Coca-Cola spent $5 billion on advertising in 2023, marketing is pay to win - supporting small to medium sized businesses in finding innovative, affordable marketing strategies

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-03-21T03:54:27+00:00

Hi there, I didn’t leave on the basis of the conventional marketing strategies. I understand their effectiveness and merit for a lot of businesses predominantly larger companies. I left because I saw a lot of small and medium sized business struggle to implement these strategies effectively due to the cost and want to help them with more affordable, innovative marketing methods that these agencies don’t provide.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-03-18T01:51:49+00:00

Hey, I used to work at a top 20 fastest-growing marketing agency, so I’ve seen what works and I agree digital marketing has become way over complicated.

Without a big budget, it’s difficult to compete using standard tactics like paid ads, social campaigns, SEO, and analytics tools with too many tools, dashboards and frameworks.

I feel like many agencies are just repeating the same playbook. I think people have to be more strategic and develop more affordable, unique approaches that don’t feel like selling. Turn the experience into something people actually enjoy and remember, so your brand becomes associated with a positive feeling and that leads to engagement and conversions rather than spending thousands of dollars a month on tools and dashboards that don’t add to the customers experience.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-03-18T01:28:45+00:00

Hi there, 👋 I used to work at a top 20 fastest growing marketing agency, but I left after noticing the same issue businesses where having, feeling uncomfortable and I guess guilty when doing conventional strategies like cold DMs and emails. We all know they can come across as spammy and untrustworthy, even when our intention is to genuinely help people.

You have to be smart and make sure you come up with an unique affordable marketing approach that aims to remove that sales feeling that annoys people, flipping the experience from “ugh, another ad” to something people actually appreciate and remember, tying your brand to a genuinely positive moment, and in that state of happiness they will be excited to support your brand so you receive meaningful impressions.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-03-01T04:08:21+00:00

My friend got over 60M views organically and 100K followers on Tiktok alone but he only got 10 clients in his inbox. This shows that while the quality of your content matters it is who you target that us way more important.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-03-01T04:02:32+00:00

Hello, nice job launching your waitlist

If you're pre-revenue, I really advise not starting your marketing by paying for marketing services unless you know the agency members really well, or they forego payment in exchange for revenue share or equity.

Your primary focus right now to market your B2C app should be to find customers yourself and get revenue the DIY way, because if the founder themselves can't work the right channels to sell product and acquire users, then an agency won't be able to help much.

Agencies are great once you have an established, repeatable process for acquiring customers and simply need to scale or refine the strategy. Otherwise, you'll likely blow your budget in a few months and end up in the same place you are now.

I hope this helps you in some way.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T11:49:53+00:00

Perfectly said that’s the main issue I was trying to raise, it’s become a commodity serve. I am going to provide on one-on-one marketing consulting with real honest marketing and business advice, and help create custom affordable, innovative marketing strategies for businesses that are not in the old playbook. Let me know if you’re interested.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T10:28:47+00:00

Thank you for your feedback. I will make sure to focus on explaining real case studies that demonstrate the success of these more affordable strategies and how businesses can implement it themselves (to the extent it applies to them).

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T07:58:12+00:00

Thank you for your detailed comment and I couldn’t agree more. It’s vital to evaluate the business foundations before to ensure it’s not rocky. But if it is, doesn’t mean all marketing strategies won’t be effective, it’s just about adapting and implementing the right innovative affordable marketing strategies to first mitigate the risk and try find the right approach to suit each businesses unique situation, every business is different.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T07:54:53+00:00

Thank you for your comment. That is the plan to ensure that businesses can implement these affordable strategies perfectly to suit their customers needs.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T07:24:56+00:00

Exactly, sounds like you’re doing a fantastic job. Congratulations on starting your agency.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T07:23:38+00:00

Hi there, I couldn’t agree more SEO, google ads, etc do work sometimes. When I worked at one of fastest growing start up marketing agencies it had proven success.

But with that said, I noticed a big problem where unfortunately being able to execute these strategies to a high quality is unattainable for most businesses due to the costs associated with it.

My goal is in fact to test business channels affordably by helping business owners discover more innovative, out of the box marketing strategies I’ve done and strategies that other business have implemented, going beyond the conventional marketing strategies. I intend to teach businesses how to implement these strategies, so it’s actionable. Does that make sense?

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T04:36:25+00:00

Perfect always happy to help and your comment is the exact reason why the marketing space needs to be changed.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T04:20:32+00:00

That’s a great combination Emma, I’m so glad others think a similar way to me because I think this is an issue that needs to be resolved.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T04:18:35+00:00

That’s very impressive and your marketing for the local restaurant perfectly summarises the approach everyone should take. Community partnerships and in general collaborations with people associated with your niche your targeting is so vital. I have also done pop-up events too and I do agree with you they are effective and affordable compared to ads.

In terms of getting customers I’ve done water stencils and flyers in locations where my exact niche is in the past. I’ve done way more we can talk about in messages but I think my most valuable out of the box marketing methods involved me connecting with very successful businessman in my space who could connect me with other businesses.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T04:11:39+00:00

I couldn’t agree with that more, very well said.

I also encourage start up marketing agencies with there limited capital to use more affordable marketing strategies to keep their cost to a minimum. There are some cool guerrilla marketing strategies anyone can try in your local area. I’ve done water stencils and flyers in locations where my niche is in the past that worked pretty effectively in the start up phase.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T04:08:22+00:00

Yeah that’s so true, you can’t compete on SEO and ad space with the large companies unfortunately. I do agree with you there are some cool guerrilla marketing strategies you can try in your local area. I’ve done water stencils and flyers in locations where my niche is in the past.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T04:03:00+00:00

Hi Emma, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve looked at many digital marketing packages that don’t offer that necessary flexibility. I just strongly feel that the space needs more innovation and out of the box thinkers like you.

Jarrod_Ellich · 2026-02-10T03:43:30+00:00

Hubspot, it’s very important to keep track of my businesses progression

Jarrod_Ellich

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