The second entry of Teikametrics’ ongoing Agency Spotlight series focuses on our partner Marshall. Below, we ask Marshall’s eCommerce Marketing Manager Kelly Gerrard about the agency’s origins, some of their biggest successes, what makes them exceptional in the marketplace, and how they use Teikametrics software to take their clients’ Amazon efforts to new heights!

Q: How did Marshall get started?

Marshall Associates originally planted its roots 45 years ago driving brand strategy and execution for brick and mortar businesses, creating a presence across the United States in key locations such as Seattle (Amazon & Costco), Chicago (All eCommerce), Minneapolis (Target), Atlanta (Lowes, Home Depot), Grand Rapids (Meijer), and Bentonville (Walmart). Marshall intentionally positioned itself to create both long lasting partnerships with the retailers in those locations and credibility with our brand partners.

As consumer preferences changed, so did Marshall. Over the past eight years Marshall has built out a 35+ person eCommerce team aimed at helping brands drive sales, build brand equity, and stay ahead of their competition.

Q: What services does Marshall provide?

We act as a one-stop shop for all retail business needs, working collaboratively with each brand to make them successful over the short and long term. Marshall handles everything from SEO certified content creation and 360 imagery, to forecasting and marketing strategy.

Our philosophy is acting as an extension of companies we represent, working with internal brand teams to provide them with deep industry expertise and best practices, capitalize on the brand’s strengths, and building together to grow in areas we recognize as opportunities. As a team, we focus on every step along the customer journey, whether in a physical store or shopping the endless aisles online, deploying the right tools and strategy to accelerate the business.

Q: What are some of the things that make Marshall unique?

Marshall’s experience and track record building hundreds of brands and maximizing companies’ sales is what really sets us apart. We leverage our knowledge, relationships and the trust we’ve built with our customers and clients to dynamically plan and build comprehensive strategies and solutions to address market needs.

Additionally, Marshall’s suite of services help address critical needs for businesses. Outside of a full-service, in-house creative team and strategic account management, we provide customers with Marshall Insights, a proprietary marketplace intelligence platform with daily alerts of pricing, MAP tracking, reviews, content scorecards, competitor analysis, and other critical data.

Q: Outside of Teikametrics for advertising, what are some other big problems you help solve for sellers?

Marshall helps clients address a wide range of challenges critical to their business. This includes retail channel & price management, staying ahead of competitors, developing a unique brand proposition, supply chain strategy, and increasing market share.

Q: What are the questions sellers should be asking themselves when it comes to growing their online business?

You can boil this down to three big questions:

1. What are my short term and long-term goals? Juniper Research forecasts Amazon’s share of global digital ad spend will reach 8% by 2023 compared to 3% last year. Something we help brands with is building and understanding what strategy needs to be implemented in order to prepare for the future while executing on short term goals. Generally, this will require stronger advertising investment, new product innovation, content investment, and maintaining forecasting models that are able to help keep up with the pace of demand.

2. Do I truly understand the data and its ramifications? To have accelerated eCommerce growth you have to have an in-depth understanding of data analysis. Knowing how to properly extract, analyze, A/B test and most importantly execute on your findings is what will drive improved conversion rates and profits.

3. How can I reach more customers? In the US alone, ecommerce represents almost 10% of retail sales, and is expected to grow by nearly 15% each year, according to a Statista report. Brands have to constantly look for ways to connect to current or potential customers. This requires dynamic advertising and content strategies that support new product launches and continued growth of existing product lines. It is crucial to have an always-on approach to customer acquisition, pulling levers such as PPC platforms, external traffic drivers, and programmatic DSP.

Q: Thinking about driving success for online businesses, what is one of your proudest moments as an agency?

I’d want to point to Marshall Insights, our proprietary marketplace intelligence platform, which was derived from people on our own eCommerce team and clients asking questions, wanting access to information, and looking for efficiencies. This curiosity evolved into a sophisticated and user-friendly platform our team utilizes daily. More importantly, the platform has become a tool that our brands use daily to measure success and find gaps in their business. Our software answers questions about their position in the market in real-time and streamlines the way Marshall and our brands manage their online go-to-market strategy. This tool is in constant development to bring in new features that will help our brands build pragmatic strategies aimed at success.

For more information on working with Marshall, visit their Teikametrics Partner Page.