In practice
Integrated marketing services, indexed.
The six capabilities across the six months: which phase each is built in, which it runs in, and why they run together. The practice operates from Toledo, Ohio, serving Northwest Ohio and clients beyond.
The six capabilities across the five phases
The engagement runs six months in five phases, in a fixed order: Ground, Meaning, Form, Home, Care. The six capabilities do not each take a phase. Each one is worked where the engagement needs it, and most of them are built in one phase and run in another. This is where the two halves of the site meet: what the practice is, and how it engages.
| Capability | GroundMonth 1 | MeaningMonths 1–2 | FormMonths 2–3 | HomeMonths 2–3 | CareMonths 3–6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | |||||
| Web | |||||
| Search | |||||
| Presence | |||||
| Paid |
built run, or applied
- Brand
- Audited in month one, decided in months one and two, given its system in months two and three. Applied to every surface after that, by the hand that decided it. Brand identity design.
- Web
- Measurement rebuilt from zero in month one. The technical half of the site built in month two, before the brand is settled; the brand half in month three, on it. Run from then on. Web design.
- Search
- The baseline read in month one. Schema, architecture, and speed built with the site. The content engine, the writing that earns a ranking, runs from month three. Search engine optimization.
- The domain authenticated and the platform set up with the site in month three. The program, the sequences in the brand’s voice, runs from month four. Email marketing.
- Presence
- Profiles and listings claimed and made consistent in month three; the brand’s own writing distributed on its channels from month four. Local SEO, social media marketing.
- Paid
- Conversion tracking wired in month one so there is something to measure against. Campaigns turned on in month four, last, once there is a page to land on; optimized in month five; proven in month six. Paid media.
Why the processes run together
Each of the six has a technical half and a creative half, and each underperforms when one half is bought without the other. Writing that reads well on a site that cannot be crawled ranks for nothing. A fast site with no words on it converts nothing. A feed posted daily without the brand’s writing behind it is activity without substance. The fragmentation is the problem, and calling it specialization does not change what it is. The alternative is integrated media, where the visual, written, and technical work is designed as one system.
Here the six run as one practice with one set of standards, and the engagement runs six months because the work compounds: the site improves while the email program builds while the writing earns search while the paid account is calibrated against all of it, and one report reads the whole against one baseline.
This is not the right structure for every business. A business that needs one thing done well in isolation is better served by someone who does only that, and the practice will say so. A business that has decided the fragmented approach is not producing results, and wants the integration handed to one senior practitioner, is the business this was built for. For one that needs the senior seat itself held part-time, the practice also serves as a fractional CMO.
How it starts
Every one of the six starts the same way: with the audit, two weeks and a senior read of the whole system, credited in full toward the engagement that follows. The audit is where the practice finds which of the six is broken and in what order to fix them, and it is yours to keep either way.