel like community-based, what happens with community-based marketing is that it requires for you to be there. Yeah, physically, which I think digital marketing has sort of paved a way for you to sort of do that online. And it can be slightly more comfortable than having to get up in the morning and go and get ready and actually have your face in a certain place and, you know, physically talking to people. But like you said, the people behind something are important to see.

Dana: Yeah. Yeah, and it’s a lot because there’s not a lot of marketing agencies that will say, okay, I have an event for a client here and in twenty minutes I got to get to. Do I have all of my material with me? I use my camera all the time. I’m there taking photos of events and I’m involved. It’s messy. It can be messy and it can be time consuming, but that’s what I want to do because I like it.

Daniela: No, it’s great. I think that also like exploring different avenues for marketing is always great. That’s how we discovered digital marketing. So I think like doing different things is always great. I think like in the past few years, especially post-COVID, we’ve sort of become very online based. Which is fine, but yes.

Dana: Yeah, it’s fine. Like, I started working remote. And there are things that are great about working from home. But sometimes I miss the human contact. You know, like, I’m like, sometimes I actually miss going to the office and talking to the people around me and bonding with them over the fact that we’re both working at the same place. You know, like a certain project that we’re working on that is stressful or anything, this great thing that we did and that we’re very proud of. So I definitely do value the presence of human connection.

Dana: Yes. Yeah. It’s something we all need, but I mean, at different, based on our personality, a different scale, but yeah. And then just being a representation in your community of the community, like people will see that you’re out and about people will see that you’re making an effort. So.

Daniela: Yeah. It shows that you care for sure.

Budget-Conscious Service Approach

Daniela: Yeah. So I also wanted to ask you, Dana, you’re facing your clients who are probably sometimes struggling with budgets, with having the resources to pay for a lot of these things. We’ve worked with nonprofits who a lot of times just don’t have money to invest in marketing or sales or things like that because there simply is not enough, which happens a lot with specifically your kinds of clients, right? Like small businesses, churches, nonprofits, like primary people who will always be looking for different forms of funding. And I know that you have memberships that are starting at eighty dollars a month. You know, you try to keep things cost effective. How have you been able to help to keep the balance of giving them high quality service, of giving them the best help that you can give them while staying cost accessible for these people?

Dana: Yes, that’s a big question, I think. It’s tough because you hear their story and you want their business to grow and they’re talking about their business as though it’s their lifeline. They’re feeding their children with it. You want to help them. How we kind of frame it is that let’s start you off at what you can afford and we will grow with you. So as you grow, we’ll reassess in a year or six months and think, do you need more services? And we just scale back the services.

If they only can afford the eighty dollars like consulting which is like a sixty minute call every quarter and we send like monthly updates and check-ins and things like that and some advice and but they’re doing it all if that’s what they can afford then we’ll start with them at that level. And as we reassess and on the journey, we can start doing some things for them, take things off their plate. And we’re fine doing that. I mean, that’s what we want. We want to see people grow. So if that’s all they can afford, that’s what it is.

Daniela: You want to see them fly, right? Eventually.

Dana: Eventually, if it takes, I mean, it’s a slow growth at that level, but it’s what people can do. We want to be a part of business and no yeah for sure.

Current Marketing Strategies and Trends

Daniela: And I actually wanted to ask you about what you think are the marketing strategies that you are prioritizing right now for your small businesses. We’re seeing sort of a surge of different marketing approaches from big corporations. Like, I think I’ve seen so many businesses in TikTok nowadays, very, very active on TikTok and very active on trends that are happening, very youth focused. You know, there are people’s comments, they’re doing cheeky comments, like fun things. Back in the day, I think Wendy’s was one of the first few companies who kind of started that trend. And now we see that happening a lot in big corporations too. And in turn, we’ve seen small businesses try to replicate this sort of trend because they’re seeing big businesses do it.

And I’m wondering, from your perspective, do you think that what let me rephrase, what do you think is the main focus that small businesses should be having when it comes to their marketing?

Dana: Well, it’s. I don’t believe and I don’t know some people, some marketing companies might disagree. I don’t believe in doing things just because for five minutes it’s popular because I don’t like it’s the consistency that gets your clients over time. I know that we want like a quick and fast system that’s going to get us like quick results. And sure, if you have the bandwidth to like join in for fun, some of these trends, then yes, go for it. Because it’s a it’s a cool way to connect with the community and your community specifically, and a way to be authentic, like, like, I like the cheeky comments. I think they’re authentic. I think that’s always like a go for like humor is a good way to relate to your clients.

But I think trends sometimes make me so mad. And I think that sometimes other marketers agree too. I have talked to people and they’re like, I’m so sick of these trends because they don’t really work like for sales most of the time, I think some people just feel left out like, oh, my company should be doing better. Are you sure we aren’t supposed to be doing this? I see other people doing it. And I think just being confident in who you are and who your company is and and just keep doing what you do. Sure, tweak it as things like the industry evolves and stuff like that. But I think most of the time you have the data, what works for your business. You know, you’ve done the trial and error. Don’t throw it all out the window because something’s trending and you really want to try it.

So that’s my, that’s my advice for that. I think a lot of people waste time on some of that, but they’re fun to do and they have worked in a very short period of time. But when you’re looking at longevity and stability, it’s not something that base like everything off of.

Daniela: Yeah, for sure. No, it’s great advice. I sometimes think that because I also think sometimes if your industry or your niche is very, you know, you’re trying to target people who are not young, it’s going to be a little bit harder because the older crowd is not necessarily going to be up to date with memes and with things like, with how the internet works. So it’s also, I think very industry based, at least for me, because I’ve seen some industries like, you know, like I saw, I remember this one video that went viral from like a company that was selling locks for, for like houses. And they were in some, some small city in the U S and I don’t remember like the name of the city, but I was like, no, it’s great that your video went viral, but none of these people are going to purchase your locks.

Dana: Yes. This is not the target group.

Daniela: It’s not even the group that has money yeah exactly it’s not even the group that has money I mean I guess we’re all aware of this random company that sells locks and if I ever end up in this really small town and I need a lock like that’s a very specific thing so yeah no I totally agree with you.

Dana: I might have to change out my camera because my webcam is having some issues one second.

Daniela: No worries take your time.

Dana: All right yeah it’s a little different I had to go to my switch to my other camera but anyways.

Daniela: Yeah, I agree with you on that. Yeah, no, we’re in a different angle now.

Closing and Contact Information

Daniela: Actually, we’re just about wrapping it up. It’s been so great to have you today, Dana. It was so fun to talk to you. Before I let you go, I do want to give you the space to plug anything that you want to plug. If you’re looking for anybody to work with you, if you’re looking for more clients, if anybody that is interested in working with you wants to do so, the space is yours to tell them.

Dana: All right I would I love the opportunity to work with more non-profits more churches and more businesses that wouldn’t mind getting involved in their communities and going that route and I’m in michigan I love working with local clients because I could like I said go to events to do things like that so if you’re in michigan definitely hit me up if you want to do some of those community strategies but then also if you’re interested in just digital marketing I can do that remote as well so yeah.

Daniela: Yeah, I will be adding the links to all of your information on the description of this video so that all of our viewers can go click them if they’re interested. And for the listeners, go to the video for the links. And everybody, it’s been great. Dana, also great. Have a great day. Thank you for having me. See you on the next episode. All right. Thank you so much. Bye.

Dana: Bye.

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