Thrilled to Announce The Logical Marketing Agency

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On Monday, Mike Shatzkin and I announced the formation of The Logical Marketing Agency — an agency with the mission of bringing best-of-breed, agency-level digital marketing to the publishing industry. We have been in quiet beta for about 6 months and current clients include:

Publishers of all stripes
Authors of all genres and means to market; bestsellers and aspiring bestsellers; and more
Prominent and key niche literary agents and their clients
Brands (publishing and non-publishing)

It is also worth noting that in my own practice, I’ve also provided services to retailers and to technology providers. Mike’s experience speaks for itself, I think.

During the past year or so, Mike and I have been discussing marketing–what was being done well by publishers, authors, and agents; where the gaps were; and why those gaps existed. A lot of our conversations have circled back to the fact that time and “human capital” are irreducably scarce resources. Simply put, it is difficult to do digital marketing well; it is difficult to apply data to solving business problems and capitalizing on opportunities; it is difficult to keep abreast of the latest opportunities or threats inherent in a digital landscape that is changing daily; it is difficult to have all of the right tools, at the right time, in the right hands of experienced people. Marketing is critical and takes time, focus, and human resources.

That is where The Logical Marketing Agency comes in. I’ve watched as agencies in other verticals provide meaningful and useful services to clients, freeing them up to perform core business practices and/or identify and hone those marketing practices they need to “own” as they go. I’ve also realized that most, if not all, agencies are incapable of applying their practices to our industry — it is too complex, with too many stakeholders, earned media that lives in odd places, splintered “brands” (e.g. millions of books and authors), and ad buys that are so small as to make their “we take a cut of the spend” a ridiculous notion for all involved.

We have spent a great deal of time right-fitting our services to be at once at the level of the best agencies and right-sized to publishers’ goals, needs, and budgets.

What we have done so far is to aim our capabilities at some core challenges everyone faces — how to get metadata right so that it is at once accurate and selling; how to garner true ROI from social media efforts; how to understand their digital assets and improve them. Basically, auditing and suggesting the specific ways we see the efforts being improved to grow reach, fan base, and sales.

At the core of all of this is a relentless focus on audiences and the research to ferret them out and understand them. Audience-centric, data-driven marketing with a ton of creativity and publishing expertise thrown in. That’s what we’ve got.

So far, the response has been very gratifying, and I want to thank everyone for that.

Some links and one “FAQ”:

The FAQ:

Q: What happens to McCarthy Digital?

A: For now, it will continue as a blog and probably two social media presences — definitely my own Twitter account will remain (highly) active. The content will remain much the same but will simply have that all-too-often-used caveat that these are my opinions, not those of The Logical Marketing Agency (though it should be said that this is a fine line as the two are closely linked). All the services I provided through McCarthy Digital will now be provided through Logical Marketing. A list of those services is here.

So, please do stay tuned. Much more to come. And, thank you for the support and warm reception. It means the world to me and to us as we get going.