FAQs – Top Public Relations Firms in St. Louis

Marketing, strategic communications and public relations are strategies and tactics your company must have to expand awareness of your products or services, and develop credibility among potential customers and current clients as valued resources. It is hard to garner the attention of anyone today with so many competing items for an individual’s undivided attention. The challenge is to develop the right messaging for your company to attract the attention of your potential customers and current clients, and with a well thought out marketing and strategic communication plan you can achieve your goals to improve your bottom line.

More sales and more revenue! Earned media is much more credible than advertising, because it is third-party validation of your product or service. This is the type of “social proof” that many people need before they decide to purchase or consume something. In addition to generating credibility, PR can also convince people to take action because you will have top-of-mind awareness.

It depends, however we recommend a mix of all three. The key to increasing public awareness is to have your earned media placement wherever your current and potential clients will be. Since almost everything is published on the Web, social media is a key component to multiplying the number of views of your online content, which will also increase top-of-mind awareness.

Sure you can, but it takes time. As a business owner or executive, is that your highest and best use of your time to implement your company’s marketing plan? Effective marketing plans need to be implemented consistently and through posting online content frequently. Many business owner’s neither have the time nor the capacity to maintain this level of activity, and that is where AMM Communications will help you as an outsourced marketing department.

The world is moving rapidly towards online purchasing of products and services, especially to mobile. If you want to influence potential customers to buy from you, you need to be where they are spending a majority of their time. Eyeballs can be monetized!

We believe that pay-per-click (PPC) advertising combined with search-engine optimized (SEO) first page search results is the best way to influence potential customers to investigate your product or service, and to eventually buy from you.

If you are selling business-to-consumer (B2C) products or services, Facebook advertising is the most effective place to advertise because over a billion people worldwide check in every day. Plus, the demographic and geographic targeting are second-to-none, while the cost-per-click (CPC) tends to be under a dollar. We have extensive experience in setting up and running Facebook ads.

You and your company are a brand, which can be promoted online. Content marketing combined with social media marketing is the great equalizer that allows companies to compete on a level playing field, and allows a company to generate its own material. When you are ready to engage in a content marketing or social media marketing campaign, AMM Communications is one of the Top Public Relations Firms St Louis because we have 10 years of experience authoring, producing, and sharing original content online.

Communications skills are soft skills that are not taught in schools. We find that almost everyone can improve the way that they communicate with both internal and external customers. This results in greater sales and revenues.

We offer professional presentation skills training, negotiation training, business writing, and media training.

We can conduct in-person training (nationwide or internationally), pre-recorded, or online presentations using GoToMeeting, Skype, or Join.me. We can customize a training plan for one hour, half-day, full-day, or multiple days to fit your needs.

The ideal time is now! A strategic marketing plan is a comprehensive plan that incorporates many marketing disciplines such as public relations, media relations, digital marketing, social media, etc. into a plan that focuses on how to tell your company’s story effectively to drive sales and revenue for your business and outlines the steps on how to do it.

You, your internal marketers, and your circle of decision makers. Also, your salespeople should be involved because sales should drive marketing.

It simply depends upon your company’s needs. The proprietary process that AMM Communications uses will help you and your team identify what is working well, areas for improvement, and gaps in your current marketing strategy.

We use a highly-customized, proprietary search process based on Topgrading, and implementing detailed interview questions to uncover a job candidates behavior and leadership qualities.

Ed has been working on search consulting since 2007, but prior to that, he was a hiring manager for Pfizer Inc. and UPS. His success rate has been over 90% of the candidates staying in their positions for at least one year, and Ed’s track record spans over a decade.

While the ultimate decision to hire is your decision, we understand that in rare occasions, a new-hire just doesn’t “fit” in the organization. Because of this, AMM Communications, guarantees it’s placements for 90 days, and we will happily restart the search for you, free-of-charge. The only expenses you will be responsible for are the actual costs of posting the job advertisement on the various online job sites.

When we initiate the strategic marketing plan process with a client, we have them think about the “buyer personas” of their targeted audience, and how “earned media” will result in sales and return on investment. With our extensive sales and business development backgrounds, we recognize the importance of marketing driving sales, and customize the strategic marketing plans to benefit our clients’ overall sales process. We help our clients sell more because they will be seen!

Ann Marie and Ed Mayuga have extensive experience in the areas of strategic communications, crisis communications, content marketing, sales and business development, leadership training and development, and search consulting. The value that we provide is in strategic counsel and hands-on coaching to clients.  Both partners of the company are frequently invited to author columns and blogs, interviewed as sources for articles, invited to be guest speakers, and share knowledge and expertise with other business owners through well-known learning programs like Enterprise University.

 We have an initial meeting with prospective clients and discuss their goals, strategies, sales process and target audiences. After setting priorities, a plan is created with the client’s input that provides consistency, accountability and clearly-defined goals. We typically work in 30/60/90 day blocks of time during our initial 6-month project.

At AMM Communications, we work with all sizes of businesses, not-for-profits and government entities nationwide. When you engage with us, you work directly with the owners and partners of the company, and you have access to Ann Marie and Ed’s extensive business acumen. We also have a nationwide network of pre-qualified marketing professionals and freelancers ranging from graphic designers and internet marketing specialists to strategic planning consultants and audio/visual technicians. Also, when you are working with us, you are working with one of the Top Public Relations Firms in St. Louis!

Our Value Proposition is that you will be working directly with the owners of the company. Ann Marie and Ed Mayuga have extensive marketing and sales experience, and we draw upon a variety of disciplines and tactics to help you develop your strategic marketing plan, then implement it to drive your sales.

We create a project proposal, typically for a 6-month duration, which is divided into three pricing options. We find that provided three pricing options is beneficial for our clients because they can project and budget for the marketing services with no surprises. We do not bill at an hourly rate. For ongoing engagements, it is often cost effective for the client to put us on a monthly retainer. This benefits you because you know what your monthly marketing expense will be, in advance.

We are based in Town and Country, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, however we can work anywhere in the United States or internationally.

Our ideal clients are companies, not-for-profits, and government entities with annual revenue starting at $2 million and up per year. These companies are financial and professional service providers serving entrepreneurs, such as banks, law firms, accounting firms, wealth management firms, insurance, and health care companies. We work with entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs, and senior management of the companies, not-for-profits and government entities that we represent. We work as consultants to support the internal marketing team or as the complete outsourced marketing department. We are the ideal partner for these type of client because we understand the intricacies of today’s business world, and we act with a sense of urgency, continuously advocating on behalf of our clients.